Members of the Maple Grove High School football team can be excused if they want to gloat a little bit about what they achieved last season. After all, the Crimson went 10-0 to win the conference and section championships, received the No. 2 seed in the state tournament before losing to Roseville at TCF Bank Stadium in a nail-biting state quarterfinal.

Crimson coach Matt Lombardi, who led Maple Grove to its first state tournament since 2002 in only his third season, felt last year’s success proves Maple Grove is on par with some of the other top programs. Instead of resting on their laurels, Lombardi said the Crimson must work harder to continue this progress.

“Getting to state was great and I am very proud of the kids,” Lombardi said. “But our goal is to take last year’s success and keep moving the program forward. I think the kids have bought into that. They all realized after our loss in the quarter that we have to get better.”

To repeat last year’s amazing success won’t be easy because many of the standout players have graduated. That is especially true on defense. Last fall, the Crimson featured one of the top defenses in the state. Not only were they adept at stopping the other teams, but the Crimson were also great at turning opponents’ turnovers into key points. Replacing those graduated defenders will be hard to do.

“Our defense last year was very, very good,” Lombardi said. “Six, seven of those kids are playing college balls so obviously you don’t just fill those holes. On the good side, we have eight or nine kids who saw almost full-time action last year.”

Returning starters on defense are senior defensive backs Adam Brandt and Sam Franta, junior defensive back Isaac Collins, and senior linebacker Kyle Anderson.

Offensively, the Crimson welcome back senior running back Clark Wieneke, who ran for 1,300 yards and was named the Northwest Suburban Conference North Offensive MVP. He is joined in the backfield by Collins and junior quarterback Karl Altenburg, who started the first five games last season before suffering a season-ending injury. Also returning are senior linemen Ben Shoults and MJ Dorn and junior lineman Kayode Awosika. Shoults has been accepted to Harvard University where he will play football.

Last year, the Crimson were a run-oriented offense behind Wieneke and Tahi Nomane. They will still be a strong running team but with a healthy Altenburg or the talented sophomore Brad Davison at quarterback, Maple Grove should have a more consistent passing attack this fall.

Maple Grove will play a tough schedule. The Crimson open at Edina Friday, Aug. 29, and will face top teams Wayzata, Blaine, Osseo and Totino Grace.

“We are playing some very good teams,” Lombardi said. “Our goal is to keep getting better every week and play our best football late in the season.”