Last season was the year of change for the Quincy football team with a new head coach and a last-minute change at quarterback.

They go into the 2017 season with a solid foothold on the new system and return quarterback Kade Schutzmann. It’s still Ellensburg’s title to lose, but they see the new campaign as the year of the Jack second year head coach Wade Petersen said.

“We’re light years ahead of where we were last year at this time,” Petersen said. “The seniors have a grasp of the new system, so we’re able to insert new stuff right away. I’ve been coaching for awhile. This is a really good group of seniors and it’s enjoyable coaching them. They work hard and they have high goals.”

The Jacks finished fifth in the Central Washington Athletic Conference with a 4-6 record last year. But they finished the season with wins over Grandview and East Valley.

“We were close last year, a lot more than people realize,” Petersen said. “This year we’re not learning on the fly and the kids are prepared. We expect really good things and hopefully we can jump into one of those top two spots for the playoffs.”

They return Schutzmann (5-foot-10, 160 pounds) under center with a nice selection of returners in the receiving corps in Tyson Thornton (6-foot, 160 pounds) and Gates Petersen (5-foot-10, 150 pounds). Petersen will run the one-back offense with feature backs senior Ray Robinson and sophomore Reuben Vargas. The offensive line has a couple of main stays in tackle Kyle Mills (6-foot, 200 pounds) and guard Miguel Preciado (5-foot-8, 190 pounds). Both are seniors

“Offensively, you have to be able to control the ball and you do that with a running game,” Petersen said. “We’ll run and pass half-and-half. You have to have a balance to keep the defense off balance. It makes it difficult when the defense doesn’t know what’s coming at them.”

Defensively, the Jacks will go with a modified 4-4 scheme. Mills is expected to anchor the defensive line inside. Preciado will go at linebacker. They are solid in the defensive backfield with corners Gates Petersen, Carlos Solario will go at the corners and Ty Thornton at the safety.

“We have a lot of returners and we’ll run the same defense we’ve run for quite awhile,” Petersen said. “Our league’s solid and you have to do all the little things. You have to create the turnovers and tackle well. Our expectation is to play well every week. You can’t have an off week and expect to stay in the hunt.”

The new CWAC alignment will have Ellensburg, Quincy, Othello, Ephrata and East Valley in the North Division. Prosser, Selah, Grandview, Toppenish and Wapato in the South. The top two teams advance to the playoffs. Last year Ellensburg was undefeated in the CWAC. Two years ago, Prosser won the 2A state championship, so there’s work to be done. But the Jacks are moving in the right direction second-year coach Wade Petersen said.