The bad news for Hot Springs as they prepare for the 2023 football season is they lost their best player from last year.

The good news is they have a bevy of talented juniors ready to take up the slack coming off a 6-3 season that included a trip to the playoffs.

And although their best player, Garth Parker, the multiple-sport standout who graduated and is learning how to weld in Wyoming, things are positive in Heat country.

Parker was the de facto heart and soul of last year’s Savage Heat team and the graduation equivalent of the Maytag repairman during senior day ceremonies. He was the lone male graduate in all Savage Heat sports last year.

Waiting to keep the winning tradition going is a group of juniors who could make up a good “legacy” team, as in their brothers played and had success at Hot Springs legacy.

Topping the returnees for coach Jim Lawson’s club is junior quarterback/linebacker Nick McAllister, who showed promising abilities last year in the QB role.

McAllister, whose brother Jack was a standout football in his years at the school, is joined by state wrestling standout Johnny Waterbury, an all-conference RB/LB, and Weston Slonaker, another quick running back/linebacker who made the 2022 six-player all-state team. Both Slonaker and Waterbury had older brothers who were standout players in recent years.

So, as usual, the strengths of a perennially strong team remain pretty much the same.

“Team speed and experience are our strengths”, Lawson said. “We work on running and conditioning a lot.”

A lot of the conditioning credit also goes to assistant coach Andrew Lichtnam, a successful distance runner and condition guru.

One thing the Savage Heat would like to improve on would be their kicking game. Good kickers are hard to come by at the 6-player level where kicked extra points are worth two points after touchdown, while running or passing the ball for a PAT is good for one point.

Last year the Heat finished with a 6-3 record and lost their first round playoff game against Chester. Conference opponents who promise to be challenging this year are Noxon, Twin Bridges and White Sulphur Springs.

The Savage Heat open their 2023 campaign this Saturday when they travel to West Yellowstone, a 401 mile each way haul.