Enterprise head football coach Brooks Burns is excited to put the 2017 season in the mirror and get to work on the 2018 football season.

Despite only winning one contest in 2017, the Yellow Jacket head coach said he’s always excited around this time of the year to get going with a new season.

“The good news about the start of the year is that everybody is 0-0,” Burns said. “That’s what’s key. Being able to start fresh, to start new is exciting, and I’m always excited to get back into it.”

The Yellow Jackets won their first game of the season in 2017 over Salem with a 28-20 victory in overtime, but the rest of the season didn’t go as planned. Enterprise wasn’t able to capture another win in 2017, despite some close losses.

Burns said the key for the Yellow Jackets in the 2018 season is to stay healthy with their front-line players.

“We have to be able to put our best players out there and stay healthy,” Burns said. “In games where we’re competitive, we have to be able to put our best players on the field. That’s going to be key for us this year is that those guys are on the field for us.”

Burns and the Yellow Jackets return some experience among the offensive line this season, something that will help them with their ability to move the football.

“We have three of our starting offensive linemen back, including our starting center,” Burns said. “We think that those guys can be good for us. It’s good to have experience on the offensive line.”

The offense will have to replace two of their running backs for last season, as Tanner Waldrop and Denny Thomas both are gone due to graduation.

Over the first six games of the season last year, sophomore John Burns led the team in receiving with three receptions for 58 yards.

The Yellow Jackets will return experience at the linebacker positions next year, something  Burns hopes will help the defense improve.

“We have to kind of pick our poison on the defensive side of the ball,” Burns said. “We have to try to either funnel them into us, or they’ll beat us to the outside. We have an inside linebacker and outside linebacker that we think will be really good for us this season.”

Burns said he’s excited to start practice soon, and put the one-win season from 2017 behind him.

“We all get to start fresh and that’s exciting to me,” Burns said. “We have some experience back at some positions, and we have some younger guys that’ll be able to help us throughout the season this year.”