There are different challenges when it comes to coaching Missouri Military Academy football.

The boys boarding school brings all kinds of kids with all kinds of backgrounds, and that is what the roster looks like again for another Colonels football season. 

Head coach Robert Rosenbaum has been around football for most of his life and has coached at MMA for three seasons. Rosenbaum said the 26 boys he has out for football this season will include few returners, with just six this year, and many with no football experience. That is standard for the program and Rosenbaum is making adjustments to help kids have fun while learning something new.

“The thing I’m telling the kids is, ‘Look, this is about you learning to play football,’” Rosenbaum said. “‘This is about you learning the vocabulary of football.’”

MMA has played a varsity game during the first week of the season each of the last three years. The Colonels will be taking that week off this season and play their first game at home against Fayette on Sept. 5. They have five varsity games scheduled and three junior varsity games after MMA won six combined JV games in the last two years.

After going winless in a standard nine-game schedule in Rosenbaum’s first season, MMA played a combined five varsity games in the last two seasons. Rosenbaum said the many inexperienced kids he has don’t have as many opportunities to practice as other schools since other schools can run summer practices while the separated Colonels have to wait until fall practices begin.

“A lot of them have never played,” Rosenbaum said. “That’s the reason why we have to take that first week off in the season, simply because I need that week to get guys ready.”

Rosenbaum said MMA struggled doing that the first three years against Russellville, losing 49-6 at Russellville the first year, 49-0 at home the second year and 53-0 on the road in the third year. Having that rough of a start while the cadets are still learning so much puts “a bad taste in their mouths,” Rosenbaum said. 

For years, Rosenbaum said he has been a “4-2-5 guy” as it pertains to defensive formation because it is a defense that is easy to teach and emphasizes a disciplined playstyle. However, coaching a program like MMA has convinced him that a simpler approach is better.

“It is just too much to teach in such a short time,” Rosenbaum said. “I’m going to revert back to a more fundamentally based type of defense that is more just get after it. On offense, I’ve simplified it because I don’t force a system on kids. I look to see what I got and go from there.”

Bryce Mcilwain is a key member of the returning group, Rosenbaum said, because he was the team’s starting center a year ago. Rosenbaum said an advanced weight class in the curriculum last year helped kids like Mcilwain shave off fat and add muscle, demonstrating a way the program can “rebuild the foundation and structure.”

Levi Foster is a multiple-sport athlete at MMA, participating in basketball and track and field, and is taking snaps at quarterback because Rosenbaum said Foster is one of his better skill players. Mark Corley played for Rosenbaum in baseball and football last year as a tight end but could be a quarterback or running back because of his athleticism. 

“The ones that came back are good core players and are people we can build around,” Rosenbaum said.

Rosenbaum said this year’s Colonels have athletic ability and can hopefully become more comfortable on a football field as the season progresses. 

“The group that I got here right now, I’m pleased with,” Rosenbaum said. “They’re giving me effort. We’ve got some big bodies.”