Missouri Military Academy knows the results for its football program haven’t been the best in years past.

Following five nine-loss seasons in the previous six years, the Colonels want to focus on building a foundation this season in their second year under head coach Robert Rosenbaum. He said there is about a handful of players that were on the field for a significant amount of time in the six games MMA played prior to forfeiting the rest of the season due to injuries and low numbers.

“We’re trying to change the culture a little bit and build a foundation,” Rosenbaum said. “Hopefully, some of these kids will be more enticed to come back.”

Rosenbaum said the roster dipped dangerously low in the 20s after losing about a third of the roster, but MMA has about 35 kids to start fall practices. This is due to those aforementioned injuries but also to some kids that decided football wasn’t for them.

Because MMA just wants to “start something” in the program, Rosenbaum said the schedule this year is scaled back as the Colonels aren’t slated to play a full schedule as of right now. In fact, MMA has two varsity games scheduled – in the first week on Aug. 25 at home against Russellville and Sept. 21 at Confluence Prep Academy Charter with Grand Center Arts Charter. Other than that, MMA has junior varsity games scheduled at Russellville on Aug. 28, at home against Fulton on Sept. 11, at Van-Far on Oct. 9 and at Paris on Oct. 16 with there being some possibility for changes depending on the season’s progress.

“We need more time for development so we’re trying to do that the way the schedule is tailored this year,” Rosenbaum said. “I don’t know how many of those kids are from foreign countries that have never ever been on the football field. The goal is to form a unity.”

Rosenbaum cautions that building a viable program could take a few years as the turnover seen at a military boarding school along with incorporating kids from various backgrounds are challenges that need to be overcome. Most importantly, MMA doesn’t want to jump into a schedule it can’t handle.

Rosenbaum thinks a few players, at least, should be able to handle the demands of football like returning lineman Seydina Issa Diop, returning receiver and defensive back Trae Griffiths as he battles injury, previous football player AJ McCoy, running back and safety Zeke Boyer, running back and linebacker Dominick Brognano, and tight end and defensive end Josh McCart. Luke Wolf will get the first chance at quarterback, Rosenbaum said, and many positions on the field are open to changes.

“We’ve got about 15 days into this so we’re still learning about a lot of kids,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s a process. Everybody has an offseason. We did the offseason stuff a little bit this year, and we got lucky to get four or five of them that did that so they’re not way behind.”

As an offense, Rosenbaum hopes the Colonels are up-tempo and take advantage of turnovers to score a lot more points. He said the kids probably were fatigued after playing some solid competition and doing so more than expected with all of the injuries that piled.

Defensively, Rosenbaum said MMA should be a “downhill defense” that “should come get you.” The Colonels have to play for each other and take care of each of their specific jobs on the field.

 “We’ve got a young football team,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s more about developing football players and keeping kids healthy. Hopefully that transforms into next year of these kids wanting to come back because they know this is something that they get to do and entice them to be part of the school.”