High School football kicks off Friday Night...
U–High heads to Eureka for a Cornbelt Conference match–up.
The Pioneers have a new coach.
But he'll be familiar to football fans in the Twin cities.

The last time we saw Dusty Burke he was leading the Bloomington Extreme to a conference championship and a spot in the UIF Championship game...
Now he's outside and on the sidelines as the new head coach at Normal U–High.

U-High Coach Dusty Burk said, "It’s the little things. You know every head coach talks about but you never realize until your actually doing it."

Burk has instant creditability with his players and an understanding of the game that he's more than willing to share especially with the quarterbacks.

Burk said, "They know I’m speaking directly from experience rather then it being 10-15 years since I’ve put the pads on, it’s been two months, if that."

U-High Quarterback Jake Todino said, "Last year in the Pontiac game, I had a pretty rough first half in the playoff game and he said good players come back and fight through and leave the first half behind them."

Burk said, "Nobody remembers what the quarterback did in the first quarter if he wins the game in the 4th. That’s the kind of mentality that we have to have. I’m not a yeller and a screamer especially with my quarterbacks but I tell them we have to work through our mistakes quickly and we can’t dwell on our mistakes."

But there's more than just a quarterback on the field and that's where assistant coaches come in.
Dusty's brought three of his Extreme teammates along to help fill his coaching staff.

U-High Assistant coach Quince Holman said, "I would say it’s a lot more stressful because you’re teaching them something to do and if they don’t do it, it’s like what am I doing here, I’m not coaching correctly. I got to pick myself up or find some other way to help coach better so that they do it on the field. Yeah, I have a lot more respect for coaches."

Friday night in Eureka, the Pioneers have their first extreme challenge.