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JOLIET -- Lemont High School football coach Eric Michaelsen understands that replacing players like lineman Graham Pocic, quarterback Brett Nagel, tailback Bobby Earnest and inside linebackers Gordon Kickels and Willie Hayes from last season's Class 6A state runnerup will be tough.

But as the Indians competed in Saturday's University of St. Francis Passing Jamboree, it was far from being a case of doom and gloom as Lemont returns plenty of starters on both sides of the ball from last year's historic 11-3 team that made the school's first state finals appearance.

"Last year was nice, but that's over with, so we're focused on this year," Michaelsen said. "We're still trying to get a feel for this new team. Every year each team develops its own personality and each team has its own strengths and weaknesses and we're trying to find out what those are.

"A lot of the kids got a lot of experience last year and the extra five weeks of practice was definitely beneficial. They had the opportunity to play with some really good players and that showed them what kind of effort is necessary to be successful. This team wants to go out and set its own course and figure out how good it can be."

Defensive returnees include senior linebacker Ryan Fejedelem, a three-year starter, and senior strong safety Kyle Cummins, who moves over from the other outside linebacker spot.

Seniors Ryan Ferry and James Westferro and junior Nick Forzley are also back in the secondary while juniors Patrick Driscoll and Angel Cabral also return along the defensive line.

Others who figure to play a role on defense are a pair of linebackers, senior Luke Anderson and junior Connor Nagel, plus senior lineman Matt Anzalone and junior defensive back James Tuscher.

"I'm sure we'll have a target on us this year," said Michaelsen, who owns a 46-20 record during his six years at Lemont. "I think teams are going to want to bring their best games against us and that will be an experience for our kids to be the hunted and we'll see how this group reacts to that. "It's going to be interesting and that's the fun part of coaching high school. You get the chance to mold and develop a new group of kids every year and that's what we're looking forward to doing with this group. We had some younger kids who got a lot of experience and hopefully they're going to step up and do the job for us."

While Pocic's huge presence will be hard to fill, Lemont returns the rest of its offensive line in seniors Trevor Rothstein, a three-year starter, as well as seniors Eric Leadley and Brian Motyka and junior Jimmy Purvin.

Senior Andrew Tomala returns in the backfield to take over primary rushing responsibilities while senior tight end Bobby Groselak and senior wide receiver Steve Shredl are also back for the Indians' offense.

Other likely offensive players are senior quarterback Nick Lawrence, running backs senior Tyler Burns and junior Danny Hayes, senior Tarek Aboukheir and sophomore Lee Taylor at receiver and senior lineman Mike Wilke.

"There's a lot of areas that we're going to need to improve on, but the kids are working hard," Michaelsen said. "The games don't really start for real until August so hopefully we'll have everything fixed by then.

"For the most part we've been real happy with our offseason in the weight room. We're just finishing our second week of camp and it's been a real good learning experience and it's going to be exciting to see how the kids react to this and how well we're able to do."

Building on last season's memorable run, as well as continuing the success that the program has built in the last four years by going 38-10 with four playoff trips, is the main goal of this current group of Lemont players. "All of us on the team are friends and we play together well," Fejedelem said. "When there are tough situations in practice and we're getting yelled at, we all stick together and work harder in order to get it done.

"On defense, we have to make up for Willie and Gordy, which is a big loss and will be hard to do since they were inside linebackers, but we have a lot of returning defensive backs and our outside linebackers are returning. "I'm expecting a lot out of this team and we'll find out how good we are in the first few games. A lot of the guys on this team have been playing together since we were in eighth grade so we know the game and love it, so I think it's going to be a good year."