GLEN DALE — There’s no time to waste.

That’s John Marshall head coach Jason Willis’ outlook on the upcoming season as he enters his third year at the helm of the Monarchs.

A season ago, his squad got off to a slow start, opening the campaign with back-to-back setbacks on its way to a 1-4 record at the midway point.

Willis and his team seemed to bounce back in the second half of the year to finish the season 4-6 but he’s looking to turn it up a notch this time around and get out of the gates quickly.

“I feel like last year got off to a slow start,” Willis said. “The first game (18-7 loss at University) I think we should have won. We had more yardage but we had five turnovers and that killed us. We had some new guys in some new positions but we finally started gelling. Getting off to a slow start didn’t help.

“We need to learn from that and get started right out of the gate this year, especially with this COVID going on, who knows how many games we’ll get in.”

That’s the question everybody is asking right now but Willis, his coaching staff and his team have adjusted and are moving forward together.

“We can’t do a lot of things that we’ve done in the past with using shields but we’ve adapted,” Willis said. “We’re getting the most out of what we can do by following the guidelines.

“Hopefully, we can just get rolling into some kind of normalcy here and teach these guys up early. We can’t get off to a slow start like we did last year.”

The Monarchs lost 22 seniors to graduation a year ago, leaving a void for Willis and his squad to fill.

“Zach Birkett was a two-year starter for us on the offensive line, so we are going to miss him,” Willis said. “Justin Frohnapfel, Zach Bishop, a couple tackles in Colby Cubick and Hunter Purcell to just name a few. They were all great for us.”

Frohnapfel threw for over 1,000 yards in 2019 but Willis is looking at two players who are vying for the snaps under center this year.

Senior Derrick Derrow and sophomore Jacob Coffield are both 6-foot and each have something to offer the offense.

“Both quarterbacks are athletes,” Willis said. “Coffield has a year under his belt in the system and Derrow is kind of just coming in. He did play as a freshman so he knows some of the stuff we are doing.”

As Willis continues to watch the quarterback battle, he’s looking to increase the amount of weapons around them, as well, and there is no better weapon than Dalton Flowers.

Flowers enters his senior year after a monster junior campaign.

Flowers earned 685 yards and nine touchdowns on 90 carries, while turning in 474 receiving yards and six more touchdowns on 20 catches.

Now, he will see the most of his offensive snaps as a wide receiver.

“We got Dalton Flowers back after he made first team All-OVAC last year,” Willis said. “We moved him to wide receiver and we expect a lot out of him this year.”

So, with Flowers at wide receiver, players such as Alex Burton will be counted on to make an impact.

“Alex Burton played a role in the backfield last year,” Willis said. “A lot of that running game depends on the offensive line. We’ll try to open up some holes and we have confidence that it will open up the passing game, so we’ll have to hit the open receivers when we do and see what happens.”

Returning on defense is All-Valley cornerback Reid Wiley.

Wiley was a ballhawk last year with five interceptions, ranking him toward the top of the valley, while also accounting for 24 tackles.

“We’ll have Reid Wiley back in the secondary and we have some guys who played last year but need to step it up.

“We’re going to be aggressive on defense. We have to replace some tackles but we have some guys who can fill in there. It might be by committee but we’ll get after some guys.”

Although 22 seniors picked up their diplomas last year, a large group of new seniors will take the field in 2020 to provide plenty of leadership.

“Our senior guys are stepping up so far,” Willis said. “There are some sophomore guys who are working in there, too. We just have to find that combination and see how it goes.”

The senior class consists of Austin Costello (RB, DB), Nate Fish (WR, DB), Matthew Tschappat (RB, DB), Skyler Webb (WR, LB), Cole Bonocci (FB, DE), Langston Hupp (TE, DL), Bryce Rayl (WR, DB), Austin Ruckman (OL, DL), Rowdy Fisher (OL, DL), Jake Crook (OL, DL), Jesse Riding (OL, DL) and Jayden Watson (OL, DL).

The junior class includes Jared Kerekes (FB, LB), Patrick Ostrander (WR, DB), Koda Moore (WR, DB), Jordan Rouse (OL, DL), Kaden Shriner (FB, LB), Noah Beckett (WR, DB), Riley McIntyre (K), Nate Menendez (RB, DB), Ben McCardle (RB, LB), John McGlumphy (OL, DL), Brayden Hagedorn (OL, DL), Grant Neiswonger (OL, DL), Michael Hall (OL, DL), Nate Reynolds (OL, DL), Ethan Neely (OL, DL), Alex Francis (OL, DL) and Logan Bandy (OL, DL).

A big group of sophomores give hope to the future with Brennan Sobutka (WR, DB), Cody Hartman (QB, DB), Ethan Wallace (TE, LB), Ashton Collett (WR, DB), Braden Sobutka (WR, DB), Zane Murphy (WR, DB), Faith Wachter (K), J.D. Wells (RB, LB), Jace Bartsch (WR, DB), Ryan Ward (WR, DB), Luke Burton (RB, LB), Mickey Goddard (RB, LB), Bryce Cook (OL, DL), Justin Vanmeter (OL, DL), Ty Rogers (OL, DL), Jace Riding (OL, DL), Mathieu Wright (OL, DL), Mick Porter (OL, DL), Cole Porter (OL, DL), Alex Thomas (TE, DL) and Kody Harding (TE, DL).