Taking over a Collinsville High School football team that went 1-8 last season will be difficult for the Kahoks’ new head coach, John Blaylock, but it will not be his biggest challenge.

Collinsville football has experienced little success in its history. The school has made just three playoff appearances and has never won a postseason game. “It has mostly been 42 years of frustration,” Blaylock said.

Few know the frustration, tempered with brief fits of success, as well as Blaylock, who spent 15 seasons as an assistant coach for the Kahoks. As an assistant from 1991-1998, Blaylock was part of two playoff teams. He returned to the staff in 2006 and was part of the last playoff team, in 2010 – the only non-losing season during former coach Mike Liljegren’s 10-year tenure.

To reverse course, a cultural change is needed. For the Kahoks, the key to changing a losing attitude to a winning demeanor might be summed up in one fictitious word, bushami.

The battle cry of the 1998 team that posted the most wins in school history (8), bushami is a made-up word that Blaylock defined as “working hard enough to gain the strength and endurance necessary to knock the courage out of our opponent.”

Blaylock implemented a revamped weight training and conditioning program for this season that he dubbed bushami. Under the program, players are given a blank helmet at the beginning of the season and must earn their decals, including the stripes, by passing different strength and endurance tests.

The players have bought into the system and their strength gains have been tremendous, Blaylock said. Gaining strength, Blaylock believes, is integral to the players having the confidence necessary to win football games.

“The players have to be able to look themselves in the mirror and know that they look like their opponents,” Blaylock said. Junior fullback Jordan Miller, a team captain, said the new weight program has made the team stronger mentally and physically.

Blaylock’s focus on increased strength and endurance is about more than mental toughness; the Kahoks are implementing an offense that will be more run focused than in previous years. There will be an emphasis placed on long, sustained drives and chewing up the clock.

“The key to winning in (the Southwestern Conference) is keeping your opponents offense off the field,” Blaylock said.

The Kahoks will be returning nine starters on the offensive side of the ball and seven on defense. The starters on the offensive line that will lead Blaylock’s running game averages 247 pounds, led by senior right guard Harry Uyehara at 6 feet 4 inches and 285 pounds. The defensive line averages 244 pounds and is anchored by 6 feet 3 inch, 285 pound senior nose guard Isaiah Gray and 5 feet 11 inch, 275 pound senior tackle Nate Collier.

Although most of the starting positions on offense and defense are already determined, competitions remain at wide receiver and cornerback. Four players are vying for two starting wide receiver positions. Senior cornerbacks Ryan Brunton and Demerius Tally are in a battle to play alongside Dennis Kress, who was a 2012 all-conference cornerback in his junior season.

The 2013 Kahoks are not concerned about the record of previous teams; they are focused on making the playoffs. “Our expectations are no different than any other program, have enough success in the first nine weeks to have a tenth,” Blaylock said.

Kahoks fans will be pleased with what they see this year, Collier said. “I think we’ll make the playoffs. We need to keep working day-by-day and we’ll be fine,” Collier said. “The people watching will see a different team, a better team.”

Playoff berths are earned one game at a time. Miller is focuses on the first game, Aug. 30 against Belleville Althoff.

“My first priority is to win against Althoff” Miller said.”If we beat Althoff, it will give us momentum going into Triad and then going into conference.”

Related story: Collinsville High School varsity football schedule