The Homer football team will open defense of its Division III state title Friday with a 7 p.m. nonconference game at Houston.

The Mariners lost about nine to graduation, but return a number of key pieces.

Homer head coach Justin Zank, who begins his seventh season with two state titles in his last three years at the helm, said excitement is high.

“Just the way the team’s already starting to come together this early in the season,” he said. “Camp really helped with that.

“We’ve got a good core group of dudes that just want to be together. So that makes it exciting. It makes it fun to be around.”

Zank was the Division III Head Coach of the Year last season, while Jackson Snaric was Defensive Player of the Year and Donovan Milstead was Lineman of the Year.

Milstead, a senior, will be back at defensive end this season. Snaric, also a senior, will be back at cornerback.

Justus Grimes, a junior, made the first team at wide receiver and also will play cornerback. CJ Burns, a senior, was a first-team utility player. He will be the quarterback this year after coming on due to injury in the state title game and helping the Mariners to victory.

“That’s definitely a good group to build on,” Zank said. “But we do have a lot of other solid dudes in the lineup that are going to complement those guys really well.”

The Mariners return seven starters on offense and five starters on defense.

Senior Nikifor Reutov returns to lead the defense at inside linebacker, where he was second-team all-state last season.

Junior Tristyn Bridges will be back at defensive tackle, while senior Jayden Sims moves from outside linebacker to safety.

On offense, junior Berend Pearson and senior Emelian Melkomukov return as pass catchers, while junior Joaquin Jackson is back at running back.

Junior Shea Yatchmeneff and junior Timmy Cisney return on the offensive line.

“I think right now the offense is a little ahead of the defense,” Zank said. “So I think the offense will help to pace games until the defense comes along.

“And I think the defense is going to be really solid.”

Division II is made up of the six teams in the Mid Alaska Conference. Zank said everybody in the division is a threat.

He said Barrow is always big and well-coached. Zank said Kenai lost a lot of seniors, but has great size in young players. Redington has a big group of seniors with a lot of talent. Kodiak gets a late start due to school starting later, but comes on strong. The Mariners don’t see the Bears until Week 8.

Zank said he doesn’t know a lot about Houston, but the Mariners will find out Friday.

“We’ll be in Houston and it’ll be a hostile environment,” he said. “They’ll play hard. They’re always aggressive and they hit hard.”