SYRACUSE — A new head coach, new turf field, a new series in Week 1 — 2017 promises to be a year of firsts for Wawasee football.

With so much novelty surrounding the program, there’s been a lot for players and coaches alike to take in, and, understandably, it’s been a process. But the Warriors and their coaches are tackling those changes head-on. The one thing they’re not doing, says first-year head coach Mike Eshbach, is looking back.

“The one thing that I’ve told our kids is, it doesn’t matter what’s been done in the past; we don’t repeat it,” he said. “I don’t talk about where I’ve been before. They’re not going to talk about what they’ve done with previous coaching staffs. I just think it’s a better way to move forward, and we’re just going to kind of establish our own things from this point moving forward. And they’ve done a good job with that. It’s hard for me. I know it’s hard for them, so we just try to move forward the best we can together.”

Eshbach, who takes over for four-year Warriors head coach Josh Ekovich, is bringing new offensive and defensive schemes with him to Wawasee, as well as new terminology and new expectations. Making the move into the program alongside Eshbach — an eight-year head coach at Eastside from 2008-16 — are a new defensive coordinator in former Elkhart Central coach Troy Sausaman and a new offensive line coach in Ty Bloomfield, formerly of East Noble. Jon Reutebuch, Brad Stutzman and Matt Slusher have all stayed on from Ekovich’s staff, and Eshbach says he’s been relying heavily on them to get to know his personnel and the unique traditions at Wawasee as well as the area football landscape in general.

“We’ve leaned on coaches who have been here a lot just as far as what are your thoughts on players, traditions, interferences — all of those kinds of things that you just don’t know unless you’ve been here. They’ve done an awesome job just helping us new guys just get accustomed to things,” he said.

Along with a new coaching staff and a new artificial turf field (scheduled to be completed in time for the Warriors’ Aug. 11 scrimmage with Mishawaka Marian), Wawasee football will open a new series with Lakeland this year in the two teams’ season-opener on Aug. 18. Although the Lakers may be new to the Warriors, Eshbach is no stranger to the program as a former head coach at Eastside, a Northeast Corner Conference opponent of Lakeland.

“Lakeland is sort of new. Being an NECC opponent, we played them five years in a row and then I haven’t played them for four years. I’ve seen them on film, just through the way the game tapes get traded, last year,” he explained. “So I know what they’re about. We’ve played them several times, so for me it’s not going to be totally new, but for the kids it will be, for the series it will be. I think adding to the fact that it’s the first game of the year, there’s a new turf, there’s a lot of excitement as far as that goes.”

Eshbach and his Warriors have now had some time to get to know one another since his official hire on May 23. They’ve already played a busy 7-on-7 schedule against a full slate of quality opponents during outings at Homestead, Notre Dame and Saint Francis. They’re in the midst of weight training and are scheduled to play an 11-on-11, practice-style outing at defending 2A state runner-up Eastbrook on Thursday leading up to the official start of practice on July 31.

For the moment, it’s the dog days of summer for the Warriors, but as the clock winds down to Aug. 18, it’s ticking down to the start of a new day for Wawasee football.

“I think right now it’s sort of the grind — the grind of the summer and to kind of get things put in and stuff like that,” Eshbach said. “But really in a couple weeks, that first day of practice it starts to make a lot of sense, the kids are excited, the community all of a sudden. In two weeks we’re going to have a scrimmage opponent; in three weeks we’re going to have a game opponent. At that point, I think that’s when things really start to heat up. It’s sort of the calm before the storm.”