LINN — When William “Sonny” Sonnemaker began preparing for his first opportunity as a head football coach, he knew one of his most important jobs would be deciding whom to trust with pieces of the program.

The result at Linn is a staff that blends college playing experience, coordinating experience, strength and conditioning expertise, classroom teaching, and established relationships. Its members have different responsibilities and different personalities, but they describe the same assignment: carry out a shared vision while helping players become more than football players.

“You’ve got to be able to get reliable staff around you,” Sonnemaker said over the summer. “I knew that I was going to have to take a step back from X’s and O’s a little bit, find guys that can focus on the dynamics, the scheme and my vision, and allow me to build this culture of encouragement.”

Sam Tramel already knew Linn’s players. The high school English teacher coached on the Wildcats’ staff last season and approached Sonnemaker about remaining with the program. Their first extended conversation made the fit clear. “He immediately told me that his goal is to build a football program rather than a football team,” Tramel said. “That larger, more encompassing goal is what I want to be a part of. I am grateful that he wanted to keep me on the staff so that I could help execute his vision.”

Tramel, the wide receivers and defensive backs coach, played quarterback and baseball in high school and previously assisted in football and softball at Grandview, and baseball with the Jefferson County Blazers. At Linn, he teaches receivers everything from stance and route depth to recognizing coverage, leverage, and open space.

On game nights, Tramel will be one of three coaches in the booth, tracking down and distance, personnel, offensive and defensive plays, coverage shells, and other details for the sideline.

His demand for discipline can be measured by a yard.

“A 7-yard route isn’t a suggestion,” Tramel said. “If it’s 6 or 8 yards, it’s wrong. There is no close enough in football.”

Tim Duarte brings the staff’s most extensive head-coaching experience. An All-Area left tackle at Cloverdale High School in northern California, he returned there to begin his coaching career in 2013. He later spent three years as an assistant at Cuba, served six seasons as the Wildcats’ head coach from 2019-24, and coached at Hallsville last year.

Duarte, who teaches sixth- and seventh-grade social studies at Linn, reached out to Sonnemaker during the spring. He had seen Linn’s athletic potential while his oldest son competed against the Wildcats in basketball and baseball, and conversations with Sonnemaker revived his excitement for football.

The two coaches also connected through the loss of their fathers. Duarte said Sonnemaker’s energy and personality differ from his own, allowing their coaching styles to complement one another.

As offensive coordinator, quarterbacks coach and defensive backs coach, Duarte plans and installs the offense in collaboration with Sonnemaker, Tramel, and Byers. He evaluates personnel, schemes, and execution throughout the week, then adjusts the game plan before calling the offensive plays from the booth on Friday nights.

Duarte expects quarterbacks to take ownership of the offense, align their teammates and understand defensive coverage before and after the snap. His defensive backs are being taught the discipline and communication that allow the rest of the defense to play faster beneath their coverage.

“Sonny has given us the support to collaborate as a group and have some real autonomy as far as our position goes,” Duarte said. “He takes on all the other stuff so we can be free to coach as hard as we can.”

Trenton Byers brings the perspective of a decorated offensive lineman. A Pierce City graduate, he earned All-State recognition before playing five seasons at Central Methodist University, where he was an All-Conference selection and a member of a conference championship team.

Byers spent three years coaching at Fayette, including a season as defensive coordinator, before becoming Linn’s run-game coordinator, offensive line coach, and weight room director. He was drawn by the support from the administration and booster clubs and by the opportunity to reunite with Sonnemaker, who coached him at CMU.

At practice, Byers directs warmups and offensive line work, corrects blocking schemes, and helps the defense by running the scout offense. During games, he helps identify defensive fronts and advises the offensive coordinator on which running plays offer the best opportunity.

The staff calls him its “idea man” because of the competitions and team-building activities he creates. His offensive linemen hear a more demanding message.

“Good is not good enough,” Byers said. “We can always improve some aspect of our game. If that’s better footwork, hand placement, or even being better in the classroom, we are teaching them how to be the best version of themselves, and we won’t stop when it is just better or improved.”

Kobe Kaminski has responsibility for putting the defense together. The Fulton graduate played on Southwest Baptist University’s 2016 Great Lakes Valley Conference championship team before transferring to Westminster College, where he earned first-team All-Conference honors on the defensive line.

After graduating in 2021, Kaminski began coaching the defensive line and became a defensive coordinator and play caller the following year. He served as Battle’s interim defensive coordinator last season before joining Linn as defensive coordinator and defensive line coach.

Kaminski met Sonnemaker through offseason breakfasts with other mid-Missouri coaches. He said the Linn opening captured attention throughout the coaching community because it reflected both support and a vision for the young program.

“When Sonnemaker got the job here, I knew it was going to be electric, and something I wanted to be part of,” Kaminski said.

His daily task is making sure all 11 defenders understand how their responsibilities fit together. A clear practice objective allows position coaches to teach freely and players to react quickly on Friday nights. Kaminski calls the defense and coordinates substitutions during games while also supplying observations to the offensive staff.

He works especially closely with linebackers coach and athletic trainer Jon Mahoney. Mahoney lettered in football, wrestling, and track in high school, played college football, and competed with the USA Weightlifting national team from 2012-15.

Mahoney’s first season coaching high school football follows 15 years of running a strength and conditioning gym in Denver. He trained athletes ranging from club competitors to NCAA Division I players and worked with professional athletes and organizations, including Chris “Birdman” Andersen, Chauncey Billups, and the Colorado Rapids.

His relationship with Sonnemaker reaches back almost 20 years to college, and Mahoney later trained him in Colorado.

At Linn, Mahoney helps prepare the practice field before working with linebackers on their fundamentals and the adjustments required by that week’s opponent. He also tapes players, tends to sports injuries, warms up the linebackers, and signals defensive calls on game nights.

His expectations for the linebackers mirror Linn’s overall defensive identity: lift the unit when it struggles, fly to the football and do their jobs. “Their hard work in the offseason is going to pay off during the games this season,” Mahoney said. “They have built something out of nothing, and it’s a great thing to see on and off the field.”

Joey Avitia is the staff’s youngest member and one of two former CMU players now coaching with Sonnemaker. Avitia played football and wrestled at Washington High School, earning All-Conference recognition in both sports and qualifying for state in wrestling. He played linebacker and H-back, and also wrestled at CMU before transferring to the University of Missouri.

He graduated summa cum laude from Mizzou with a 4.0 grade-point average and a bachelor’s degree in psychology, along with certifications in neuroscience and multicultural studies. After coaching youth and YMCA flag football, he is beginning his first season at the high school level while teaching fourth grade at Linn.

Avitia coaches the running backs and H-backs, assists Mahoney with the linebackers, and coordinates film. He and Mahoney set up the field and camera equipment, then divide their attention between the two position groups.

Their evaluation rests on four standards: alignment, assignment, production, and effort. Avitia uses everyday drills to reinforce footwork, reads, and other fundamentals, then adjusts his instruction according to practice video and that week’s opponent. On game nights, he handles special-teams substitutions and equipment while monitoring the backfield personnel from the sideline.

“I am the youngest coach on the staff, and I think that it really works in a special way,” Avitia said. “I bring a little bit of youth that a lot of staffs don’t really have, which works really great with our players.”

He and Mahoney work so closely that Avitia calls them the staff’s “mean, hardcore duo,” although he also describes them as the two coaches most likely to be caught making faces and trying not to laugh.

That combination of seriousness and personality runs through a staff that Sonnemaker has jokingly called “the misfits.” The coaches collaborate across position lines, challenge one another’s ideas, and break their huddles on “family.”

“Coach Sonnemaker has really built a culture of collaboration as a coaching staff in regards to meetings and game planning, which has allowed all of us to take ownership in what we are doing,” Kaminski said.

Tramel said the relaxed exchange of ideas has helped the whole become greater than its individual parts. He has learned simply by sitting with coaches whose experiences differ from his own, and the relationships among the adults have influenced the players’ experience.

“Because we have fun together, the kids are having fun, and none of us feel like we’re working,” Tramel said. “It makes practice, film and the weight room easy in a good way. The kids want to be there, and because of that, they’re getting better at everything very quickly.”

Each coach defines success beyond the record. Byers wants one program operating from third grade through high school. Mahoney wants the players who committed during the summer to finish the season recognizing their improvement. Kaminski points to the program’s four pillars—behavior, academics, nutrition, and the weight room—and wants players to graduate, maintain at least a 3.0 GPA, and become respectable young men. Duarte wants Linn to be competitive every week, while instilling pride in players as teammates, students, and citizens.

Avitia wants players to leave no doubts about the work they invested, and to know their coaches cared about them. Tramel will measure progress in part by whether more students want to join each year.

“If the roster gets bigger every year, then we’re doing our job,” Tramel said. “That means the kids are enjoying it, and they trust us.”

That trust is central to the program Sonnemaker asked them to help construct. The assistants may teach routes, blocking schemes, pursuit angles, ball security, strength or film study, but each sees football as the vehicle for something larger.

“We don’t want to be a flash in the pan,” Tramel said. “We’re looking to be a problem on people’s schedule for years to come. We’re not simply building a football team here. We’re building a football program that extends out into the rest of the school and community.”

Editor’s Note: This story was slated for publication in the OMG fall magazine, which limited space did not permit.