LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — It's hard to ignore the seven blue banners that hang in McHale Gymnasium at Central Catholic. They each signify state titles the football program has won. 

The big story on Ninth Street in 2018 is that the Knights officially start year one under new head coach Brian Nay this Friday when the Knights take on Tri-West at LaRocca Field. 

Central Catholic is coming off a 4-8 season in which they fell to eventual state champion Pioneer in the sectional title game, just the program's second losing season in the last 20 years.

None of that has stopped Central Catholic from scheduling tough opponents for this season though. The Knights will play six schools that participate in Class 3A. Including West Lafayette, and that's something Nay and the Knights welcome.

"Trying to get one percent better every day," said Nay. "That's it, and we feel like the scoreboard and anything we do will take care of itself if we're focused in on constant improvement and just trusting the process, that's in place to be successful."

"Freshman year when we were running teams over beating them by a lot, that was never really, but I always like playing West Side," said senior wide receiver David Schwartz. "And you know Frontier and it's always been exciting because you know close games, those are the moments you remember, you don't remember the other games."