For the past three seasons, when a crucial third-and-long situation came up, Vikings head coach Jim Kuhn put the team’s fate in his son’s hands. Now, with Henry (’11) off to play at Randolph-Macon College, Kuhn turns to senior Michael Flack to lead the Vikings to the playoffs for the third consecutive year.

Flack made the transition from wide receiver to quarterback this year after serving as the emergency quarterback for the last two seasons. Although Flack lacks experience playing quarterback at the varsity level, Henry said that he will still succeed because of his tremendous skill set.

“He has a great arm and is a great competitor,” Henry said. “He understands what it takes to get the job done, and he does it extremely well.”

Flack said he will have a smooth transition because of the team’s strong running game, but he still needs to improve on reading coverages and delivering passes to his receivers consistently.

“I’ve played varsity since I was a sophomore, and I make plays on the football field,” he said. “We thought that with Val [Djidotor] and Arsalan [Nejad] returning, I was a good guy to lead the team.”

But Flack’s new position could also present difficulties, head coach Jim Kuhn said.

“His inexperience as a starter at this level is a potential roadblock,” he said. “That will come, but he’s new to the job. There’s always growing pains.”

Due to Flack’s inexperience, Kuhn decided to revert to one of his previous offensive systems and run the spread offense.

“As a high school coach, you have to play to the strengths of your team,” Kuhn said. “You have to adapt your personality to your program.”

The spread offense is an offensive system that spreads the defense all across the field, allowing the offense to open up multiple lanes to exploit.

Flack says that because of the personnel on the team this year, the spread is the best way for the team to succeed.

Whatever offense the Vikings are running, Flack said that the team needs all of its pieces to be in place in order to win.

“We have a really good team, so it isn’t just about me,” he said. “On this team there isn’t really just one solution. We have a lot of different guys we can go to. We all have to play well.”