More than a dozen Excelsior Springs varsity 11-man football players are set to be recognized before the Tigers face Benton of St. Joseph Friday night.

Like the high school’s other athletic programs, the football program is honoring its seniors. The Senior Night ceremony comes two weeks after Excelsior Springs’ homecoming game.

Senior Night, however, doesn’t offer the number of potential distractions a homecoming game does, according to Excelsior Springs coach Jake Danneman.

“It’s about the senior football player,” Danneman said Monday. “It’s not about anything else. Like, homecoming is about people coming back home, you have a dance, you have this, that, you have a parade.”

Danneman is a fan of Senior Night. One reason is because it’s a once-ina- lifetime event for a high school football player, he said. Another reason, more specific to his program, is the support Excelsior Springs residents show their senior football players.

“They donate a lot of special things for them – get them little …