When looking for special teams players, Cassville Football Coach Clay Weldy looks for one quality specifically — the ability to be consistent at a certain skillset.

Each of Cassville’s incoming kickers, punters, long snappers and returners have different sets of skills needed, and Weldy is honing in on who will start in Week 1.

“It’s all a work-in-progress,” Weldy said.

Cassville lost a trio of seniors last year in the kicker, punter and long snapper positions in Peter Littlefield, Hernan Hernandez and Isaac Hadlow, respectively. This year, all new players will will those roles.

At kicker, Cassville is working with Malachi Vincent and Ashton Wheeler, both soccer players with Littlefield who have trained under the All-State and All-Conference performer.

“We’ve been blessed with good kickers the past few years in Cassville,” Weldy said. “The biggest thing is to be consistent with Point-after attempts. Pete made 100 percent of his PATs last year, and that is a big weapon. If you can make field goals too, that is a positive, too. Usually is you make PATs, you can make field goals — we just have to find the range.”

Working at punter to replace Hernandez is a quartet of possible starters in Bodee Rose, Vincent, Cosmo Rhoades and Colton Roark.

“We rugby punt at Cassville, so we need someone athletic that can know if the time is right to run, and if not, to be able to not only kick it down the field, but place it,” Weldy said. “Hernan was a fantastic rugby punter and great at placing the ball, and we’ll need more of that.”

Training at long snapper are Joseph Craft and Isaac Luney, and Weldy said their goal is simple, but not easy.

“The snapper has to get the ball back there quickly and consistently,” Weldy said. “Big, looping snaps can cause problems, so we need to hit them in the numbers.”

Kickoff and punt returners number many in the summer, Weldy said, and starters will be whittled down over coming weeks. Working in the position are Dakota Bowen, Garrett Ewing, Bryson Jacobson, Rose, Roark and Kyle Bailey.

“For our returners, we first and foremost need someone who can catch the ball consistently and not fumble it,” Weldy said. “From there, we’ll see what they can do with the ball in their hands. As a returner, you have to have some guts, too. You have to be able to stand there and catch the ball with people around you and not drop it because you lost concentration.”

Cassville opens the season on a Saturday this year, hosting Hollister on Aug. 26 at 1 p.m., the school’s first regular-season Saturday contest.