Benny Westcott
Sweet Home’s football team will be looking to battle in the trenches for success this season, as Head Coach Ryan Adams identified the Husky offensive and defensive lines as the “most solid” position group on the team, with the most returning players.
“We’re 100% putting it on the backs of our offensive line to try to score the ball,” Adams said. “They are going to be the key to our success. If we can establish a run game and our guys up front can do what they need to do, I think we’ll be just fine.”
That line is led by senior Nathan Aker. “I’m fully expecting him to have a breakout season,” Adams said. “He’s taken the whole lead by example, team leader and team captain thing by the horns this offseason. He understands that everybody’s kind of looking at him to do what’s right. He’s done a phenomenal job stepping up and helping those younger guys.”
Along with Aker, the Huskies have a lot of depth up front. Seniors Huston Holly and Bradley Marks and juniors Colton Bennett, Dylan Sharp and Jayden Mancilla all come back.
Speaking on the team as a whole, Adams said “I’m ecstatic about the character, hard work and unity that this group of guys seems to have so far. I don’t have to worry about showing up and coaching all the intangibles that you don’t want to worry about. We can show up and just coach football, and that’s a testament to the group of kids we’ve got, which is making it really exciting looking forward into the future.
“We’re not oblivious to the mistakes we made last season in terms of character and performance and things like that,” he continued. “I’m expecting these guys to show up and do all the little things you want them to do: hard work, working together, being a team. And they’ve taken that by the horns, so the expectation going forward is that they’re going to just continue that.”
The Huskies finished last season with a 3-6 record, going 1-5 in league play.
“Obviously, the goal is every year to compete in league,” Adams said. “We want to win more than three football games this year. But ultimately my goal is just to create an environment and team that plays hard. So when people show up on a Friday night and watch us and then evaluate the film, they understand and know that it’s not going to be an easy task when they face us.”
He said that “I don’t see any reason why we can’t compete in every single game, compete for a league championship, and hopefully make some type of postseason run.”
Quarterbacks: Adams said three players are competing for the starting job: senior Kaden Miller, sophomore Austin Welch, and freshman Kyle Zajic.
“It’s a wide open competition right now,” the coach said. “We’re splitting reps. We’re just trying to give them as many live looks as we can and evaluate which one is going to be the most beneficial for our team going forward.”
Running Backs: “Last year we had a lot of good running backs on JV, and now they’re all upperclassman,” the coach said.
He said the team returns “solidified starter” Kayo Ebbs, a junior. Seniors Gabe Caldera and Kelso Ellis, juniors Nathan Thompson and Conner Hagle, and sophomores Bode Nichols and Cohen Gutierrez are also in the mix.
“We have a very large running back room this year, which is nice for what we’re trying to do offensively,” Adams said. “Right now it’s about trying to get them as many reps as possible to see who we can throw in there when we need him.”
Wide Receivers and
Defensive Backs: “The last two years we knew who the guys were going to be going into camp,” Adams said of this position group. “Those guys are all gone now, so it creates a lot of opportunities for some younger guys and some guys who may not have seen the field too much last year.”
Miller is the lone returning defensive back from the team last year. “He’s doing phenomenal for us,” Adams said.
The coach noted that “There’s a lot of kids with a kind of similar talent level, which makes camp and practice really exciting. It’s just a matter of evaluation and seeing what they can do against live looks.”
He said junior Jason Funk is doing a “really good job for us.”
The coach also mentioned Caldera, Nichols and senior Deacon Bachand.
Linebackers: “I think it’s the first year since I’ve been here where I feel fully confident in both my starters and second string,” Adams said of the linebacker group. He said the top three are Ebbs, Ellis and senior Ryker Hartsook.
Special Teams
“We’re going to run a lot of the same stuff as last year,” Adams said. “Our goal obviously is to dominate all three aspects of the football.”
Adams did not know projected starters at kicker, punter and long snapper when The New Era caught up with him.
Coaching Changes: Cy Maughmer, an assistant coach last season, left the team upon moving to Arizona to be closer to family. Fellow assistant Josh Huffman moved to the Beaverton area.
The team returns assistants Will Coltrin and Gavin Nichol and adds Spencer Howe, who lives in Junction City but has family ties in the Sweet Home area.