THE RIVER VALLEY REPORT FOOTBALL PREVIEW | 8.11.2024

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KEVIN TAYLOR

SPECIAL TO RIVER VALLEY DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE

Moving can be hard. Changing a football philosophy on short notice is even tougher. Second-year Cedarville football coach

Spencer Adams did both last season.

“ It’ s a whole different take on it this year,” the Pirates’ coach said.“ Coming in so late last year, and introducing a whole new offense and defense those kids have never been a part of, it was a struggle. But the kids did great adapting. The kids wanted to learn and wanted to get better.”

Adams may not have many returning starters— four on offense and three on defense— but he’ s had a whole year to figure out who his team is.

“ This year, having a whole offseason and having a whole spring ball, I’ m not teaching them from the ground up. We’ re being able to implement more.”

The Pirates have better numbers, too. At the start of August, Cedarville had close to 25 players.

“ We have 24( players) and 24 are showing up every day,” Adams said.“ They’ re there early and they want to stay late.” The Pirates opened the 2023 season with seven straight losses, with low numbers being one of the factors.

“ We struggled with numbers,” Adams said.“ We dressed 14 for a game that was a big deal. But our kids worked hard. We didn’ t get our first win until week 8, and that was a huge testament to the kids who kept showing up every day and kept working. It’ s hard to lose seven straight and keep doing that, but our kids bought in and learned a lot.”

One of Adams’ first objectives was to move Chasyn Oden to quarterback. Oden played quarterback in junior high, but that was under a completely different scheme( Wing T).

“ He’ s come a long way from handing the ball off in the Wing T. This offense has before much more complex,” Adams said.“ We’ ve been happy with his progress. Matthew House will start at tailback for us. He was our fullback last year, but he’ s gotten a lot faster.”

Cedarville will turn to a plethora of sophomores, Adams said.

“ Jordan Barahona was our quarterback for us in junior high last year, but he’ s going to be our fullback this year,” Adams said.“ I’ m really pleased with how far he’ s come. Daniel Ramirez was our running back in junior high last year. He’ s going to split reps with Matthew this year.”

Adams is excited about his sophomore group, which started the 2023 junior high

2023 RECORD 1-9, 1-6 3A-1 Conference COACH Spencer Adams( 2nd year, 1-9)

CEDARVILLE PIRATES

RETURNING STARTERS 4 offense, 3 defense season by losing three straight before going 5-1 in their final six games.“ Again, they were trying to learn on the fly like everybody else.”

Like most teams in the 3A-1, Adams and Co. can’ t afford to lose players to injury.“ We have to stay healthy,” he said.

KEY PLAYERS QB Chasyn Oden( Sr., 6-0, 150), RB / LB Matthew House( Sr., 5-10, 165), WR / S Braden Skelton( Jr. 5-10, 270), RB Dallas Vanderbush( So., 6-2, 180), OL / DL Reed Payton( Jr., 5-7, 140), OL / DL Levi Crowley( Jr., 6-0, 275), OLB Dakota Kattich( So., 5-9, 170), TE Justice Workman( Jr., 6-0, 175)

*— Denotes 3A-1 Conference game. All kickoffs at 7 p. m. unless noted.

Head coach Spencer Adams

Chasyn Oden

Reed Payton

Mathew House