BLUFFTON – Back when Jeff Richards took over the Bluffton program six years ago he understood he needed to plant the seeds of success at the lower levels in order to produce winners in the future and instill a winning culture and it appears that move has paid off.
“Culture is a huge one,” Richard said. “This group of seniors when we took over as a staff were seventh graders and we told them the culture of the program was starting with them and they were going to carry that through their whole middle school and high school career so this is a group that we are very proud of their work everything and everything they put together.
“They don’t get satisfied and they look at their performance and they need to see where they need to improve. We are not where we want to be at but they know they how to work where they want to be.”
The Pirates have learned a lot of lessons the last several years. From 2016 to 2019, the Pirates were 15-26 overall and 8-20 in the NWC. But last year, the Pirates posted a winning season, going 5-3 and 3-2 in NWC play.
“You have growing pains and you don’t get the results you necessarily want right away and the same with society today where a lot of people want instant satisfaction and you don’t get that,” Richards added. “You have to work for it and fight through it and these kids have shown their resiliency over the years and have had some tough losses and now they are starting to experience the great wins.”
The Pirates learned a little about winning with three fourth quarter come-behind-wins and added a playoff victory last year and this season they have already produced an overtime win and pulled out a big win over Ayersville on the road last week.
The momentum has carried over and it doesn’t hurt when you have 24 returning letter winners and 10 starters back on offense.
The Pirates have opened by winning its first three games and will face Spencerville in the NWC opener Friday.
“I think we can connect to our good non conference start is we have a lot of experienced guys,” Richards said. “Last year we graduated one full time starter in Tyson Shutler who is now playing at Capital University but everyone else was underclassmen last year. A lot of that was at times out of necessity because of Covid issues and things like that. We brought in a big freshmen class so our depth especially on the scout team, a thing you take for granted when you have a big roster, so the quality of our practices is particularly higher.”
In its first three games, Bluffton has outscored its opponents 134-41, averaging 44.7 points a contest. The Pirates have produced 1,149 total yards, tops among NWC teams with 889 of those coming on the ground.
Pirate quarterback Nate Schaadt is the driving force behind the Pirates’ success in moving the football. The dual threat quarterback has passed for 260 yards and two touchdowns with three interceptions and has rushed for 581 yards, averaging 8.1 yards a carry, and 11 touchdowns.
“We are a spread triple option team so we want to run but we mix it up in how we are running the ball,” Richards said. “It is not your traditional inside zone or anything like that. A big part of our success is we run a complex offense and we throw the ball to get the guys open on the perimeter when they crowd the box.
“We are pretty balanced in our skilled positions and our offensive line has been doing fantastic lately and that led by Aaron Tabler our four year starter and all district performer and you know all the guys are going to go to Nate Schaadt for a good reason and I am so proud of the leadership role he has taken and the man he is becoming.”
Defensively, the Pirates are giving up an average of 13.7 points a contest. A big improvement over last year when Bluffton gave up an average of 42.6 points in six games last year.
Richards admits that last year the defense was an issue but said they put a big emphasis on defense with knowing responsibilities, executing and getting off the field on third and long and fourth downs.
“Our guys have really responded to that,” Richards said. “We have had some big fourth down stops the last two weeks. Against Pandora-Gilboa we had a huge stop in overtime to get the ball and then we sealed the game on offense. Up front, our d-lines has played very well and in the secondary we have had Beau Stever who has had multiple interceptions this year and a lot of guys who are veterans but still young.”
While the senior leadership is important, Richards adds that there is number of young players who have also stepped up to make this a more well rounded team.
“This group of seniors we put a challenge to them at the end of the season about leading the team and each one has stepped up and takes initiative in their own way but we also have some younger guys who have stood up,” Richards said. “The best for me is when the young guys and older guys interact and we don’t have too many egos in our program which is a great thing.”
Even with the fast start, Richards understand that the road gets much tougher with the start of the NWC. Two other teams, Columbus Grove and Crestview, are also unbeaten at 3-0, with Allen East and Delphos Jefferson sporting 2-1 marks and Spencerville, Leipsic and Ada all a 1-2.
“Every year our goal is to win the Northwest Conference,” Richards said. “That being said, the NWC is extremely competitive. Last year, Grove won it in the tournament but in the two years before that it was a three-way tie so that shows you how competitive the conference is.
“You can never take a game off….We know we have to be on our game every singe week and we know our kids have to be excited about the teams we are playing and the thing for us is we have had these years of growing so they can thing back a couple of years of when teams were putting it on them and they want to get a little revenge and experience and talent. It is a good conference to play in every single week.”
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