Ottawa-Glandorf’s Cy Rump is one of four returning starters for the Titans.
OTTAWA — It’s a new season with lots of new players for Ottawa-Glandorf.
The Titans have only four players who are returning starters from last season’s football team which advanced all the way to the Division V state state semifinals before losing to eventual state runner-up Kirtland.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had so few returning starters. We’re green. No doubt about it,” said coach Ken Schriner, who is in his 27th year as a head coach, all at O-G.
Ottawa-Glandorf finished 11-4 last season. Seniors, including first-team All-Ohio players Tyler Leopold, Caleb Kuhlman and Landen Jordan, filled 15 of the starting positions. And two-way starter at wide receiver and safety Colin White, who is being recruited by NCAA Division I schools in basketball, decided to focus on that sport.
“A lot of those guys played two and three years. It’s going to be interesting to see how we can put things together,” Schriner said.
“It’s a challenge. I feel like we do some good things in practice and make progress and then the next day we start over again. We’re taking it one step at a time, trying to introduce things as slowly as we can,” he said.
Ottawa-Glandorf will have new starters at every position on the offensive line and on the defensive line and a new quarterback.
Running back Cy Rump is the only returning starter on offense. Defensively, the Titans have a little more experience with Landon Morman and Walter Ross as returning starters in the secondary and Alec Schroeder and Rump back at linebacker.
“I think our defense and the speed of our defense is something that can hopefully carry us early on. We do have some veterans back there with some playing experience who were starters last year.Hopefully that is something that can help us out. The challenge is going to be to find a way to hold up up front,” Schriner said.
Landon Morman, who was honorable mention All-Western Buckeye League at defensive back as a junior last season, went into preseason practice as the first player to get a chance to take control of the starting quarterback position.
“He’s an excellent athlete and has good speed. We want to work to his strengths. He has learned quite a bit throwing the ball over the summer. He had a good summer,” Schriner said.
Morman has gotten an accelerated course in quarterbacking from O-G assistant coach Darrin Fox, who threw for more than 2,000 yards in three consecutive seasons at Bluffton University.
“He’s had a lot of success we’ve had with the quarterbacks we’ve had here. He’s done a phenomenal job developing our quarterbacks over the years,” Schriner said.
Ottawa-Glandorf has run a spread offense in recent seasons and will stay in it this year.
“We’re a spread formations but we’re going to stick with our run game. We’ve got Alec Schroeder and Cy Rump in the backfield. Those are the two guys who give us the most experience. But we don’t have a whole lot of size and we don’t have much experience up front. The development of those guys ( the offensive linemen) is really going to determine what we’re able to do, especially early on,” Schriner said.
“There are some guys up front who have a little bit of experience. Caleb Yoder is working at center and guard both. Will Schmitz is probably going to be a lineman for us on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. Austin Maas, a defensive and offensive lineman, didn’t get a lot of starts last year but got some time spelling people.”
Even though most of them weren’t starters, this year’s Titans got five extra weeks of practice during last year’s playoff run. Schriner hopes that has a positive effect this season.
“You get those extra weeks of practice. Your young kids are getting extra weeks of practice, too. They might be on the scout team but they still have football pads on, they are still running around and hitting people. Hopefully that is something that bodes well for us in the future. We’re hoping so. These guys need to grow up in a hurry,” he said.
If everything goes as planned O-G will have an artificial surface installed for its opener against Eastwood at Titans Stadium. That would mean the Titans will play all 10 of their regular-season games on artificial turf.
OTTAWA-GLANDORF
Coach: Ken Schriner
Years at School: 27th (195-99 all at Ottawa-Glandorf)
Last Year’s Record: 11-4
Division: V
Returning Starters: Cy Rump (RB/LB), Walter Ross (DB), Landon Morman (DB), Alec Schroeder (LB).
Players To Watch: Landon Morman will get the first chance at winning the vacant quarterback job in his first year of playing the position. The Titans’ starting offensive and defensive linemen all will be first-year starters.
Top Newcomers: Manny Carrillo, Austin Maas, Justice Pope, Will Schmitz, Kaleb Yoder, Fernando Valle, Nick Ellerbrock, Connor Kitchen, Cooper Niese, Grant Schroeder, Trevor Strite, Austin Haley, Glenn Beckett.
SCHEDULE
August 19 – at Eastwood
August 26 – at Wapakoneta
September 2 – Elida
September 9 – at St. Marys
September 16 – at Bath
September 23 – Van Wert
September 30 – Celina
October 7 – at Shawnee
October 14 – at Defiance
October 21 – Kenton
All games start at 7 p.m.
