Head coach Seth Evans (far left) looks on as Jason Thomas (left) and Kadin Jones take part in 1-on-1 drills during a Perry practice.
Jackelyn Johnson | The Lima News
PERRY TOWNSHIP — After going 1-9 in 2022, Perry head coach Seth Evans quickly got to work.
“Our biggest thing was we needed commitment in the offseason and that’s what we really strived for,” Evans said.
That started with developing a new incentive program “for trying to get kids in the weight room in the off-season.
“We knew that we had to get stronger, and we had to get bigger up front.”
He was even able to get players involved that play winter and spring sports.
“Our next step was to get numbers out,” Evans said.
This season the Perry roster will exceed 30 players.
“The numbers are improving,” Evans said. “The classes are getting a little bit bigger. Our junior class is probably over half the team. It’s building it from the junior high up.”
Evans also worked on “trying new things and different ways and challenging them. You do different things, you try new processes so I’ve been really honest with them about what I’ve expected. I’ve vocalized it. That way they know. That way it’s out in the open now. What are the coaches looking for? What are our expectations and things like that? That’s kind of helped keep the focus in practice, keeping the energy up. A lot of the older guys have kinda bought into it too.”
One of those is all-Northwest Central Conference second-team offensive tackle and defensive lineman Braylon Ardner, who along with Jason Thomas and Kadin Jones, is in his fourth year of playing varsity.
He said that since he doesn’t play basketball, he was able to log a lot of time in the weight room and even found time to get in workouts during baseball season.
“Coach, he came up with a new way of getting people in the weight room, and it’s worked a lot, and we got a lot of people in there,” Ardner said. “Coming into the season we’re stronger … we are in shape. Whenever we’d come into the season before we would have people come in whenever it was mandatory so we would have people the first few weeks they were not in shape, but now our energy is up. Everybody’s in shape. We’re on top of things now.”
Perry’s spread-pistol offense will have a new quarterback at the helm in junior Hunter Scott, who didn’t play his freshman and sophomore years.
“Unlike last year we were on quarterback four by week five,” Evans said. “He’s a smart kid. He was an all-conference pitcher in baseball. He throws a nice ball. He’s really kind of taken on the role of quarterback. He’s really learned the playbook fast. Kind of learned what everybody’s positions are supposed to be so that is very helpful. We don’t have to continue to teach that week in and week out. Our offensive line has gotten better. We had more kids out, more … to pick from. They’re a year older so all the sophomores that had to play last year who got beat down, now know what to expect … so that’s very helpful.”
One of Scott’s main targets is likely to be all-NWCC honorable mention wide receiver Thomas.
“We had a lot of guys in the weight room this year,” Thomas said. “A lot of our linemen. A lot of younger guys too. So I feel like that will help us out a lot.
“Most of the younger guys kinda look up to the seniors. When I tell them to do something they’ll listen. I just want to win our conference. That’s a goal for me.”
As a senior Thomas believes “I gotta do everything right” and is looking forward to “being out there with my friends.
Defensively, the Commodores with employ the 3-4 which “is based off of who we have personnel-wise,” Evans said. “So, we have a lot more linebacker, skill type guys than we do big defensive linemen. We’re helping our size out basically by only having three down linemen. It’s very versatile. Now we have a rotation where we are keeping guys fresh. The way we play our defense is we want to spill everything out to our speed, so we keep everything shut down in the middle.
“Our expectations are very realistic in who can do what and so that’s why we kind of go with the 3-4.”
Beyond wins, one of Evans’ measures is “responding positively to adversity. If we do happen to get down by a score or two, can be come back from it? How are we going to respond to it? I would really like to see how we respond. If we can respond positively and come back and make it a game or make it something, that’s what I measure as I would try to get across is try to get that toughness back up mentally, physically, everywhere. If we can do that then I would say we had pretty good success this year. I can’t really remember the last time we won a really tight game. We’ve either beat them by a couple scores or we got beat by a couple scores. To me, when you win one of those close ones you kind of come closer as a team. Then it’s like, ‘oh, we actually can do this’ and then the wins start to happen.”
“We want to make a playoff run,” Ardner said. “We want to turn it around completely from how we went last year. We feel like we can do that. I don’t think we were prepared enough last year. I think we came in thinking we were, but I don’t think we were at all. Whenever we started losing, everybody started getting down, just downhill from there.
“We have more numbers this year. Our practices, our energy is super high. We’ve never had the energy this high before. We’ve got kids that have improved so much from last year.”
Evans is also hoping for the NWCC to have a strong showing in the postseason.
“We’re always rooting for each other when we’re not playing each other and when we are in the playoffs, so I think that is very helpful,” Evans said. “We want our guys to win games cause everybody kind of looks at us as kind of as the down league. So, if we can win playoff games that’s definitely going to help our credibility.”
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TEAM PROFILE
Coach: Seth Evans (third season)
Division: VII
Last year’s record: 1-9 (1-6 NWCC)
Tickets: Available at the venue
Returning 2022 letter winners: Braylon Ardner (Sr., OL/LB), Jason Thomas (Sr., WR/DB), Kadin Jones (Sr., OL/LB), Noah Cox (Jr., OL/DL), Kimari Glenn (Jr., WR/DB), Mason Hadding (Jr., WR/LB), Boss Horrison (Jr., RB/DB), Conner Lynch (Jr., K), Isaiah McFadden (Jr., WR/LB), Connor Reed (Jr., OL/DL), Diego Williams (Jr., OL/LB), Brodin Eickholt (Soph., RB/WR/LB), Sylas Johnson (Soph., OL/DL)
Promising newcomers: Hunter Scott (Jr., QB), Jaiden Johnson (Jr., WR/DB), Tece Watkins (Jr., WR/DB), Gage Morlock (Jr., OL/DL)
2023 schedule
(Kickoffs scheduled for 7 p.m.; subject to change)
Aug. 18 — at Lehman Catholic
Aug. 25 — Ridgemont
Sept. 1 — at Crestline
Sept. 8 — Upper Scioto Valley
Sept. 15 — Hardin Northern
Sept. 22 — at North Baltimore
Sept. 29 — Cory-Rawson
Oct. 6 — at Waynefield-Goshen
Oct. 13 — at Elgin
Oct. 20 — Ridgedale
