Coaches Max Washausen and Matt Chandler with a few Sr High players during summer practice
The Cedarville Sr High Pirates held 2020 captive in the hull of their edge-of-the-seat football season. The Pirate faithful watched Cedarville end their season with a 4-3 in conference record and a 7-4 overall record along with a State Playoff appearance. Two of those three conference losses were by merely two points each to perineal powerhouses Charleston and Greenland. Those losses were heartbreakers but falling by a combined four points away from home to top tier teams showed Pirates fans that Cedarville is beginning to catch the high tide of the football seas.
Going into the 2021-2022 football season, Cedarville aims to solidify themselves as a year in year out team to be taken seriously. They’re in luck then because there’s no program in the 3A-1 looking past the Pirates on the schedule. Opponent coaches know that they have to pre-plan for All-Conference and All-State running back Darryl Kattich who ran rampant over defenses in every game. But what’s worse for those coaches is that Cedarville is returning 11 players from the 2020-2021 season along with a whole slew of talented players to boot. Cedarville’s Head Coach, Max Washausen, loves the fact that his talented offense is already giving fits to other coaches as well.
“With Cody Dickens, Darryl Kattich, Hayden Partain, Bruce Turney, Hayden Morton, and Colton Arnold, I believe we have one of the best backfields in 3A.” A backfield is great, but Cedarville has the intangibles most other teams don’t have to go along with their star-studded offensive backfield. Leadership and experience. “We have a great group of seniors who lead by example. That along with a great mess of juniors and sophomores means we have something special. I really enjoy coaching this team. I think we all have a mindset that we are going to prove all the doubters wrong and Cedarville football is going to do something really special this season.“
But offense is only one part of the game. The Pirates will also be returning with their cutthroat defense that has the capability to shut down offensive drives. That defense last season didn’t allow long drives and ate up the turnover category. Cedarville’s defense held opponents to a mere 10 points in their non-conference games and stood strong against conference foes throughout the season also. Although they’ll have to shut down the big play ability better this season with their defensive line, that’s something Coach Washausen believes is within their grasp.
“One of my goals this year as head coach is to have a dominant offensive/defensive line. We can do it. We are undersized and we will have a line by committee but we have a lot of heart. That desire to succeed and heart to play in our players is a foundation that we can build upon.” Leading the way for the line by committee will be the double bacon cheeseburger buffet lineup of linemen Tyree Mongold, Nathanial Smith, Luke Mallow, and Jace Baker. Other teams may have bigger linemen on their roster, but these boys are H-U-N-G-R-Y!
But wait, there’s more. There are Pirates onboard Cedarvilles ship that Coach Washausen has expressed can be game-changers this season. Lane Hightower, Levi Hightower, Bradlee Blankenship, Colton Arnold, Braxton Bentley, and Darien Skinner have each caused Coach Washausen to raise his eye patch up for a second look. They will be counted on heavily with the schedule ahead of Cedarville in 2021. Although it is a repeat of 2020 with the only change being the home and away columns swapped, it is still no smooth sailing lineup. One key positive of that schedule though is that the Pirates will have an opportunity to avenge their two-point losses to Charleston and Greenland as they welcome both teams to Pirates Cove this season.
“Overall, last year was another year of improvement with our 7-4 record. We have improved our record for four consecutive seasons. A two-point loss to Charleston and a two-point loss to Greenland kept us from our first outright Conference Championship in school history. That was last year though. We have our eye on that Conference Championship this year” concluded Coach Washausen.
