Schmitz takes over for the Greyhounds

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

Three of the four high school football programs in Adams County have new head coaches on the sidelines this season. Manchester High School is one of those. When last year’s head coach Nick Neria moved into an administrative position at the school, he gave up the head coaching position. His replacement is Justin Schmitz, who moves from North Adams where he had been the Devils’ only head coach since the program came back in 2013. The Greyhounds are the only county football program that is OHSAA-affiliated and for Schmitz, he described the move to Manchester as his “dream” job.

That dream has been tough to this point as the Hounds have dropped their first three contests, falling 57-8 to Cincinnati Country Day, 48-14 to Sciotoville East and then a 22-6 defeat at Miami Valley Christian Academy.

The 2022 Greyhounds are led by a senior class that consists of Lucas Smith, Chase Francis, Aaron Lucas, Braiden Brown and Quentin Lucas.

“I think we can play people pretty tough this year,” said Coach Schmitz in a preseason interview. “We’ve got a good group coming back from last year with a really good group of seniors. We should be pretty good up front which is obviously important.

The strength of the Manchester offense will be in the experience in the skill positions, especially with the aforementioned Lucas Smith, Aaron Lucas and Braiden Brown.

“When we are under center, Aaron (Lucas) will handle the quarterback duties,” said Schmitz. “When we show out shotgun-spread Wildcat look, Lucas (Smith) will likely take the snaps. Both of them have really high football IQ’s and are four -year players.”

“As far as our backs go, we have freshmen Gage Stephens at fullback and Braylon Rickett at halfback, with Braiden Brown at halfback along with junior Kayden Butcher, who has been battling injuries to this point in the season.”

When at North Adams, Schmitz’s offensive philosophy was geared toward running the football and he feels that won’t change much at Manchester, but when the Greyhounds do look to pass, they have a solid target in junior tight end Logan Neria.

“We’ll ask a lot of Logan, he has to be pretty versatile in our offense,” says the Greyhound head coach. “He’s mainly going to be blocking but when he gets out in open space good things can happen for us. He will get the majority of our targets and we will try to get Braiden (Brown) out in space also. He has really quick feet and is shifty and is good at creating space. We can run the jet with Braiden and Kayden, who besides running take a lot of pride in their blocking.”

On the Manchester offensive line, the Hounds have a huge hole to fill after the graduation of 6’7” mammoth blocker Lucas Ballinger. The center will be sophomore Braydon Hoskins, junior Burton Strunk will handle right guard duties, sophomore Mason Gilliam will be another guard, with freshman Brayden Davis and senior Quentin Lucas handling the tackle responsibilities. “If they don’t go, no one else goes,” says Schmitz.

With a roster of just 24, the Hounds will do as most small schools do, use a lot of players in double duty on both sides of the ball, making conditioning very important.

“We’ve got a lot of big bodies this year,” said Schmitz. “Our tackles should be fresh as we try to rotate them on defense. Sophomores Adam Colston and Joe Maynard will start on defense and they haven’t played offense to this point. We will use mostly a 4-4 look and mix it up with some odd fronts. Aaron Lucas, Kayden Butcher. Braylon Rickett and Braiden Brown will go both ways and be our main linebackers.”

Though they have dropped their first three outings, there is still plenty of time for the Hounds to get back on the winning track and make 2022 a successful campaign, though a full schedule would be a nice throwback as the Hounds have not been able to do that for the past two seasons and have already lost the final two games on this year’s slate as Federal Hocking and Hannan (W. Va.) both cancelled their seasons over roster concerns.

“I think Racine Southern will be one of the toughest games on our schedule this year,” said Schmitz. “We’ll try to replace those empty spots but it’s tough at this point.” Of course, Schmitz is looking forward to Manchester’s Homecoming Night on September 23 when he will face off with his old squad from North Adams. “That will be a dog fight,” says Schmitz. “Their whole backfield is back and they have some kids new to the program but not new to football so we’re looking forward to that one.”

“Our goals this season are to just be 1-0 every single week. If we can get 1% better every single day we are doing our job and so far we’ve been improving every single day, getting bigger and faster. Our football IQ’s have to increase and things will improve.”

“We absolutely have to stay healthy and get a lot of reps for our younger kids to get them the experience they need. The name of the game for us is going to be controlling the clock and keeping the ball out of the other team’s hands. If we can put a stout defense out there and control the clock, we will be alright.

Besides the five seniors, the Manchester roster includes:

Juniors- Kayden Butcher, Logan Neria, Burton Strunk

Sophomores- Ashton Ramey, Ronnie Elam, Leland Horner, Jonathan Adams, Brendan Barnes, Jamie Wallace, Mason Gilliam, Adam Colston, Joe Maynard, Braydon Hoskins

Freshmen- Maxx Hanson, Braylon Rickett, Mason Vaughn, Gage Stephens, Bryce Brickey, Joel Blythe, Monty Wallace, Brayden Davis, Kaleb Hall

With the two open dates still not filled, the remainder of the Manchester schedule includes:

• Sept. 9- South Gallia (HOME-7:30)

• Sept. 16- Racine Southern (AWAY-7:00)

• Sept. 23- North Adams (HOME- 7:00)

• Sept. 30- West Union (AWAY-7:00)

• Oct. 7- Conotton Valley (TBA-7:00)