Photo/JEFF HARRISON PICTURED IS the Buckeye Trail football team. Front row, from left, are Dylan Berry, Kacey Ruckman, Hunter Dillon, Jack Parry, Trey McGilton, Isaac Hickman, Ronnie Rominger, Josh Green, Dayton Hupp, Collin Weaver and Tyler Hostuttler. Second row, from left, are Aiden Mills, Bryce Baker, Blake Bates, Connor Puskarich, Marcus Masters, Liam Kelley, Nic Burris, Austin Paden and Kolton Shepherd. Third row, from left, are Cameron Hes, Dakota Milliken, Will Rome, Aiden Snodgrass, Brendan Bates, Ethan Carpenter, Franko Rome, Shane Smith, Logan Hinkle and Aidan Krise. Fourth row, from left, are assistant coach Josh Green, assistant coach Brett Shipman, assistant coach Dave Deal, head coach Donnie Kerns, Tyler Dodd, Noah Betts, Cameron Shepherd, Isaak Pekari, Sabastian Graham, Nick Neuhart, assistant coach Kevin Spiker, assistant coach Bryan Jackson, assistant coach Terry Parry and assistant coach Bill Hartmeyer.

OLD WASHINGTON – No more being average.

That’s the plan for the Buckeye Trail Warriors as Donnie Kerns begins his fourth year in charge of the football program with a team that lost its go-to guy but returns a hard-working, dedicated group that features more overall experience and balance.

“We’re stressing ‘average to good’ as our approach,” said Kerns, whose has piloted the Warriors to a 15-15 record in his first three years include a 5-5 mark last fall. “The days of four, five or six wins have run their course and we want to get beyond that.

“We’ve gone from being bad to being average and now we want to go from average to good,” he continued. “I truly feel we’re capable of taking that step this year.”

Trail jumped out to a surprising 5-2 record last fall, but an injury to versatile quarterback Zach Grafton – the team’s unquestioned primary offensive weapon – proved too much to overcome and the Warriors stumbled across the finish line with three straight losses.

“We never dreamed we’d be 5-2 after seven games,” related Kerns, but in small school football, you’re one injury away from things getting off track and that happened to us when Zach got hurt against Malvern. That certainly limited what we could do in our last three games.”

Hard work in the off-season has buoyed Kerns’ belief in his 2019 squad.

“This is probably the best group I’ve had as far as dedication and work ethic across the board,” he said. “We had probably 94 percent participation all summer long, and that shows that the kids realize you’ve got to be there to get better.”

Spreading the wealth and getting better offensive balance are among the keys to success, according to Kerns.

“We have a plan in place this year where we won’t be so reliant on one guy offensively,” he pointed out. “We couldn’t get the running game going at all last year, but I’m confident we will this year.”

A more seasoned offensive line and a little outside help from a hall of fame coach could get that done.

“We weren’t very good on the offensive line (last year) because we were very young overall,” said Kerns. “We had to rely on the ‘quick’ game, but now we return six or seven kids who have started at one time or another and the offensive line could very well be our best unit now.

“We’ve been fortunate to have Coach John Kelley work with us this year as we implement some of the concepts of the wing-T,” the Trail coach said, referring to the legendary coach who enjoyed many years of success at Shenandoah, Coshocton and John Glenn with that style of play. “It might not be the old-style wing-T that he used much of his career, but it will allow us to get the ball on the perimeter.

“Being able to run the football and control the line of scrimmage will be the biggest key for us,” Kerns stated. “We’ve put in a lot of time and we’re committed to doing that this year.”

Bolstering the defensive side of the football has been another point of emphasis for the Warriors.

“We’ve gotten by at times by scoring a lot of points to have a chance to win,” said Kerns, “but we need to try to keep teams down to two touchdowns or less and I have confidence we can do that.

“All of the guys up front started at some point last year,” he continued, “and we’ve got two linebackers and two defensive backs that have started, too, so overall we’ve got a lot of experience on defense.

“They just need to understand their responsibilities and develop a better football I.Q.” the BTHS coach added. “We’ve tried to simplify things, because you don’t play well when you’re confused out there.”

With the departure of Grafton – who Kerns called “probably the best high school player I’ve ever coached” – Trail must find a new quarterback and there’s been a preseason battle between senior Isaac Hickman (6-3, 184) and junior Connor Puskarich (6-0, 163), both two-year lettermen.

Puskarich is regarded as more of a pocket passer while Hickman, who excelled at wide receiver last year, is more of a running threat.

Hickman collected 31 receptions for 435 yards and rushed 37 times for 189 yards with eight total touchdowns last fall. He earned special mention all-Ohio Division VI honors along with first team all-East District, all-OVAC Class 3A and all-Inter-Valley Conference North Division.

“We want to put our best athlete and leader at quarterback, but they will both be on the field somewhere and figure heavily into our offense,” said Kerns. “We feel we can win with either of them at quarterback.”

The Warriors will have a “horse” to ride in the backfield in senior Jack Parry (6-3, 219), a three-year letterman who was a stud defensively last year.

“He’s bigger than everybody…faster than everybody…stronger than everybody,” offered Kerns. “He just has to decide how good he wants to be and we’ll put a lot of the weight of our offense on his shoulders.”

Also seeing action at running back are sophomore letterman Shane Smith (5-10, 165) and senior Tyler Hostuttler (5-9, 161) while additional support come from sophomore Logan Hinkle (5-5, 162) and freshman Noah Betts (5-8, 163)

The H-back position appears in good hands with the likes of senior two-year letterman Ronnie Rominger (6-3, 189), junior two-year letterman Marcus Masters (5-8, 171) and sophomore letterman Franko Rome (5-10, 162), with sophomore Brendan Bates (5-8, 142) also in the mix.

Rominger switches to the backfield after starting at guard as a sophomore before missing last season with a dislocated elbow. Masters caught 12 passes for 87 yards and one TD a year ago.

Heading the wide receivers is senior Trey McGilton (5-10, 157), a two-year letterman who caught 13 passes for 131 yards and one touchdown last fall.

Other top wide-outs are junior letterman Blake Bates (6-3, 179) and freshman Tyler Dodd (5-9, 178) while junior Matt Kinas (5-10, 151) and sophomore Will Rome (5-9, 151) are other pass-catching options.

At tight end will be senior two-year letterman Josh Green (6-4, 227) and senior letterman Kacey Ruckman (5-11, 247), with junior letterman Austin Paden (6-1, 167) also pushing for playing time.

Other TEs are senior Dayten Hupp (6-0, 189) and freshman Sebastian Graham (5-9, 166).

Trail’s much-improved offensive line will have three returning starters in the middle.

Senior two-year letterman Colin Weaver (5-9, 216) will anchor the big guys at center while junior two-year letterman Nic Burris (5-9, 227) and sophomore letterman Aiden Snodgrass (5-10, 201) will again handle the guard posts.

Junior Bryce Baker (5-9, 221) serves as the top back-up at center while senior letterman Hunter Dillon (5-10, 224) will see action at guard.

At the tackle slots, senior two-year letterman Dylan Berry (6-1, 274) is another returning regular while battling for the other side are junior lettermen Liam Kelley (5-10, 221) and Kolton Shepherd (6-3, 293) and sophomore Dakota Milliken (5-10, 216)

Other tackles include junior Aiden Mills (5-9, 242); sophomores Cameron Hess (5-11, 245) and Aiden Krise (5-8, 196); and freshmen Cameron Shepherd (5-9, 184), Isaak Pekari (5-9, 196) and Caleb Wamsley (5-10, 249).

Defensively, Parry will be the anchor of the Warriors’ 4-2-5 alignment at linebacker. He was far and away the team leader in tackles with 89 total stops including 60 solos, 13.5 tackles for loss, 4.5 QB sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.

For his performance, he was named special mention all-Ohio, first team all-East District, second team all-IVC and honorable mention all-OVAC.

Joining Parry at ‘backer will be another returning starter in Snodgrass while also seeing regular duty will be Hupp, Baker and Ruckman.

Up front, the inside features two returnees in Kolton Shepherd and Berry at tackle while the ends are Green and Burris.

Milliken and Kelley are the chief back-ups on the inside while Dillon and Weaver provide support at the terminals.

McGilton returns to lock down one of the cornerback slots, with Rome on the other side.

Ronnie Rominger will open at strong safety with Masters also seeing action there; Paden or Smith will be at weak safety and Hickman and Puskarich will share time at free safety.

Hickman was in on 33 tackles while notching three interceptions and a fumble recovery while Masters, McGilton and Berry were also among the team leaders in stops a year ago.

Parry is expected to handle the placekicking duties while Rominger will be the punter.

The aforementioned Grafton was Trail’s most decorated graduation loss as he earned second team all-Ohio Division VI honors along with first team all-East District, all-IVC North (Offensive Back of the Year) and all-OVAC Class 3A honors.

Also departed are Dylan Beaver, Xavier Herman, Tyler King, Joey Bridgeman, Brandon Rominger, Logan McVicker and Seth Hughes.

Kerns’ coaching staff includes Kevin Spiker, Bill Hartmeyer, Brian Jackson, Brett Shipman, Dave Deal and Josh Green. The junior high coaches are Rick Stillion, Chase Stillion, Austin Snodgrass and Mike Legats.

Playing in the Inter-Valley Conference presents Trail with a weekly challenge.

“In the IVC, you have to understand that even the bad teams are good,” said Kerns, whose team was 2-3 in the IVC’s North Division last season, “and they’ll play you harder and more physical than you’ve ever played.

“We’ve managed to beat all of the ones we’ve faced in the last two years except East Canton and Indian Valley,” he added. “We’ve tried to over-schedule with our 7-on-7s and our scrimmages (John Glenn, Shadyside and Cambridge) to be better prepared, and I think we’re catching up.”

Trail, which faces the identical schedule to last year, gets to kick things off a day earlier than most when traveling to Caldwell to play in the Noble County Fair Game on Thursday.

“We want to go 1-0 every week,” said Kerns, “but our whole focus right now is on Caldwell.”