School: Pleasant Plains
Mascot: Cardinals
Head Coach: John Hambelton
Years at School: 3 years as head coach (12-14), 1 year as assistant
Overall Record: 21-41
Assistant Coaches: Gage Thompson, Taylor Kaufmann, Brett Keyes, Dalton Barnes, Toby Gleave
Last Year’s Conference Record: 3-3
Last Year’s Overall Record: 3-3
Postseason: N/A
School State Championships: 0
School Conference Championships: 0
Biggest Rival Game Every Year: New Berlin (The Battle for Grant’s Saber)
Number of returning letterman: 16
Number of returning starters: 9
Offense:3
Defense:6
Top Returnees from Spring 2021
Offensive: Reece Payne (OL), Danny Skelton (QB), Hayden Boesdorfer (WR)
Defensive: Gannon Bartos (LB), Luke Aldridge (S), Brayden Hopper (CB), Nathan Cain (S), Ian McAfee (DL), Reece Payne (DL), Aidan Sunley (DL)
Who are the newcomers we should know about and why?
We will return Danny Skelton as our starting quarterback for the second straight season. He is new because he was injured on early on in the first game. He is a great competitor and we trusted him to start last year as a freshman, so we trust him more this year as a sophomore. Other newcomers would probably be the rest of our sophomores. We think it’s a pretty good class that has a mix of everything you need from reliable guys up front, to speed at the skill positions.
Head Coach says: We are expecting to have a big August camp, especially on the offensive side of the ball where we welcome our new offensive coordinator, Dalton Barnes. We will be young in quite a few spots this year, especially on the offensive side of the ball, but we absolutely love the speed we have. We think we have three running backs that are pretty solid in Gannon Bartos, Jayden Veesenmeyer, and Michael Carter. Jayden and Michael are the homerun hitters, and Gannon is a little more physical and downhill. All three do enjoy contact though, so that is always an exciting thing at running back. As for our receivers, we do like our guys in Nathan Cain, Hayden Boesdorfer, Tyler Conn, and Barnett Glisson as the juniors and seniors. Those four will be getting their first significant action on the offensive side of the ball, so the faster they can get comfortable, the better off we will be.
Defensively, we really think our defensive line and linebackers are the key. We started defending the run better as the spring went on last year, and we really like what we have there. We expect a big year from Gannon Bartos at linebacker, and we will rely on him to lead us on the defensive side. On the defensive line, we feel pretty good about the three-man line of Ian McAfee, Reece Payne, and Aidan Sunley as probable starters. In the secondary, we do return Nathan Cain who was an honorable mention all-conference safety last year. We will rely heavily on his ability to play centerfield, which he is very good at. One corner looks to be returning starter Brayden Hopper. Brayden is a consistent corner, and maybe our best open field tackler.
As for special teams, we will return junior Danny Carney as the kicker. Danny is a very reliable kicker, and his leg is getting stronger each year because of his good work ethic. We hope that he can be an even better weapon on kickoffs this year as he was able to kickoff inside the five on more than a few occasions.
