School: University High School
Mascot: Pioneers
Head Coach: Brody Walworth
Years at School: 3
Overall Record: 30-31
Assistant Coaches: Brody Ceh, Nick Cottone, Nathan Desmet, Jake Gates, Mason Kaufmann, Nate Logsdon, Alec Mudra, Chris Pedersen, Lance Tinsley, Mike Troll
Last Year’s Conference Record: 3-6
Last Year’s Overall Record: 3-6
Postseason: n/a
School State Championships: n/a
School Conference Championships: n/a
Biggest Rival Game Every Year: Central Catholic if we can find a way to play them
Number of returning letterman: 26
Number of returning starters: 11
Offense: 5
Defense: 6
Top Returnees from Fall 2022
Offensive:
Mason Hooper – WR
Joe Hunt – OL
Caleb Rogers – RB
Gavin Naffziger – OL
Defensive:
Cameron Clifton – LB
Gio Fayne – CB
Martin Donahue – LB
Drew Rader – LB
Who are the newcomers we should know about and why?
Alek Weiland – QB, JR – Live arm, accurate, athletic, moves well in the pocket, smart. Lots to like with Alek – excited to see what he can do at the varsity level.
Cole Matejka – DL/OL, JR – Big and strong, Cole is coming back from an ACL tear suffered week 1 last year. He has had an unbelievable recovery and we are happy to have him back after missing what would have been a promising sophomore campaign.
Josh Caraballo – DB/RB, JR – Love his attitude, absolutely flies around like crazy. Expect him to start in the secondary on D.
Demir Spaulding – K/P/WR, JR – Demir has had a great off-season in the kicking game and will be a potential game-changer on special teams. He is also athletic and will help us at WR.
Nick Felstead, Lawson Shickel, AJ Holden, Deegan Aeilts, Carson Stevens, Cade Cunningham – These are all skill position players that have a chance to become impact players primarily on offense. I expect 1-2 of these guys to emerge as big playmakers for us.
John Burras, Daken Davenport, Landon Hinkle, Cayden French, Clay Nord, Charlie Karun, Hagan Corry – Some of this group played some major minutes for us last year, probably a year before they were ready, but all of them should help us up front on either O or D.
Head Coach says: We made big strides toward being more competitive last season but weren’t able to find any more wins. Though they weren’t all full-time starters, we had a bunch of this year’s juniors playing a ton of football for us last year, and I think we entered the off-season with a lot of momentum from last season. Their experience and continued mental and physical maturity should be major factors in our ability to turn a couple of last year’s close losses into this season’s wins. Our numbers continue to improve. We have continued to develop our weightlifting program and we look much more like a CS8 varsity team, from a physical perspective, than we have my first 2 years. Losing a QB like Colin is always tough, but Alek has tremendous potential, and he has had a great summer. There is a lot to be excited about, but now it’s time to prove that all of the great process work we’ve been doing can turn into our desired outcomes – wins and playoff eligibility.
