TVC Central
School: Swan Valley
Nickname: Vikings
Coach: Ken Bourbina
2012 record: 10-3
Players lost: Travis Bell, Tyler Branch, Brad Boehler, Mike Sielinski
Players returning: Alex Grace, Alex Dils, Taylor Reaume, Ben Finzel, Brock Notter, Nick Call
Coach’s comment: “The guys have worked pretty hard. It’s getting the new pieces of the puzzle in and getting them up to speed. We have skill players coming back and a good core of kids. [Running back] Alex Grace is bigger and faster. We are anxious to see how he does. We are coming back with experience from that long playoff run, and the guys know how hard it was to get there. We have strong leadership back.”
School: Freeland
Nickname: Falcons
Coach: Kevin Townsend
2012 record: 6-4
Players lost: Chris Graebner, Mitchell Noack, Shane Flattery, Matt Schauman, P.J. Luebbert, Mitchell Whitting, Aaron Townley, Alex Green, Eric Sheffield
Players returning: Kyle Guster, Josh Schlak, Ryan Richter, Charlie Ferens, Drew Mojica, Spencer Trimble, Zach Reimus, Keegan Reimus, Noah Steburger, Will Schwartz, Dustin Leslie
Coach’s comment: “We are young, real young, with 22 juniors. We have seniors that played a lot last year and are ready to go. Our quarterback is a junior, our running back is a junior, and we have three juniors on the offensive line. Our incoming juniors went undefeated last year. They averaged 58 points and gave up an average of six. They know how to win. But they are young, and we have to get them to handle adversity when we run into some.”
School: Hemlock
Nickname: Huskies
Coach: Bruce Bendix
2012 record: 9-2
Players lost: Chase Wiechmann, Aaron Mathias, Reese Engel, Ryan Hagarty, Dylan Honsinger, Mitch Menard, Matt Jesse
Players returning: John Kaufmann, Logan Mulvaney, Ethan Apsey, Austin York, Alberto Flores, Ben Lange, Tony Speckhard
Coach’s comment: “We won nine games with a pretty successful senior class. We don’t have a lot of starters back, but the kids got experience from injuries and when games got out of hand. We had a good summer. We are not lost on talent. We have a little size and speed, and we’ve learned to win over the past couple years despite being the smallest school in the conference. Depth is an issue. We need to stay healthy, and if we do, I think we can be competitive.”
School: Shepherd
Nickname: Bluejays
Coach: Nathan Ferency
2012 record: 1-8
Players lost: David Hiner, Nate Casper
Players returning: Brandon Stressman, Justin Shufelt, Nick Sponseller, Tim Kirby, Skylar Neyome
Coach’s comment: “We are a really young team, but the kids are working hard. They know the expectations, and that 1-8 is not acceptable. They are working toward that and we will meet that. We are going to get this program turned back around. We are a run team. We want to establish the run and open up the pass.”
School: Bullock Creek
Nickname: Lancers
Coach: Jon Danna
2012 record: 5-4
Players lost: Zack Reed, Tyler Miller, Jason Kreucher
Players returning: Parrish TerBurgh, Tim Sensabaugh, Jacob Kissane, Kenan Degley, Christian Terwillegar, Z Michael Westley, Nate Bartosek, Caleb Somerville, Jaylin Henderson
Coach’s comment: “We need to go as hard as we can every single play. We have 20 kids and five are seniors, so we’re young. Running the football and stopping the run are our strengths.”
School: Chesaning
Nickname: Indians
Coach: Jason Gray
2012 record: 3-6
Players lost: Derek Bocek, David Yeager, Alex Devota
Players returning: Alex Forsyth, J.T. Gross, Colton Vrable, Justin Sloan
Coach’s comment: “Chesaning is a pretty proud program, winning state titles in 1998 and 2001. They were very competitive, and we are looking to get back to that. But I tell the kids that we have to crawl before we can walk. We need to learn how to block and learn how to tackle. We’ve got 30 juniors and seniors on varsity, and that’s good participation. That’s almost twice as many as last year. That’s a positive, and we are excited to get going.”
School: Alma
Nickname: Panthers
Coach: Jeff Ingersoll
2012 record: 5-4
Players lost: Brett Green, Mitch Mott, Vinny Costanzo, Tyler Brecht, Aaron Gilbert
Players returning: Curtis Doyle, Austin Coleman, Matt Young, Clayton Carr, Bryce Patton, Shae Nelson
Coach’s comment: “This is a great group of guys. The whole off-season they’ve worked hard in the weight room, on agility drills, and in seven-on-sevens. I think we will surprise a lot of people. We’ve lost some key guys, and a lot people think we’ll be down and out, but I think we will be a surprise.”
School: Ovid-Elsie
Nickname: Marauders
Coach: Travis Long
2012 record: 3-6
Players lost: B.J. Meisel, Jacob Helms, Jacob Price, Jacob Micka
Players returning: Skyler Cramer, Eric Smith, Luke Alexander, Chris Luckhurst, Zach Swartz, Travis Delaney, Austin Loynes
Coach’s comment: “We need to get more physical. I think if we do that and we come together as a team – we are pretty young – but if we work together, my expectations are to make the playoffs. The conference top to bottom will be a difficult schedule.”