DANE FUELLING
WZBD.com
The South Adams Starfires will go to battle in 2024 with a new look on offense and an accomplished, hungry defense ready to compete in the ACAC and fight for an IHSAA trophy.
As with any 1A school, South Adams has graduated a talented class of players this summer, including QB Owen Wanner, who threw for over 1100 yards last season, and Colt Bollenbacher, who was just a few carries of a 1000-yard season in 2023.
The strength in this year’s team will be the nearly intact offensive line from 2023, along with a defense that is hungry to get on the field and hit somebody.
The unknown will be just how good new quarterback Tytus Lehman can be, especially as the team struggles to replace running back Wes Summersett, who will miss the first two months due to a broken leg.
Lehman’s athletic abilities are well documented with his success on the basketball court and at the track, but he has big shoes to fill for the Starfires, who have had a high-powered passing games for what seems like a generation now.
The junior has turned to a Starfire who knows plenty about throwing the ball, SA grad James Arnold, for help this summer.
“He’s been working with James this summer,” noted head coach Grant Moser, “and he’s been teaching him a lot on what needs done.”
The challenge for the Starfires this season will be to turn around a decline in victories for the program in each of the past three years. Of course, there was little place to go but down after the team reached the State Finals and won 13 contests in 2020, but the win totals have dropped to 10 to 8 and to 6 over the past three years.
Moser hopes that a strong offensive line will provide the protection Lehman needs to grow as the season goes on.
Three-year starters Luke Bauman, Noah Hunley and Grant O’Dell all return to that O-Line, as does center Nathan Plattner.
While Owen Wanner is gone, his brother, Jax, will be a target for Lehman down the sidelines.
The team does expect to get a boost later in the fall, when Wes Summersett returns from a broken fibia suffered in June.
“We are hoping to get him back around week 5 or 6,” notes Moser.
Summersett got just 12 varsity carries last season, but his physical abilities are no secret to anyone in Berne. He will boost the team right around the time the Starfires play Adams Central.
Speaking of the Jets, how could one write a season preview for the Starfires without mentioning the team’s biggest rival?
The matchup between the two ACAC rivals on September 27th this season will have a different feel. In recent years, there has been an inevitable feeling in each of the regular season meetings that the two schools would ultimately meet again in the postseason to settle the score.
Such a rematch will not happen this year, or next, as the Jets find themselves in 2A football now, far from the path of coach Moser’s team.
“We are always building toward that 1A sectional,” notes the coach.
The run from 2019 to 2021 of back-to-back-to-back sectional titles has now been met with sectional losses in the last two seasons. The Starfires will compete in a new-look sectional in 2024.
The field for 1A Sectional 44 will be full of mostly unfamiliar names: Cambridge City Lincoln, Hagerstown, Madison-Grant, Monroe Central, Tri, Union City and Wes-Del.
“We know, as a 1A team,” says coach Moser, “that we will have to be ready for teams who run the football, especially in our sectional.”
The coach notes the hard work put in this summer by his staff, declaring that his defense, led by 10-year veteran defensive coordinator Scott Steiner, may be ahead of his offense at the current moment.
The Starfires have also made a big addition to the coaching staff, taking advantage of Jeff Sprunger’s hire at the school and adding him into the equation.
Sprunger has coached at Whitko and Southern Wells, serving as the Raiders’ head coach last year.
If the Starfires can grow as a defensive unit and stop the run, they should be able to be a formidable foe by the time the all-important Week 10 rolls around. They hope they have the skill players for a deep tournament run.
Along with the aforementioned Wanner, the Stars will also feature returnees Derek McKean and Caiden Neuenschwander, along with the speedy Manny Juarez as passing targets. Summersett will also be a target for Lehman out of the backfield when he returns. He was second on the team last year in all-purpose yards and the team’s leading receiver.
The Starfires will open the season with a game against Tipton at Indiana Wesleyan. The Blue Devils were just 2-9 last year, including a 20-3 loss to the Stars in the opener.
WZBD’s broadcast coverage of the Starfires will begin in Week 2 when they travel to Decatur to take on Bellmont.
The Stars’ first ACAC road game will be the featured game of the week in Week 4 against Heritage on 92.7 FM.
South Adams will also play important conference games on the WZBD radio dial against Adams Central and Woodlan in the regular season.
Follow WZBD.com all season long for stories, updates, photos and interviews of the gridiron Starfires.
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