By Bryan Bloodworth
After serving as defensive coordinator the past five years, Trevor Von Bruenchenhein takes over head football coaching duties at University High School and he can’t wait for Friday’s season opener at Washington.
“I’m excited and happy to have the opportunity to represent the football program,” Von Bruenchenhein said. “I think we’ll have a really successful year.”
The Pioneers are shooting for their sixth straight trip to the playoffs, so Von Bruenchenhein isn’t changing much.
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“Nothing changes from schematic standpoint,” he said. “It’s going to look like the same U High football team that it has in the past. One thing that’s going to be a little different is the tempo of the offense. We brought in a new coordinator from Normal West (Mike Jennings) and he’s going to pick up the tempo a bit.”
Junior Doug Holmes returns at quarterback and will have a multitude of talented receivers to throw at in senior Emanuel Bada along with juniors Trey Heffner, Ty Ziebarth and Mark Widdeel.
“On the perimeter, we have some of the best athletes we’ve ever had,” Von Bruenchenhein continued. “If we can get the ball to those guys, I think we’ll be in a great position to win some football games. I won’t say we’ll be a passing team, though. We’ll take whatever the defense presents, but I will say our athletes are on the perimeter and we want to get them the ball.”
The running game will be handled primarily by senior Garrett Murray, who played wide receiver last year before missing the last half with an injury, and junior Jeremiah Carter. “They will be splitting reps. Both have great speed and very powerful, physical running backs,” added Von Bruenchenhein.
The offensive line is led by three-year returning starter Packard Otto at tackle. He’ll be joined by fellow starters Preston Engel at center and John Merna at tackle. Both are juniors. The guards look to be senior Nate Ummel and sophomore Branden Woods.
Von Bruenchenhein must replace two all-Corn Belt Conference players at defensive end in Austin Galindo and Logan Wolf, who are playing collegiately at Illinois State and Iowa State, respectively. Senior Lake Williams will be joined on this year’s line by Widdel, Ummel and Engel.
The linebacking corps will be led by returning starter Cole Tandy, a junior, who will be flanked by fellow junior Andy Mersch and and Woods. The secondary returns experienced safeties Bada and Heffner with junior Trey Heffner and Nate Sakowicz at the corners.
“One thing we’re going to try in the secondary is pressing our corners,” said Von Bruenchenhein. “The mentality that we’re trying to bring to the defense is we’re going to be fast, aggressive and we’re going to be physical. We always kind of preached that in the past, but we’ve always played eight to 10 yards off the ball. This year we’re going to bring them up to the line of scrimmage and see if guys can get off them.”
The Pioneers are moving to the Central State Eight Conference next year, so the goal is simple this year.
“With this our last year in the conference, we want to win the conference,” Von Bruenchenhein said.
“We want to leave on a high note. We don’t want to present any opportunity for people to ask if it was the right thing to go to the Central State Eight.
“If we can win conference, I think it would be a pretty convincing statement that it was the right move and we’re ready for the next step with this football program.”
Bryan Bloodworth can be reached at [email protected]
