By Joanna Chadwick
With fall sports starting practice on Monday, Andover Central football coach Derek Tuttle gave his team a three-day weekend. They did their speed and agility training through Thursday, but now there’s a chance to catch that last break before the long season.
“It’s the last weekend off for the coaches,” Tuttle said. “They can have the weekend with their families. We have practice plans figured out. The players, they can do whatever they want, go to the lake one more time and then we’ll get back at it.”
For Tuttle, he planned to go to the Wind Surge game with his daughter and is going to a former player’s wedding on Saturday.
And then comes Monday. Finally, it will be time for practice with all players. Finally, the season will have started with games just two weeks away.
“The kids had great energy (Thursday) in their speed and agility work,” Tuttle said. “They’re getting amped up. It will be cool to get back on the field.”
Andover Central finished 2023 9-4, falling to St. Thomas Aquinas in the Class 4A title game in November.
Nine offensive starters who scored 44 of their 47 touchdowns in 2023 return, including quarterback Jace Jefferson, receivers Jace Adler and Brandt Stupka, running back Maddox Archibald, and linemen Logan Lira, Grant Fuksa, Paxton McCLeod and Dawson Rodd.
There are seven defensive returners, including Gaige Hurley, Rodd and Carson Green on the line, Logan Taggart and Landon Preston at linebacker and Adler, Brody DeGarmo and Eli Keiter in the secondary.
“We were a pretty young team last year, relatively speaking, starting a couple sophomores,” Tuttle said. “It was a nice position to be in, but we don’t take anything for granted.
“The ones returning, I’ve been pleased with their work ethic and their focus and trying to improve and get in the weight room and on the field,.
“And then the big challenge will be — we lost a smaller senior class, but there were good players, good kids in there — so the big question is what will the juniors and sophomores do to help us? Who will be the new kids on the block to shine on Friday nights?”
One of the points of emphasis is working with a defense that will face a variety of offenses.
There’s Hutchinson, which runs the flex bone option, while Eisenhower and Salina Central are spread teams, and Goddard is more “ground and pound,” Tuttle said.
“That’s a big challenge,” he said. “In the old days, (we ran) a 4-3, quarters coverage defense… But in the last 5-6 years, the teams have branched out in different directions. A lot of teams are going to a multiple front defense — we’ll run an odd front, an even front.
“… If you change it up just that week of the season, it’s almost too much of a change for your kids. You have to have the flexibility in your defense, being able to change and planning to change on the go.”
