League overview: The East Central League has a new look as three teams have been added to an already talented crop. Bethune, Flagler and Genoa-Hugo join a league that sent four teams to the 6-Man playoffs last year. It will be a bit of an adjustment as teams will see just three non-league opponents on their schedule in 2020. Stratton will enter the season as the defending league champion and hopes to play its way to the state championship game once again. The Eagles fell to Cheyenne Wells in last year’s title game.
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Arickaree/Woodlin
Head coach: Paul Griese
2021 Record: 5-5 (2-2 East Central League)
Returning All-State Players: Logan Wright (Honorable Mention) QB/LB
Arickaree/Woodlin gets a lot of returning talent from last year’s team that snuck into the 6-Man playoffs. That should give the team some higher expectations than the 5-5 finish that they saw a year ago. Logan Wright returns as the senior leader of the team. He rushed for 1,259 yards and 21 touchdowns while throwing for 494 yards and five scores. He’s going to get some supplemental help in fellow senior Jacob Jefferson (119 rushing yards, two touchdowns) and sophomore Jake King (140 rushing yards, two touchdowns). Wright totaled 84 tackles last year, best among all returning players with Hayden Page helping out with 71. Although Arickaree/Woodlin didn’t throw the ball too much, its pass defense measured up well as Bryce Shaffer led the team with four interceptions. The team totaled eight. Arickaree/Woodlin played in back-to-back 6-Man championship games in 2014 and 2015 and won the 2014 crown.
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Flagler
Head coach: Doyle Loutzenhiser
2021 Record: 1-4
Returning All-State Players: None
Flagler started the 2021 campaign with a thrilling 41-37 win over Cripple Creek-Victor before dropping four straight and calling it a season. The last full season that the Panthers had was back in 2017 when they went 2-5. The program was put on pause for two years and then restarted in 2020, the infamous COVID season. While success has not been easy to come by for the Panthers, Flagler looks to hold its head high as the efforts to rebuild the program will continue in 2022.
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Genoa-Hugo
Head coach: Kenny Book
2021 Record: 6-3 (2-0 Central League)
Returning All-State Players: None
The Pirates scored at least 50 points in four of their first five games of the 2021. They started the season 5-0 which was crucial in their bid to make the 6-Man playoffs. Seniors Wyatt Miller and Colby Simmons were a big reason for that success as Miller led with 746 rushing yards and Simmons scored a team-high 12 rushing touchdowns. Both players earned CHSAANow.com All-State honors (Simmons was second team and Miller was honorable mention) and their departures will be felt by the Pirates. Luckily, Trey Smith returns for his junior season after leading the Pirates with 1,285 passing yards. He also threw for 20 touchdowns so there will still be plenty of rounds to fire out of that canon. Jack Kissel will be back for his senior year and should anchor the defensive side of the ball. His 60 tackles last year were third on the team behind Simmons and Miller.
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Hi-Plains
Head coach: Avery Marzolf
2021 Record: 4-5 (1-2 East Central League)
Returning All-State Players: None
The Patriots lost three of their first four games of the 2021 season before settling in and winning three in a row to reach the 6-Man playoffs. Overall in the regular season, they went 0-4 against teams that made the state tournament and that includes a loss to Cheyenne Wells, the eventual state champion. Hi-Plains graduated its leading rusher, Cody Banks, who totaled 1,121 yards and 19 touchdowns. Taking on the brunt of the rushing load this season will be Logan Cordell. His 442 yards and six touchdowns were second on the team. Bex Seaman got a little experience as a passer, completing 13 of 20 passes for 274 yards. As a junior, he’s likely to make the majority of the throws down the field. Defensively, Cordell and Seaman each recorded 67 tackles and combined to recover three fumbles. The team should have a different look as Avery Marzolf was introduced as the new head coach over the summer.
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Idalia
Head coach: Toby Kechter
2021 Record: 9-3 (3-1 Central League)
Returning All-State Players: Logan Breyer (Second Team)
After reaching the 6-Man semifinals last year, the Wolves are priming themselves for another deep playoff run. They lost a key member of that team in Yahir Enriquez who led the team in rushing yards (1,621) and was tied for second in all of 6-Man with 33 rushing touchdowns. Idalia has a solid returning senior class with Kye Towns ready to take on the bulk of the offensive production. He rushed for 707 yards and 13 touchdowns last year and should fill the void left by Enriquez’s graduation. The Wolves also have a hardened leader on defense coming back in second-team all-state linebacker Logan Breyer. He was second on the team with 97 tackles, recorded a team-high five sacks and recovered two fumbles. Seven of the nine regular season games for Idalia will be against teams that made the 6-Man bracket in 2021.
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Otis
Head coach: Garrett Pickett
2021 Record: 4-6 (0-4 East Central League)
Returning All-State Players: None
There’s nothing to suggest that Otis was a bad team in 2021 by any means. But the reality is it wasn’t one of the top 16 6-Man teams in the state. The Bulldogs’ six losses last season all came against team that made their way into the postseason. In their four wins, the Bulldogs looked like a good football team. They won those contests by an average of almost 52 points per game. It wouldn’t be tough to argue that Otis was the 17th best team in all of 6-Man last season. What helps this year is that the Bulldogs were very young last season. Taye Smith returns for his sophomore year after rushing for 1,080 yards and 22 touchdowns. When they need to take to the air, Carter Wells proved himself more than capable as he completed 51 percent of his passes for 409 yards and six touchdowns. The Bulldogs lost just two seniors from last year’s roster which makes them a team worth paying attention to this year.
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Stratton
Head coach: Jesse McConnell
2021 Record: 11-2 (4-0 East Central League)
Returning All-State Players: Alex Cruz (First Team), Charlie Tagtmeyer and Cyler Notter (honorable mention)
For the fifth year in a row, Stratton reached the 6-Man championship game. In that stretch, the Eagles (who played as co-op Stratton/Liberty from 2017-2021) came away with only one state title. That win came in 2017. The benefit of consistently making deep playoff runs is that the team knows what it takes to get to the final weekend of the season, the downfall is that they don’t have as many championship rings as they’d like given the number of state title appearances. Second-year head coach Jesse McConnell returns along with a talent crop of players. Alex Cruz will take over the primary rushing duties after going for 516 yards and 12 touchdowns a year ago. Despite the loss of Charlie Clapper, the Eagles return well over 1,000 yards of rushing production which will be crucial to the team’s continued success in 2022. Cyler Notter will also provide a huge defensive boost as he recorded 59 tackles, 11 sacks and four recovered fumbles last year. He also picked off two passes. The start of the season gives the Eagles a big test as they take on Cheyenne Wells in a rematch of the 2021 6-Man state title game.
