Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Second-year Waite football head coach Russ Jennings hopes to keep building on a solid foundation that was started last year.
“We were starting six freshmen that were playing ironman football,” he said. “There were a lot of growing pains that we went through. We got better for it. We had a quarterback last year that had never played quarterback. We have a seasoned quarterback this year.
“We just got better as the season went on. There were a lot of mistakes. We turned the ball over a lot. We made a lot of unforced errors, but we're definitely going to be a better football team this year. We’re definitely a more disciplined football team.”
Jennings attributes a lot of that to the youthful nature of his team last year, which also featured a small roster as he looked to build culture.
“We started seven sophomores last year,” he said. “It's tough to do that. It's tough to be a competitive varsity program playing underclassmen on Friday night. We were very immature physically and mentally. We made a lot of mental mistakes, but I think that comes with the immaturity of age. Freshmen and sophomores generally don't play varsity football. You have to be a pretty special individual to play on Friday night as a freshman or a sophomore. But with us being Waite High School, our numbers weren't great last year. Those kids had to kind of get thrown to the wolves.”
Junior Carl Foard, who filled in at quarterback last year, should now switch back to his more natural position at running back, and he’ll also see a lot of time at outside linebacker. Sophomore Myell Carter will be back as a linebacker. Senior Damien Harrington, who was No. 1 on one of Sportscenter’s Top 10 segments as a sophomore, is also back. He will be joined in the senior class by lineman Derrion Young. Sophomore wide receiver Antwaun Williams also returns.
“Carl got thrown in at quarterback last year having never played a down on varsity,” Jennings said. “He’s going to have a really good year at running back. Myell is bigger, stronger and more seasoned than he was last year. Antwaun is going to be really good. He’s going to be special.”
Other key guys for the Indians will be senior quarterback Shane Curns and sophomore wide receivers Malikiah Hopkins and Kaden Smith.
“Shane is a great game manager,” Jennings said. “He’s not the biggest kid and doesn't have the strongest arm, but he manages the game well, and he's in the right spot mentally right now, which is really good for the football team.”
Overall, the team only lost three seniors, and they’ll be young again with three seniors this year, including two starters.
“There's a lot of talent there,” Jennings said. “We're just in the process of developing it. And we're super young. Honestly, we could have a good season this year if we can stay healthy. Our numbers still aren't where we would like them to be. We're sitting at about 44 kids, which is not that many.”
Waite should be pretty strong at the linebacker and wide receiver positions.
“Carter and Foard will anchor stuff down at linebacker,” Jennings said. “The Carter kid is going to be a good one if we can keep him for four years, and the same goes for Williams at wide receiver. Both are super young and great kids. Both are over a 3.75 GPA. They do the right things.”
Overall, Jennings is impressed with the level of discipline his team has shown so far.
“We're doing all the right things,” he said. “We have the potential to have a really good season this year. I'm not going to throw numbers out there of wins and losses, but I really believe that we're a potential state playoff team right now this year with this young group. Staying healthy is going to have a lot to do with it because our numbers are not great.”
Waite opens with St. Francis and concludes the season with Leipsic. The Indians also play Maumee in non-conference play, which also includes a meeting with Rossford.
“Our schedule is tough,” Jennings said. “Hopefully the program keeps heading in the right direction and we can get to that 60-player mark, which is kind of ideal and where we want to be so we can have a full JV team and a full varsity team. We're in the process of trying to do that now and fit our younger kids into that JV program. We’re in a good spot, though. We're going to be a fun team to watch.”
