BUTLER – Control what you can control and work to get better every day.
That was the motto for the Eastside football team entering its second year under Alyx Brandewie. The Blazers finished 7-4 in his first season.
“It was nice to have a normal summer compared to last year when I was adjusting. It was all completely new – everything new for me, everything new for the kids,” Brandewie said at the football team’s media day in northeast Indiana in July.
“It was fantastic to have that stability and consistency from the first to the second year,” he said.
It didn’t take long for Eastside’s players to get back into the game after losing 14-10 to eventual Class 2A state champion Bishop Luers in the second round.
“The week after our loss a year ago, our kids started training in the weight room right away. We’re committed to getting better each day. We’re not worried about things we can’t control right now,” Brandewie said.
“Right now we can check daily how we look in training and start preparing for the season knowing that we have nine, ten, eleven opportunities to compete against good competition and see where we end up at the end of the year.”
The Blazers must rebuild their lines after the graduation of two-way linemen Joey Eck and Dane Sebert, linebacker Gage Spalding and others.
After placing second in the shot put and third in the discus at the national track and field championships, Sebert is now at Indiana University.
Spalding was the team’s top tackler with 68 total tackles.
“From a defensive line perspective, there’s probably going to be a pretty good rotation of players because I feel like we’re strong,” Brandewie said. “I think there’s eight or nine guys that can play on the defensive line and give us really good opportunities and good snaps, so I don’t know if it’s a one-person answer or a one-person solution on the defensive line. I think it’s more of a committee thing.”
On the other side of the ball, Linkin Carter ran for 1,439 yards and 19 touchdowns as a sophomore.
Over the summer, the Blazers made some changes to their offense, adding some new tweaks to both the running and passing game to create more explosiveness.
“A lot of it starts with the running game, but he can’t be the only part of it,” Brandewie said. “It has to be more explosive than just Linkin.”
New quarterback Job Richman and senior Toby Biddle will play in the backfield. Senior EJ Miller (14 catches, 195 yards), junior Nolan Baker (seven catches, 106 yards), Carter (seven catches, 95 yards), junior Jake Warstler (seven catches, 93 yards) and junior Dylan Tincher will be the primary pass receivers.
On offense, the Blazers coach said several players, including juniors Gabe Guerra and Corbin Gardner, who played mostly on the junior team but also played on the first team, will be called upon to open up gaps for the running game and protect the quarterback.
Defensive line coach and teacher Jim Hummer has retired, but former head coach Todd Mason is back with the team. Brandewie explained that he will lead the defense while Mason will handle the offense. Coaches Austen Brow, Matt Dazey, Conner Dove, Corey Fogle and Tony Smith all return.
“We’re so excited to get started,” the Blazers coach said. “As much fun as summer practice and summer practice games and all that stuff are, we’re really looking forward to getting into the routine structure of going to school and practicing … because we feel the best when we can just go to work day in and day out and then show up on Friday night and compete like crazy.”
The Blazers opened the 2024 season at home against Woodlan on Friday night.
