Bethel College Football

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Defense

The 2009 Bethel College Defense is going to have to step up together and play for each other to accomplish their team goals. The key for this years defensive unit will be the defensive line and secondary players with the most starting and playing experience.

The 2009 unit will return 11 players with starting experience and another 5 with key playing time. Those 16 players will guide the Thresher Defense to the highest level of play, and will be looked upon to become dominating leaders for the defensive unit.

The ’09 season will give each player plenty of opportunity to prove themselves and to step into roles they have not had. On the defensive line, James McCartney and Joel Maple are expected to lead and set the tone defensively. Other players that need to step up are going to be Zach Downs, Caleb Stephens, Jesse Mueller and David Mueller to solidify the defensive line. At the linebacker level Alex Roepke, Andrew Wiederholt and Dana Daugharthy will be looked at to help lead and guide some fresh faces in Chris Bloss and Jayson Kaufman. The secondary returns a unit of guys who started numerous games last season. Key returners are going to be FS Reed Hammond and SS’s David Daugharthy and Parker Bugosh. Corners are Darin Derstien, Andy Schmidt and Ben Mosier. These six will have to create opportunities and guide the younger players to step up. Other key secondary players are FS Kellen Goertzen, SS Grady Stultz and Corners Jacob Stucky and Dillon Scheer.

Top newcomers are going to be freshmen Jayson Kaufman, Jacob Stucky and Dillon Scheer and transfer players Max Montoya and Peter Milaskaus. The 2009 Bethel College Thresher Defense is very excited and eager to take every snap to get better every day and become a dominating defense.

Offense

After a disappointing 2008 campaign, the 2009 Bethel offense is looking to improve and return to the form that allowed them to be top in the conference in several categories during the 2006 and 2007 seasons. Coach Moore and the 6 returning starters are looking forward to the challenge the 2009 seasons brings.

The biggest question mark for the offense will be at the quarterback position. With the graduation of 4-year starter and 3-time all conference performer Brett Clow, Bethel will need to find a replacement quickly during fall camp. The leading contenders will be Garret Hiebert, a junior from Goessel, along with several newcomers and two transfers to the Bethel program. “We have a chance to be a very good offense, but we need to find quality replacements within the offensive line and a playmaker at the quarterback spot,” Coach Mike Moore says.

The Threshers will need to play some first year players in the program at both the offensive line position and possibly the quarterback position if they have a chance of returning to the top of the conference. Those two positions were areas of strength in this year’s recruiting class, and several of those young men should be able to step in and play right away. The main concern from last year’s offense was the inability to run the ball consistently. “We have worked on our running game throughout the spring and expect it to return to the level it was from 2004 -2007 when we had a thousand yard rusher each of those seasons.” says Coach Moore.

If the Threshers can find adequate replacements on the offensive line and at the quarterback position, the offense should be back at the top of the conference in rushing yards per game as well as scoring per game.

Specialist

With the loss of kicker Braeden Dragomir and punt returner Mervin Brookins, the kicking and returner duties will see new faces this year as several new kickers will vie for the starting spot as well as several new faces in the return game will compete for the starting role. The punting duties will be handled by 1st team all conference punter Lee Voth-Gaeddert.