The Windham Bombers’ football team is looking forward to a fresh start as they prepare to play in a new conference. The Bombers will begin play in the Northern 8 Conference this season, which features eight-on-eight football.
“The kids are excited.,” said Coach Jake Eye. “Coaches are excited. It is something new, we are looking forward to a new experience and starting hopefully what could possibly become a tradition here at Windham.”
The Bombers’ first game of the season will take place in week two when they host non-conference foe Millersport in an 11-on-11 contest on Aug. 28 at Ed Liddle Field in Windham.
As The Villager previously reported, Windham agreed to a two-year pact to move the football program into the Northern 8 Conference, a conference consisting of eight schools playing eight-on-eight football.
Due to a last-minute change in the schedule, Windham’s season conference debut will be delayed and will face Millersport in an 11-on-11 duel to start the season but will return to eight-on-eight for the remainder of the year.
The Bombers will enter their first season in the Northern 8 Conference with a roster dominated by a big junior class, with only one senior on the roster, tailback/cornerback DeJuan Ramsey.
“He is going to be a two-way player and a two-way starter for us, and I think this game suits him with his athleticism and his speed,” added the sixth-year coach. “He is not a very big kid,but he is tough and he is just a freak of nature when it comes to athleticism, so I think that he is going to have a fantastic year.”
Ramsey will operate as the hub of the Windham offense, splitting time between tailback and wide receiver. Junior Keegan Kiser will be another option in the passing game in his first year with the varsity program.
Junior Bryan Smithberger will return as the starting quarterback for the second straight season, and Eye said that the team plans to see the 5-foot-10 junior demonstrate his arm strength by unlocking a more pass-oriented offense.
“He is a year bigger, a year stronger, a year smarter,” noted Eye. “We like how he is throwing the ball right now and is probably going to throw more this year than we did in the previous years.”
Eye added that featuring more passing plays will help the Bombers keep pace in a faster league, as the Northern 8 Conference teams play with high energy and explosive offenses.
“I feel that the counter game is taken away, so you have fewer linemen. There is not as much pulling and not as much trapping,” he said. “I think the field is more spread, and I think the game is faster and, obviously, a spread look. We have come up with some different ideas and some schemes that we think will work, but again, until we get into our season, we are not going to know what the best fit for us is.”
In addition to Smithberger, Windham’s backfield will consist of Ramsey, junior running back/linebacker Alex Eye, junior tailback/cornerback Cam Batterby, sophomore running back/defensive end Aiden McGahee, and sophomore tailback/cornerback Isiaah Mitchell.
As Windham adapts to playing eight-on-eight, the offensive line will be anchored by only three players, sophomore Zach Schults will play center, with sophomore Dakota Jeffries and junior Devin Sherman anchoring the opposite ends of the offensive line.
On the defensive side, the Bombers’ defensive strength will rest in their linebacking corps, as Eye, Smithberger and McGahee will be heavily involved in the defensive action.
“I think we will try to go with more quickness up front and try to shoot gaps, but we will see. Our mission, defensively, is to attack with eight men to the football and be aggressive,” he said.
Ramsey and Batterby will operate as the cornerbacks in the secondary, but Eye said junior Keegan Kiser will play a big role in the secondary as well.
Eye said that although the Bombers are the newcomers to the Northern 8 Conference, they still have something to prove and is confident that the team can seize this new opportunity.
“We are not playing teams that are four times bigger than we are from an enrollment standpoint. This league was formed because all of these schools are similar in enrollment and size, so I think it is going to be competitive,” he said.
