After last year’s undefeated season in the Central Eight East, lots of teams will have Glenwood circled on their schedule.
However, this is a very different roster than the one from last season that mostly featured seniors like Grady Mueller, Tate McCue, and Colton Knoedler, just to name a few.
The biggest changes come on the sideline with former New Berlin head coach James Dambacher replacing David Hay, who retired after 10 years with the program.
Dambacher’s resume is impressive. He broke a 10-year playoff drought for the Pretzels in 2024, before resigning.
Before and after that stint with New Berlin, Dambacher worked as a defensive coach at Auburn, where he graduated from in 2010.
Hay and Dambacher have discussed managing this many players a few times over the summer. James noted that it’s one of the biggest changes when coming to a 6A school because New Berlin and Auburn are in 1A.
Even with the transition, Dambacher wants to meet the expectations that people would have had in the past with Glenwood, and not the ones they have now.
“There’s a lot of talent that is very deserving of playing on that varsity field this year,” Dambacher said. “They need to have confidence in themselves and confidence in this team in general.”
“We hold a lot of high standards for our guys,” offensive lineman Eli Greene said. “We make sure no one is slacking off. If someone is slacking off, we get on it quickly.”
The Titans have a camp battle between Michael Young and Harken Clutts for the starting quarterback position, but Dambacher noted that things can change even in the season, too.
“I think the whole year we might have one game starting and another week the other outperforms him at practice and is starting the next game,” said the head coach.
Those quarterbacks will be able to play under center because of the run-heavy offense that will be deployed behind them.
Alfonzo Burrow, Shawn Walker Knight, and others will lead the charge on the ground game.
Hugo Lopp, Isaiah Massey, and Brayden Owen should command a good amount of targets in the passing game. There were plenty of other slot receivers who were working in on offense.
Look for Jackson Wix, who got some time with the varsity team as a freshman, to be a standout player on defense.
The Titans have a few non-conference opponents before getting into Central State Eight East play in the middle of the season. The schedule rounds out with Sacred Heart Griffin in week nine, who’s expected to be a major contender once again this season.