Much to Lewiston\u2019s pleasure, senior Fletcher Wadsworth is a born and bred Bengal.<\/p>\n
\u201cLewiston football is everything to me,\u201d Wadsworth said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing to be a part of this program.\u201d<\/p>\n
A varsity starter since his sophomore year, Wadsworth attended Sacajawea Middle School and played opposite fellow Lewiston seniors Mason Way and Gage Steiner.<\/p>\n
Both Jennifer Middle School kids were elated when their days of getting chased down by Wadsworth, who experienced a 6-inch growth spurt in seventh grade, were over. <\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we saw Fletcher, it was like, \u2018Thank God, this kid\u2019s finally on my team,\u2019\u201d Steiner said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t very fun playing against him.\u201d <\/p>\n
Wadsworth\u2019s leadership is example-based. Way said that the senior\u2019s two years as a varsity starter and uplifting personality have earned him the respect of his peers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy,\u201d Way said. \u201cAlways picking people up, just never, never sad, never doubting. If the game\u2019s not going right, he\u2019s just gonna keep going.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hobart\u2019s Year 1 is Wadsworth\u2019s fourth and final year of high school. The senior has his sights set on winning the league title and a playoff run.<\/p>\n
Wadsworth has put the time in to be great and has already played an essential role in defining the new age of Bengal football.<\/p>\n
\u2018Small-town mentality\u2019<\/p>\n
As a former seven-year assistant to Hobart at Kendrick, Deary coach Tim Olson said he often gets asked how the Lewiston native has grown as a coach.<\/p>\n
Olson said that Hobart was often short with kids, which would sometimes drive players away from the program.<\/p>\n
However, he soon honed his ability to tone back the broad discipline and coach kids different ways depending on their personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019ll say he\u2019s just getting soft in his old age,\u201d Olson said. \u201c(Knowing) how to get the best out of everyone on his team, I think, is a strength of his.\u201d<\/p>\n
Olson said that it may take Hobart some time to develop his program at the 5A level; however, the quality of coaching staff that he has assembled bodes well for the Bengals\u2019 future.<\/p>\n
\u201c(Hobart is) a program builder. He knows what he\u2019s doing,\u201d Olson said. \u201cYou can tell he\u2019s setting that program up for success in the long run, you got some great minds in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Great minds who are rooted in Lewiston.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s huge for Lewiston. I feel like it almost turns into that small-town mentality of like, camaraderie and family,\u201d Olson said. \u201cYou\u2019re getting one of your own back.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s exactly how Wadsworth and the Lewiston football team feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love him,\u201d Wadsworth said of Hobart. \u201cI\u2019ve heard great things about him, but now that he\u2019s coached me, I love him even more. You know, he\u2019s part of our family now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taylor can be reached at 208-848-2268, staylor@lmtribune.com, or on X or Instagram @Sam_C_Taylor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much to Lewiston\u2019s pleasure, senior Fletcher Wadsworth is a born and bred Bengal. \u201cLewiston football is everything to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":323771,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2053],"tags":[50515,228,227,256,2296,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-323770","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cincinnati-bengals","8":"tag-2025-prep-football-previews","9":"tag-bengals","10":"tag-cincinnati","11":"tag-cincinnati-bengals","12":"tag-cincinnatibengals","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115105239733458788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/323771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}