The 2022 Peebles Indians Varsity Football Team. (Photo by Mark Carpenter)
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
In the early years of the Southern Ohio Independent League, the championship trophies resided with either West Union or Southern Buckeye. That has changed. For the past two seasons, the SOIL championship has belonged to Coach Mike McDonald and his talented group of Peebles Indians who have done an outstanding job of building a dominant varsity program from scratch.
The 2022 version of the gridiron Indians goes into the season looking for an impressive three-peat and certainly have the tools to do so, bringing back an experienced squad led by eight seniors who know what it feels like to be champions. And thus far this fall they have played like champions, rolling to victories in their first two outings, 58-0 over North Adams and 32-12 over Southern Buckeye.
“Three is definitely the goal, ” says Peebles head coach Mike McDonald. “I don’t mean to sound cocky or anything like that but we are always going to set our goals very, very high. Part of the goal is to be undefeated and if that comes, it comes, but we honestly just set the main goal as a championship at the end of the season. Whoever we are playing next is who we will be concentrating and focused on.”
“When we won the championship in 2020 we had 14 kids, in 2021 when we won it we had 17 kids, and right now we have 26 kids, which some programs are still going to consider a small roster, but that’s almost twice as big a team as I’ve ever had. And I believer that all 26 of them will see the field. A lot of our younger players are working on special teams and we are blessed to have younger kids with a lot of talent. They may not play right away but they will be ready next season to step in for this senior group.”
“We lost three seniors in 2020, three in 2021, and just one from last year’s champions and the program behind us just keeps getting stronger,” McDonald continued. “This is the first year that we have had third-fourth, fifth-sixth, junior high and high school teams all at the same time.”
The returning senior class is led by arguably the top football talent in the area in senior quarterback/linebacker/defensive back and anything else needed in the familiar #33, Zane Knechtly. At times, the Indians signal-caller can be unstoppable and is just a special player.
“Zane is definitely a special player,” says Coach McDonald. “He is extremely athletic and extremely confident, but not cocky. He’s just a good player and he understands what he can and cannot do and he’s the first to tell me if he can’t do something, but that doesn’t happen often.”
According to Coach McDonald, besides the experienced Knechtly, the backfield for the Indians this fall are all underclassmen- junior tailback Jayce West, sophomore Nathaniel Cummings (whom the head coach describes as having “creepy” natural talent), sophomore fullback Wyatt Stepp and versatile freshman Wyatt Smart, whom McDonald says “has never played a down of football in his life before this season”
Sophomore Hunter Meade will be at wide receiver, while senior Michael Hudgel handles the tight end position. The Indians also have another potential weapon on the outside in junior Brandon Rayburn, who has already shown the ability to use his speed to get behind the secondary in the early season.
“Last year Brandon has to learn how to block when he didn’t get the ball,” said Coach McDonald. “He is now understanding that better and I’m not sure there is a faster player in the league. We don’t have special plays designed for him but we do have things designed for him.”
Perhaps the major strength of the explosive Peebles offense is their offensive line, led by massive senior Tyler McDonald.
“Ty is our anchor at center,” says Coach McDonald of his own son. “The kid has no idea how strong he is and he will be calling all the offensive line changes as they come up and he recognizes the different defenses, He is basically the Zane of the offensive line.”
Also on the o-line for the Indians will be sophomore John Nichols at right guard, junior Jaden Williams at left guard, senior Sean Copley at right tackle, and junior Ryan Scott will man the left tackle position.
“Our line has to be the strength of our team every year,” says Coach McDonald. “They have to be the core group and I don’t expect to average 310 pounds across there forever, they just need to be talented and smart.”
For the most part, the eight seniors on this year’s Indians will play on both sides of the ball.
“Zane (Knechtly) handles the outside linebacker spot and if we need to, we can drop him back when the other team is in a no-doubt passing situation,” says McDonald. “We will mix up our defenses, some 4-4, some 4-3, and even a little 5-2 that I have a background in. I’m also very comfortable putting our backups in and not even realize they are in the game.”
If you have seen the Indians in action early in the season you may find yourself dreaming of how well this team might do against OHSAA competition. The Tribe will get one opportunity to test that when they travel to Northwest to face the Mohawks on September 24. “that should be a good test for us,” said Coach McDonald. “We had chances to play some other OHSAA teams but we just couldn’t get the schedules worked out.” The Indians did scrimmage Manchester in the preseason and handled the Greyhounds rather easily.
“I think that West Union will be right there again in the end,” says McDonald. “I know they have a core group of players back and a new coach and I’m sure they will have some changes. North Adams has struggled with numbers and they have a new coach too and I honestly don’t know a lot about Southern Buckeye.” (The Indians did overcome 22 penalties to defeat Southern Buckeye 32-12 on Sept. 2).
“For us to be successful the big guys up front on the offensive line will have to dominate, that never changes. We just have to have our guys ready and our backups ready to step up if they are needed.”
That solid senior class for the Indians includes Zane Knechtly, Tyler McDonald, Jayden Abbott, Sol Beech-Turner, Sean Copley, Bransyn Hopkins, Hunter Meade and Michael Hudgel.
“The attitudes of these seniors trickles down to the underclassmen,” said Coach McDonald. “Every year I tell my new team, and it is a new team, last year’s team does not exist, this year’s team has not won anything yet and if they want something they have to go get it.”
Besides the senior class, the 2022 Peebles roster includes:
Juniors-Jayce West, Jaden Williams, T.J. Green, Ryan Scott, Hayden Countryman
Sophomores- Ashton Burke, Brady Culberson, Nathaniel Cummings, John Nichols, Christian Gerth, Brandon Rayburn, Landen Storer
Freshmen- Uriah Adkins, Grady Knechtly, Gage Meade, Wyatt Smart, Dylon Purtee, Wyatt Stepp
The remainder of the Peebles schedule includes:
• Sept. 10- West Union (AWAY-7:30)
• Sept. 17- Southern Buckeye (HOME- 7:30)
• Sept. 24- Northwest (AWAY-7:30)
• Oct. 1- North Adams (AWAY- 7:30)
• Oct. 8- Southern Buckeye (AWAY- 7:30)
• Oct. 15- SOIL Playoffs (@N. Adams)
• Oct, 22- SOIL Playoffs (@ Peebles)
