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WHITE HALL - The theme for the year for the North Greene Spartans is positivity.
The program is in need of that.
For the second year in a row, the North Greene Spartans have a new sheriff in town. Previous North Mac defensive coordinator Donnie Allen will begin his rookie season as a head coach, and he’s taken it upon him and his staff to rejuvenate the Spartans fortunes. That starts with team chemistry.
“It’s been very positive. We’re trying to be pro-athlete, pro-kid, pro-school and pro-family as positive as possible. We’re looking to build from that,” Allen said. “Good teammates make good teams, and good teams win. We’re not focused on the win; we’re focused on being the better person first.”
Since 2015 North Greene is 3-24, went 0-9 last season and are currently on a 15-game losing streak dating back to 2016. Their previous victory was over West Central 34-22 on September 9 in week three.
Right now Allen doesn’t want his players to think about winning games, but merely going about their business, knowing their assignments and taking it one week at a time.
“We’re always playing Team X. I don’t care who you’re lining up against. The way you win a football game is doing your job,” Allen said. “If you do enough of those little things successfully and the guy next to you is doing his job then it’ll translate to wins sooner or later.”
“We’re going to have a surprising senior class. We’ll have [11-12] seniors. We’ve got five or six that are stepping up [to being] good leaders. They surprised me at our minicamp. They’re buying into what I’m saying already and all it takes is a handful of leaders to get everyone else on board. We can definitely have that senior class impact, but it’s going to be a matter of how good of a teacher I am in a couple of weeks and how quick the kids pick it up.”
Senior captain Kaiden Heberling is the probable starting quarterback, who Allen describes as a dual-threat. Heberling, who did a bit of everything on offense last season, led the team as a junior with 957 total yards. His primary receiver will be Carter Hoseman. He led the Spartans last year with 29 receptions, 507 yards, and six touchdowns. Other probable receivers are sophomores, Jacob Suttles and Karter Heberling.
The running back position is currently up for grabs between senior Drake Fraser and junior Taylor Scott. Fraser is considered to be a quicker, more elusive back, while Scott is bigger and an “absolute load to tackle,” according to Allen.
North Greene is looking at a young offensive line. Seniors Cade VanMeter and Brad Woosley will be the tackles while juniors Ethan Derringer and Dylan Gaffney are in line to start as the guards. The center position is up for grabs, but Sophomore Owen Baird is the leading candidate at this point.
Not wanting to give away too much, Allen said he’s, “a big advocate of the run.” Additionally, if opposing teams were to stack the box consistently, then Allen will opportunistically call pass plays and let defenses dictate what they’ll do.
“To me, you have to do two things to a football game; you gotta stop the run, and you gotta be able to run,” Allen said. “I will throw the ball to get a box and run. If they’re going to give me an eight-man box every time you’re going to see me throw the ball a lot. If they’re going to give me a box I can run in, then I’ll run every down if they give me that box.”
Defensively the Spartans have a good understanding of what they’ll do given that’s Allen coaching specialty.
“It’s something I’ve done for a long time, and it’s going to be a system that the kids know from the summer time. It’s something I can teach pretty quick,” Allen said. “The kids enjoy it because they get control on the field. Coaches enjoy it because you just got to tweak from the sidelines. You don’t really have to call a bunch of stuff.”
North Greene is a member of the WIVC South, and the general hypothesis is that the Carrollton Hawks are the top dogs while everyone else will battle for second place at most. Allen sees that as an opportunity for his players to not feel overwhelmed and believe they can physically win ball games.
“It’s an awesome thing. To get a high school kid to understand that there’s not a huge difference between being a 4-5 team and going deep in the playoffs,” Allen said. “At North Mac last year we played [Pleasant] Plains in a really tough game. We didn’t make the playoffs and they [played] for a state championship.”
Being an outsider for a long time to the WIVC, Allen is quite aware of the success of Carrollton’s program. Year after year they win and most likely have a significant belief of achieving victory before stepping onto the field. One of his long-term goals is to instill that mindset in his players.
“It’s a whole lot of buy-in. There are dominant teams in every conference and what they have over everybody else is they know year in, and year out they’re going to be good,” Allen said. “It’s an attitude more than anything else, and that’s why Carrollton is where they are. They don’t have any doubt when they walk off that bus and feel they have a chance to win every single one. It’s just a matter of getting that atmosphere going here.”
