NEW PALESTINE — In a year like no other, the same can be said for the 2020 New Palestine Dragons’ football season.
Normally a time for fine-tuning, Week 2 feels more like spring for the top-ranked Dragons, who are uncharacteristically playing catch-up after losing out on last Friday’s opening night.
Two weeks ago, the defending Class 5A state champion Dragons were barely able to piece together a lineup to scrimmage Scecina Memorial on Aug. 15, with more freshmen on the field than returning starters.
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Due to a substantial amount of players in “contact tracing” quarantine prior to the scrimmage and afterwards, New Palestine’s Week 1 home game against Decatur Central was ultimately canceled.
This week, with Brebeuf Jesuit visiting Kelso Stadium, the Dragons return to the field, but they still aren’t at full strength.
Fortunately, however, they have enough to compete — numbers wise at least.
“It’s been pretty brutal,” New Palestine head coach Kyle Ralph said. “We obviously lost an opportunity last week for something that wasn’t our fault, but we have to just keep on controlling the things we can control.”
The uncontrollable hit the Dragons hard this month.
A few players in quarantine turned into multiple and soon spread quickly with student-athletes and family members being tested for COVID-19. Subsequently, the Dragons’ depth chart became depleted to the point of becoming near inoperable.
“We had kids on quarantine. We had kids out with pending tests. We had kids out that then ended up needing testing later on that weekend (of the scrimmage), which is why we ultimately ended up cancelling with the amount of kids we had that had pending tests or were having to get tested to find out,” Ralph said. “With the amount of kids that were already on quarantine, we didn’t even have a team available.”
The wave of quarantines didn’t just impact the varsity level, it halted junior varsity competition. The only level that proved unaffected was the freshmen team, which was able to compete.
The varsity team remain diligent in their preparation last week, however, and the past four days despite limited numbers, though sessions were far from optimal.
“To their credit, we went out last week and continued to try to hold practices with what we had and kept working. Kids are slowly filtering back in and we’re like everybody else. Some kids are missing each day and we’re just trying one day at a time to piece everything together,” Ralph said.
“All I know is right now, it’s great to know we have something coming up (today) and it’s going to be something great to see the kids finally get rewarded for their hard work and be able to play.”
The Dragons have been keeping a watchful eye on the calendar and the other on quarantine clearances the past two weeks. Steadily, the news has switched from dire to better, but Ralph and his coaching staff know it could have been much worse.
“When we were waiting for the testing, it could have been over half of our program. The highest number that we estimated, depending on how things had gone, we could have lost the whole program,” Ralph said.
“We got lucky because none of our kids ended up testing positive, but of those pending tests that we had waiting, if they were positive, the potential was ugly. We could have essentially lost the whole program.”
Early last week, the necessary test results to resume a relatively normal practice began to filter in, and with them, the program has been attempting to get back on track while in-season.
“Fortunately, a lot of those pending tests we were waiting on up until early in the week last week, were again, thankfully, negative. None of the kids came back and actually were sick. Thankfully, many of the family members of some of the other kids weren’t sick either, so we had a little bit of luck on our side there,” Ralph said. “But, it was touch-and-go.”
Now, it’s full-go, but the Dragons admittedly aren’t where they need to be for Week 2. Not from a lack of trying, though.
Already a smaller school in a larger football classification, losing a few players can be damaging, but when nearly 50 percent of the Dragons’ roster was lost two weeks ago, reaching even a fraction of their potential will require patience and a steep learning curve.
“We had a practice last week where we didn’t even have a sub on the sidelines. We had that few kids,” Ralph said. “We’re battling through it, and like everyone else is, we’re not making excuses, but it was a decision (to cancel) that I think was in the best interest of our program with what we had and the safety of our players and the team we’re going to play.”
The Dragons were up front with Decatur Central early in the week before scrimmaging Scecina Memorial, and they were equally transparent with their student-athletes and families as they pulled the plug on Week 1.
“Unfortunately, things got worse, and that decision had to be made,” Ralph said. “It was all trace contact quarantine stuff. We did not have any positive cases, which was great. But, unfortunately, because of having to quarantine all of those players, we couldn’t field a team, so we lost an opportunity to play.”
Tonight, the Dragons will get their chance at home against Brebeuf Jesuit at 7 p.m. New Palestine currently holds the state’s longest active regular-season winning streak at 63 games and the longest overall run at 28 games following back-to-back 5A state championship seasons.
Yet, with limited spring and summer conditioning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ralph and the Dragons don’t expect to be their sharpest immediately regardless of the losses due to graduations.
“We’re still missing a few people, but again, we have a roster, so we’re going to play. It’s not where it was, but we’re going to go out there and whoever we have is who is going to play,” Ralph said. “We’re going to find a way to try to get the job done. There are a few players that won’t be out there that people will recognize their names. That’s just how it’s going to be.”
When the roster is whole, the Dragons have plenty of talent to win.
While 2019 Indiana Mr. Football Charlie Spegal is off at Indiana University, New Palestine returns senior quarterback Lincoln Roth, who was voted as team captain.
As a junior, he completed 64 percent of his passes for 1,575 yards and 20 touchdowns. He was the team’s second-leading rusher with 682 yards and eight TDs.
The team’s second-leading receiver in senior Blake Austin is back after hauling in 21 catches for 379 yards and seven TDs in 2019.
On the offensive line, the Dragons are anchored by Air Force commit Matt Brown, who plays both ways, while seniors Noah Mack returns at center. Fellow Air Force commit Ethan Sturgeon is a two-way lineman, and Tucker Keevers resumes his role on the O-line.
Seeing that stability is a welcomed sight for the Dragons, who continue to wait for the depth chart to replenish.
“Two weeks ago, we had multiple positions wiped out. We had to put a whole depth chart together and submit that to the administration and submit our quarantine cases, and we had essentially three position groups that were essentially completely wiped out,” Ralph said. “We were playing essentially any healthy body that was at practice. We were just putting them into positions.”
On defense, seniors Richard Clevenger (85 tackles) and Hunter Burks (36 tackles, 4.5 sacks) will stack behind linemen Brown and Sturgeon, among others, at linebacker where Maryland move-in David DeGuzman brings varsity experience from Patuxent High School.
Senior defensive back Aidan Ewers, who paced the state in passes defended with 16, leads a young and inexperienced group.
“We lost our top-eight defensive backs, (including Maxen Hook) so they’re gone, and the three top backups were seniors last year, so they’re all gone. You replace them with a lot of young kids, but again, to our kids credit, regardless to who we’ve had access to, the DBs, especially, have really worked to make up for that gap,” Ralph said.
At running back, freshman Grayson Thomas, will get first crack at filling the void left by Spegal, though he won’t be the focal point.
“Everything starts with Lincoln anyway. He’s a great leader. He’s a great kid with a ton of experience and he has really solid leadership skills,” Ralph said. “He’s the guy who can really distribute the ball to the weapons that we have.”
While depleted by graduation and quarantine — for the time being — the Dragons know what’s expected, beginning tonight.
“I tell those kids every day. Every time you get a chance to come out here and play football is a good day. Period. Because you don’t know when it’s going to be over, so any day you get a chance to put your helmet and shoulder pads on, you better enjoy every single bit of it because it might be the last day or the last day for a long time,” Ralph said.
