Fall Sports 2021 Final.qxp_Fall Sports 8/27/21 11:14 AM Page 10
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:: FALL SPORTS 2021 ::
republican-times.com
2021 SCHEDULE 2020 DATE OPPONENT RESULT
Members of the 2021 Princeton High School football team include, from left, front row, Andrew Rhoades, Logan Smith, Luke Kelly, Kaleb Thomas, Evan Houck, Tyler Brown, Kelby Thomas; middle row, Clay Evans, Tyler Coffman, Hunter Foster, Talan Holt, Jayce Davis, Nicolas Rubio, Roman Birge; back row, Ethan Blackburn, Ethan Rhoades, Gavin Power, Wes Hashman, Gabe Zeider, Dylan Girdner, Mason Robinson and Sam Johnson. Not pictured is Cooper Boxley.
NEW FACES, SAME GOALS FOR PRINCETON TIGERS
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or each of the past two seasons, the Princeton Tigers came into the year predicted to finish in the middle of the pack by their peers. In both seasons, Princeton closed the year as Grand River Conference tri-champions. If head coach Nathan Powell is to go three-for-three on conference championships since returning to take the reins of his alma mater ahead of the 2019 season, however, it might be his biggest feat yet. Make no mistake, no one is writing off Princeton, not after
what the team has accomplished in each of the past two seasons. But the Tigers had 10 players who earned All-Grand River Conference honors in 2020, eight of which were also named all-district players by the Missouri Football Coaches Association. All 10 of those players were seniors. Princeton will attempt to keep its streak of GRC title runs alive with a group of players that possess very little varsity experience collectively. “We do, obviously, lose a lot from last year,” Princeton head coach Nathan Powell said.
“When you have a chance to have a really old group like we did last year, it was really good to see them have success, but we pushed them all year to be good leaders because we knew this would be the situation this year.” Princeton has just 22 kids out for football in 2021 and of those 22, 17 are freshmen or sophomores. Being able to play a full junior varsity season was big for the Tigers because the freshmen from that team are now sophomores that Princeton will lean heavily on this year. The youth factor will have its downfalls, but
8/27 @ Mid-Buchanan 9/3 MIDWAY 9/10 @ Trenton 9/17 MILAN 9/24 @ Putnam County 10/1 MAYSVILLE 10/8 POLO 10/15 @ South Harrison 10/22 GALLATIN 10/29 Districts, TBA
6-41 38-19 n/a 8-39 38-6 30-14 36-6 28-6 28-18
HEAD COACH Nathan Powell - third year Career Record: - 15-6 Last Year’s Awards: Ben Berwanger, first team All-GRC, all district; Dakota Thomas, first team All-GRC, all-district; Brayden Summers, first team AllGRC, all-district; Blaze Siemer, first team All-GRC, all-district; Eli Henke, first team All-GRC, all-district; Zeb Schwartzkopf, first team All-GRC, all-district; Ashton Berndt, second team AllGRC, all-district; Justin Rhoades, second team AllGRC, all-district; John Birge, honorable mention All-GRC; Riley Rhoades, honorable mention All-GRC