Central Columbia Blue Jays

CENTRAL COLUMBIA

New coach, young Jays after improvement

Story by Todd Hummel

The 2021 season certainly wasn’t a typical Central Columbia football year. The young Blue Jays won just three games, and long-time assistant coach EJ Smith looks to get Central Columbia going this season. Smith replaces Scott Dennis, who coached Central Columbia for six seasons. Smith has been an assistant on Dennis’ staff most of the time, and played at Berwick under legendary coach George Curry. Smith returned to Berwick to coach under Gary Campbell and during Curry’s second stint at Berwick. It will be Smith’s first head coaching job, and he will be looking to get a perennial playoff team back in the District 4 hunt. Central Columbia has missed the playoffs the last two seasons, but 2021 was Dennis’ first losing season since his first year of 2015. Central Columbia endured all the growing pains one would expect from a team that had seven freshmen or sophomores on either side of the ball last season. All that experience should pay off in improvement this season, building behind sophomores Cordell Hegenstellar at center and Cole Hummer at left tackle. Junior Aiden Hidlay is also back up front, give Central Columbia three returning starters on the offensive line. That’s a good starting point for an offense that scored just 16 total points in its seven losses and was shut out four times. That includes a stretch of 12 straight quarters without a touchdown, netting a field goal against Lewisburg, and then being shut out in three straight games, before bouncing back to beat rival Bloomsburg, 8-6 in the final game of the season. That experience also transfers over to the offensive backfield. Greyson Shaud and Logan Welkom split time at quarterback last season when neither could grab control of the job. Shaud was more of the running quarterback last season — leading the team in rushing — while Welkom led the team in passing. Whoever wins the job this season will have both running backs returning in Lincon Hubler and Nathan Smith, along with second-leading receiver Dylan Gregory. Gregory caught 15 passes last season. Gone will be the I-formation, though. Expect Central Columbia to join the spread revolution in the fall as a way to combat the struggles they had last season in running the ball. The same young experience returns on the defensive side of the ball. Heggenstellar and Hummer made the key play to clinch the victory over the Bloomsburg last season. Another freshman with a familiar surname also played a big role last season — Alex Zeisloft. He will return at linebacker.