The Danville Blue Devils are coming of a season in which they went 4-7, and 3-4 in KMAC play, losing in the playoffs to Newark Catholic.
Coach Matthew Blum has set goals leading into the 2022 season, and that includes competing for a conference championship, a goal for which the Blue Devils will "find a way" to achieve.
The team’s slogan for 2022 is “No excuses; find a way.”
“With anything you do in life, you’re going to face adversity, especially in football,” Blum said. “At the end of the day, you have to find a way to get the job done. Whether it’s a block, tackle, catching the ball, etc. We have preached to our football program about providing no excuses to the task at hand and giving 110% effort in everything we do.”
Blum said his goals for the program are always to beat East Knox, make the playoffs, win a playoff game, compete for a championship and to simply be the best Danville team possible.
“We have high expectations for this year, but we will take it one game at a time,” Blum said. “Our kids, coaches, and community are very excited for football Friday nights in Danville.”
Blum is entering his sixth year coaching football and has spent the last two years as the Danville offensive coordinator and offensive line coach. Prior to this, he coached at his alma mater, Canal Winchester High School, as the varsity defensive assistant coach – a role he held for three years. He is also the track coach at Danville for both the boys and girls.
"I’ve learned and worked with some great coaches already in my career,” Blum said. “Charlie Duncan, who is my defensive coordinator and also our head softball coach at Danville, has been a tremendous help for me. He does things the right way and treats kids with respect but coaches them hard. I also had some great coaches at my previous stop at Canal Winchester, including guys such as Corey Coe, Wes Speakman, Justin Whitlatch, and Josh Stratton. The common theme from all these men is, 'It’s always about the kids.' If you build meaningful relationships with them and treat them with respect, they will do anything you ask them to do.”
The Blue Devils use a power spread offense, which is just about the same as it has been the last two seasons. Blum said they like to pair the downhill running attack with a diverse passing game.
“We like to get our playmakers the ball in space,” said Blum. "We have a very experienced unit coming back from last year with 10 starters returning.”
Defensively, the team is switching things up to allow players to think less and play fast. He said the goal all summer has been to get the most amount of speed on the field on defense. The Blue Devils have eight returning defensive starters.
The Blue Devils graduated only three seniors last year, and Blum said the senior and junior classes bring plenty of talent to the table due to their experience. He said they have worked hard during the offseason and are locked in and have bought into the system.
“They know that our community has high expectations, but they are ready to prove how much they have improved from last year."
Blum is expecting big seasons from seniors Kaiden Colopy (WD/DB), Levi Lyons (OL/LB), Max Payne (QB/RB/LB) and Dillon Looney (OL/DL), and juniors Bryer Boeshart (TE/OLB) and Walker Weckesser (QB/WR/FS). Last season, Colopy had 49 catches for 635 yards, which were both second in KMAC. He also had six touchdowns. Weckesser was a top defender with 83 tackles, including seven for a loss, and three interceptions. Boeshart had a pair of interceptions of his own.
“We are really excited about the improvement and progression of the following athletes: senior Ryan Lucas (RB/LB) and Aidan Burke (RB/LB).”
The Blue Devils hit the gridiron on August 19 at Worthington Christian for a Friday night matchup under the lights, kicking off at 7 p.m.
