PERRYSBURG, Ohio — Perrysburg overview:
2023 Record: 8-4 (Advanced to 2nd Round of playoffs)
Head Coach: Dirk Conner (4th year)
Top Returning Players:
Joseph Seney, Senior LB (1st Team All-Ohio)
Eric Bush, Senior DL (1st Team All-NLL)
Iain Hall, Senior WR (2nd Team All-NLL)
Zach Schroeder, Senior TE (2nd Team All-NLL)
Oliver Zieman, Senior OL (2nd Team All-NLL)
2024 Schedule:
WEEK 1 8/23 @ St. Francis
WEEK 2 8/30 vs. Marysville
WEEK 3 9/6 vs. Fremont Ross
WEEK 4 9/13 @ Southview
WEEK 5 9/20 vs. Clay
WEEK 6 9/27 @ Northview*
WEEK 7 10/4 vs. Whitmer*
WEEK 8 10/11 @ Findlay*
WEEK 9 10/18 vs. Springfield*
WEEK 10 10/25 @ Anthony Wayne*
*Denotes Northern Lakes League Buckeye Division game
Last year was a down year by Perrysburg standards. The Yellow Jackets started the season 6-0, but stumbled in Northern Lakes League play, going 2-3, and finished in fourth place in the new NLL Buckeye Division.
But Dirk Conner and his team aren't worrying about last year.
"We don't look back to last season," Conner said. "Whether it was good, bad, indifferent, it doesn't make a difference."
Perrysburg's three conference losses were to all three division co-champs: Anthony Wayne, Findlay and Whitmer. The losses came by an average of 14 points per game. Conner said the Jackets are back at it with the goal of becoming a more physical team.
"The mindset right now is we're figuring a lot of things out and we just want to play physical football," Conner explained. "Really that's our mindset all the time is playing at the standard that we expect and what it takes to win football games. We're just going to work our way to getting a little bit better every single day, be where we're supposed to be week one, make sure we take care of business, climb and get better from there."
Helping lead the way for the Jackets is quarterback Josh Takats. The senior said the mindset of this team is different than it was last season.
"It's a super hardworking mindset. We have a (chip) on our shoulder from last year, just not doing as well as we think we should've," Takats said. "Playing in this new region for the playoffs, it put even more of a chip on our shoulder to work super hard and change the culture from what it was before."
The Jackets team understands wins won't be easy in the Buckeye Division but if everything lines up right, Perrysburg could be the next champs of the league's top division.
"We've got a (chip) on our shoulder," senior linebacker Joseph Seney said. "We want to be able to come back and beat those teams. We feel like we should've won those games. I feel like we should've won those games. We're gonna win those games this year."