SEASON PREVIEW
The Covington Buccaneers are entering the third season of the Austin Morgan Era where the culture (WORK – TOUGH – HUMBLE – UNSELFISH – LOYAL) has improved dramatically due to the commitment of the players who have bought in the past couple of years and those who are currently on the roster.

The hard work and dedication the kids have put into the offseason and throughout the summer has been extremely impressive.

“From top to bottom, this is the hardest working group we’ve had so far,” said third-year coach Austin Morgan. “The attitude and effort these kids give is what makes it so much fun to coach.”

It starts with the leadership and three-year returning letterman Derrick Meyer, who is the most experienced Buccaneer on the roster. Despite suffering a serious injury during his sophomore season, Meyer has displayed the mental toughness and loyalty to the program by working extremely hard to get himself back to full strength.

Along with Meyer, the Buccaneers have ten returning lettermen; senior Garrett Hobbs, juniors Garrett Leistner, Jack Blumenstock, Kaden Thompson and Kian French, along with sophomores AJ Reyes, Day’Lynn Garrett, Mason Epperson and Christian Clark.

“I’m so pleased with the players we have returning,” Morgan said. “They showed a lot of toughness last year in tough situations and they are continuing to grind. This is a good group of leaders.”

The Buccaneers will field a young team once again with 18 of the 28 kids on the roster being freshmen.

But this freshman group has the work ethic needed to maximize their potential over the course of their high school careers.

“Most of the freshmen have been in the weight room since seventh grade,” said Morgan. “They work very hard and when you look at most of them they don’t look like freshmen. I’m so excited seeing their development.”

Over the last two seasons Covington compiled a 3-15 record, but former players like Connor Sindelir, Cam Kicker, Ricky Stephan, Jensen Wagoner, Jake Dilley, Brian Morrison, DeAnthony Bennett and others have been very beneficial in building the winning culture Austin Morgan and his coaching staff has been trying to establish.

The results are now showing in the weight room and on the practice fields.

And if the Buccaneers continue to follow the current path they are taking, the results will eventually show on the scoreboard.

SEASON IN REVIEW:
The final record of 0-10 wasn’t what the Covington Buccaneers had hoped for in 2023, but the record doesn’t reflect the overall improvement, commitment and toughness of the players who have bought into the culture Austin Morgan and his coaching staff have work so hard to implement into the program over the past three seasons.

Coach Morgan’s philosophy of WORK – TOUGH – HUMBLE – UNSELFISH and LOYAL is so much similar to the winning culture that has been engrained into Buccaneer football for several decades in the past. This philosophy and mentality will take time to bring the program back to success and with the way the majority of the players have performed behind the scenes since Morgan took over in 2021, the Buccaneer football program is on the right track.

The Buccaneers roster consisted of 2 seniors, 4 juniors, 4 sophomores and 18 freshmen on the 28-man roster. It was apparent heading into the season that this young team had huge challenges due to a tough schedule.

Still, the Buccs played their hearts out in all ten games despite the final score. There was no quit in this team and the improvement from start to finish was phenomenal.

Covington started the season with an unfortunate 27-6 loss at Arcanum in a game where the Buccaneers had several opportunities to come out with a victory. Unfortunately, untimely penalties and miscues led to the final numbers on the scoreboard.

The Buccs then faced two very strong programs in back-to-back games, Ansonia and Fort Loramie. Both teams had much more size and experience, but even with the final scores being 56-0 and 49-0 in each opponent’s favor, the Buccs showed toughness and determination in each game.

In week four against Troy Christian the Buccaneers played one of their better games despite a 35-14 loss. Much like the Arcanum game, Covington had several opportunities to put points on the board, but an unfortunate season-ending injury to Parker Hoying took away some momentum the Buccaneers had built on in the first half. It took the Buccs a while to regroup, which they were able to do in the fourth quarter.

Covington faced rival Bethel in week five and once against showed promise despite a 29-6 loss to the Bees. What hurt the Buccaneers was a touchdown reception by Day’Lynn Garrett being called back due to a penalty and four possessions inside the red zone being negated by penalties and mistakes.

In a 44-14 loss to Northridge on homecoming night, the Buccaneers battled hard against a very athletic team. Covington forced two turnovers, but had the opportunity to generate five more turnovers – three fumbles the Buccs failed to recover and two interceptions that were dropped. The Buccaneer defense played outstanding outside of five plays where Northridge was able to score on big plays.

The toughest game for Covington was against Milton-Union in week seven a 48-0 loss. A 50-6 loss to Lehman in week eight was followed by a 51-7 defeat to Riverside, who went on to win the TRC.

The final game of the season was at Miami East and the Buccaneers played their best game of the season against a tough Vikings squad. Covington jumped out to a 7-0 lead and had the ball with a scoring opportunity with 1:10 left in the half. Unfortunately Miami East scored two touchdowns in the final minute of the half due to two interceptions. Covington continued to fight throughout the remainder of the game, despite the 42-7 defeat. Defensively, the Buccaneers forced five turnovers.

Regardless of the final outcomes in each game, the potential for success in the near future is there. What will determine how quickly the program will get back to the elite level is the how much more work the players are willing to put in and how they thrive under the culture established by Coach Morgan and his staff.