2024 Football Preview: Hillsboro Indians

Qualifying for the playoffs for the past two seasons, the Hillsboro Indians are looking for a third consecutive trip to the postseason, and to do so, they’ll have some players returning from last season’s roster looking to make their mark on the field in 2024.

Hillsboro finished 5-6 overall last season, as they were 3-2 in the Frontier Athletic Conference (tied for second place), a conference where five of the six teams qualified for the playoffs in 2023. HHS played in Division III, Region 12, as they were ranked 11th in the final regular-season standings a season ago.

HHS head coach Nathan Horne is entering his third season as the head coach of the Indians and realizes there are some unknowns, but also excitement, awaiting his Hillsboro team. HHS has an estimated 45 players on the 2024 roster.

The 2024 roster includes: Malachi Aber, Wes Bailey, Paden Blackburn, Zachery Boltenhouse, Kylan Brown, Zack Brown, Michael Burns, Nic Burns, Ryan Burns, Bryson Captain, Jaiden Captain, Jaishon Captain, Tre Captain, Carl Carter, Tremain Clark, John Deans, Mason Dumpert, Logan Elliott, Ian Fenner, Ryan Garman, Garrett Greiner, Roman Hardy, Aaron Hatter, Jeven Hochstuhl, Landon Holland, Shawn Hottinger, Conner Howland, Landon Jordan, Brody Kelch, Malakai Kelley, Jordan Lowe, Jonathan Malone, Zathan Maxwell, James McCoy, Gary McDonald, Trenton Moore, Jayce Newton, JaHari Pitts, Kaiden Robbins, Lucas Sanders, Kingston Scott, Andrew Shelton, Blake Shrout, Dom Smart, Derek Smith, Zach Smith, Collin Swackhamer, Jamar Young and Collin Zimmerman.

“It’s exciting because we haven’t had this much experience in the backfield,” Horne said.

“This is year three, so we have a lot of experience back there, plus a lot of experience at wideout. We’re a little green on the line, so that’s where we’ve got to spend a lot of time on assignments, and that’s where we’ll see what we’re really going to be about. Our scrimmages are really important to get the guys where they need to be, to coach them up, and to get their assignments right and so forth.

“We’ve had good turnout as far as our starters, and they’ve worked hard, throughout our 7-on-7s and our camp days, and now into our acclimation days and two-a-days,” Horne continued. “So far, I’ve been pretty pleased with how our kids have responded. The morale has been pretty good, and they’ve been working hard.”

Entering the ’24 season, the Indians have six returning starters on offense and six returners on defense.

Returning for his senior season is Nic Burns (defensive back), who in ’23 collected five interceptions and had 51 tackles as a junior. He was also a Special Mention OPSWA All-District selection last year.

“Nic [Burns] is back, Zack Brown, Jaiden Captain and Landon Jordan, which is our tight end, but we’ll move him out there some depending on the formation, and Shawn Hottinger. Those are our receiving corps,” Horne said.

“All those kids are experienced kids and have been getting better and better at reading defenses. We have a lot of choice routes in our concepts, our passing concepts, and so depending on the defense, they have options. They’re getting better and better at that all the time.”
 
Entering his junior season is quarterback Mason Dumpert, who in his first year as a varsity starter in ’23 had 531 yards rushing and 477 passing yards.

Also back is sophomore quarterback Collin Swackhamer.

“I’m looking forward to that,” Horne said of having two returning quarterbacks from the ’23 season. “It’s not starting from scratch. We can build upon things, and especially with what we do offensively and all the read schemes that we have. That’s really big. We have two quarterbacks with Collin and Mason that have been in the system now for a year. That’s really big. That’s really big for what we do. Those two guys will get a lot of time in scrimmages and things.

“Again, we’ll be able to do things a lot earlier in the season, as last year I would predetermine some things for them, just because of the reads. It takes time to get those reads down. We would predetermine, call a few things, but now we can kind of give them the reins a little bit more, cut them loose on those reads. We run the triple. We ran a decent amount of double early on last year, which is one less read for them, but we’ll be able to run more triple stuff this season because of the experience from last year.”

The Indians will also have junior Jeven Hochstuhl back on the field this season, as he’s coming off a year where he rushed for 782 yards, and he also collected 115 yards receiving in ’23, playing running back and safety a season ago as a sophomore.

Battling for the vacant starting roles on the offensive and defensive lines are Kaiden Robbins, Ian Fenner, Jordan Lowe, Conner Howland and Roman Hardy.

Horne spoke about not only the offensive line, but others whom he sees making an impact on the offense this upcoming season.

“We lost five starters, five seniors … five on offense, five on defense,” Horne said. “Austin (Barrett) graduated, and Ian Lawson, plus we lost Ayden Clemons and Gary Reno, so we lost two guards and a center,” Horne said. “We also lost Jack Wagoner. We lost some seniors that did a good job for us last year, but we have our backfield, with Jeven and Logan (Elliott).

“Tre Captain got some time last year, toward the end of the year, so we have some experience in the backfield. With Mason [Dumpert] and Collin Swackhamer, both quarterbacks coming back, we have experience within the offense. Our backfield is pretty experienced. Jamar [Young] and JP [JaHari Pitts] on the line are back, so we have three spots that we have to fill on the line.

“We’ve moved some things around, but the kids that have stepped up and are there now replacing some of the kids that graduated are working hard, and we’re looking forward to what they can give us.”

Horne spoke about the offense as a unit.

“Offensively, we definitely improved from the year before last year. We want to just pick up where we left off. There’s always things to nitpick, coming off the ball lower and harder, and those types of things,” Horne said. “We’ve got new guys in there, so we’ve got to get assignments sound, make sure they know what they’re doing. There could be some growing pains there, but our goal is always to come off the ball hard and fast. We’re under center, so we’re going to be by you before most teams that are in shotgun.”

“With Jeven and Tre, we might try to get to the perimeter more, but Logan’s looking good, too,” Horne said. “We’ve got a three-man punch right there, not counting our quarterbacks.”

Replacing Barrett at running back won’t be easy, as he rushed for 1,907 yards, 17 touchdowns and a streak of nine consecutive games (weeks 1-9) of no less than 100 yards rushing a game, including one game of 303 yards. Barrett was All-FAC his senior year and was also First-Team OPSWA All-District (Offense/RBs) and Div. III Second-Team All-Ohio (Offense/RBs).

Another player who had a stellar career at Hillsboro that graduated was Reno (guard/defensive end), who as a lineman helped block for 3,422 total team rushing yards with 26 pancake blocks, plus defensively he totaled 45 tackles. Reno’s honors last year included: All-FAC; First-Team OPSWA All-District (Offense/OL); and Div. III Honorable Mention All-Ohio (OL).

Two more HHS linemen who graduated from the Indians were Clemons (guard/defensive end), who was also a member of the o-line that blocked for the aforementioned 3,000-plus rushing yards, and on defense he totaled 41 tackles and two interceptions. Clemons was All-FAC and Special Mention OPSWA All-District last year. Fellow All-FAC selection Lawson (center/defensive tackle) was a standout offensive with 28 pancake blocks, then on defense he totaled 16 tackles.

Defense for the Indians isn’t being overlooked entering the ’24 season, as Hillsboro has a solid number of returning players ready to move forward in their game, and Coach Horne wants to see a “hard-nosed” effort on defense.

“I want us to play hard-nosed defense, play good, sound assignment defense, fly to the ball, be aggressive and be confident in what we do,” he said.

“We’ve been able to add a few wrinkles, but as far as our base defense, it’s the same. Everybody should be pretty comfortable with our defense, as far as knowing what they’re doing.

“Nic and Michael [Burns], they played corner. Jeven and Jaiden played some safety. Zack has played a little bit of both, and he’s playing more safety now. Logan’s another returner that’s a big part of our defense, playing linebacker. JP will be playing D-end or D-tackle, one or the other. Swackhamer is a returning linebacker for us. Tre Captain has been getting a lot of reps at corner for us this year, and he played well throughout the summer in 7-on-7s and things.”

Horne continued to talk about players on defense who should be making an impact in ’24.

“Ryan Burns is a linebacker. Again, we lost Austin, our middle linebacker, but as far as all the other backers and secondary, it’s very similar to offense,” Horne said. “And again, we’ve got to see how our interior responds. Jordan Lowe is new to us, and he’ll be a big part of what we do this year, and JP will be a big part of the interior. We’ve got some new guys. Kaiden Robbins, again, has been playing some guard for us and has been playing interior D-line.

“Ian Fenner is a senior that’s returning, so he’s been playing some guard for us and interior D -line. Those guys are the guys that have to step up and replace the guys that we lost.”

Winning results in 2023 for the Indians saw them defeat Goshen (56-19), East Clinton (32-12), Chillicothe (23-17, OT), Washington (36-6) and Miami Trace (14-13). Their losses came against Western Brown (38-27), Portsmouth West (49-34), Williamsburg (57-27), Jackson (63-21) and McClain (21-13) in the regular season and Celina (49-7) in the playoffs.

As for the ’24 schedule, the FAC will once again be a very tough conference in ’24, while the Indians’ non-conference schedule will include: Week 1 (at Western Brown), Week 2 (at Goshen), Week 3 (vs. Portsmouth West), Week 4 (vs. Williamsburg) and Week 5 (vs. East Clinton).

“We have a good league for football. Jackson again is always the team to beat. We open up with Miami Trace. I expect they’re going to be better than they were last year, so that’ll be a big challenge right out the gate,” Horne said. “We’ll need to be ready for that game. I think (McClain) is in a similar situation as we are, as far as some younger guys having to step up, but they’ve been doing a good job there.

“(Washington) Court House had some good interior linemen that should be back and some good athletes there, so you can never overlook them. I think Chillicothe has got some young, skilled kids that were in junior high last year that will fill in for some of their interior alignment that they had. I expect Chillicothe to be better than they were last year.”

For success to happen, Horne wants to see his team improve with each game.

“We always try to get better every week. Offensively, we are always looking internally. We look at ourselves more than our opponents on film and how we can get better and so forth. That’s kind of our philosophy offensively, to always coach ourselves up, so getting better every week’s the goal,” Horne said. “We don’t have a ton of plays. We try to out-technique you, instead of trying to out-x’s and o’s you.

“Again, we’re going to start off young. I’m sure there’ll be a few jitters in the first quarter of the first game. We’re going to have to be able to weather that storm. I think our non-league schedule is important to do well in so that we can hit the ground running when we go against (Miami) Trace and start our league play.

“We’re excited about this season,” Horne continued. “The kids have worked hard. We’ve got some experience in the secondary, defensively and backers, and we’ve got some experience at running back and receiver and quarterback. Those guys need to be leaders, along with a few returning linemen, and we’re looking forward to being real competitive.”

The Indians open the ’24 season on the road away from Richards Memorial Field, as they will travel to Mt. Orab to take on the Western Brown Broncos on Friday, Aug. 23 with a kickoff scheduled for 7 p.m. at Kibler Stadium.

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