Sidney senior running back Isaiah Foster, left, runs during a practice on Thursday evening at Sidney Memorial Stadium. Sidney, and all teams across the state, began practice Thursday.
Bryant Billing | Sidney Daily News
SIDNEY — Second-year Sidney football head coach Dave Taynor is ready to take the Yellow Jackets to new heights.
After going 5-6 in 2023 and losing much of the team’s offense in the second half of the season, Sidney is healthy and getting better every day according to Taynor.
Thursday was the Ohio High School Athletic Association allowed preseason practice for teams across the state, though the Yellow Jackets and many squads had already been at work with summer activities. Among offseason practices the Yellow Jackets had were three 7-on-7 passing camps.
“We have a lot of multi-sport athletes,” Taynor, whose previous coaching stops included Urbana University, said. “We made some strides working exclusively on football with them and I’m happy with that.”
The Yellow Jackets lost wide receivers Julius Spradling and Tank Fleming during the course of last season. Following their departures, Sidney went 1-4, including their playoff loss to Harrison.
“It’s our first official practice within the August time frame, and we’re doing stuff that we weren’t doing until Week 3 or Week 4 last year,” Taynor said. “So as far as the learning curve is concerned, we’re much farther ahead than what we were.”
Going along with stand-out wideouts Spradling and Fleming, quarterback Ethan New is ready to be under center at the start of the season.
“Last year when I went into quarterback against Piqua, I only had one week of practice,” New said. “But now, having a whole summer and being able to have chemistry with wide receivers, it’s been a lot better.”
New thinks that having the full team back out and healthy will help to minimize the mistakes the Yellow Jackets made towards the end of last season.
Spradling, who had over 900 all-purpose yards and nine touchdowns in 4.5 games last year, is excited to be back on the field with his team and is looking forward to being a top contributor on offense.
“I healed from my (shoulder) injury last year and we’ve gotten stronger as a team,” Spradling said. “We kept working and we’re looking pretty good. Everyone is getting focused and ready for the season.”
Numbers are always a concern for football teams, especially in the first few years of a new coach. With football, there is always a chance for injury and you can never have too many guys.
“Typically you have guys ready to play varsity and players who aren’t,” Taynor said. “We have more guys ready to play varsity this year than we did last year.”
Taynor said that he likes to work on growing the youth program in Sidney.
“I’m on the board for the youth programs,” Taynor said. “Any way that I can help set an agenda and help to inspire energy and enthusiasm for the sport.”
When asked about the goals for the season, Taynor said that the goal is to win every game.
“You start every week 0-0 and every week you want to finish 1-0,” Taynor said. “We’re not playing any games with the idea we’re going just to compete.”
Taynor talked about the Yellow Jackets having a strong skill player core despite having to completely rebuild their linebacker core due to losing three seniors.
Cain Vanzant looks to be a strong force on the team as he experienced rotating with the three seniors last season.
Sidney is looking sharp in practice and is ready to experience the Friday night lights yet again.
Mitchell Davis, who graduated in 2024 after playing receiver at Sidney, is helping to coach the team before he goes to college Toledo. He has helped returners get into the swing of things and has been a familiar face for many of the players.
The Yellow Jackets have their first scrimmage on Saturday, Aug. 10 at Wilmington High School and will play their first regular-season game on Friday, Aug. 23 at Sidney Memorial Stadium against Bellefontaine.
