By TYLER HENRY
Lead Sportswriter - Salina Post
There’s no mistaking that the Salina South football program has been down on its luck for the better part of the last decade.
The last time the Cougars finished north of .500 was during their explosive 10-2 campaign back in 2014, but things bottomed out during an injury-riddled 2022 season that saw South go 0-9.
While it’s true that the Cougars have nowhere to go but up ahead of the 2023 kickoff, there’s real cause for optimism in the Salina community, as South believes they have all the pieces they need to start rebuilding their program in earnest.
“We return a lot of kids that have varsity experience and we have some really strong senior leadership,” Cougar head coach Sam Sellers said. “We haven’t had a group like this in a long time that really just enjoys football and that’s something we’re really excited about.”
A season ago, South lost their starting quarterback, as well as three other key players, before the first game of the campaign had even kicked off, and an exceptionally young roster struggled to compete in one of the toughest leagues in Class 5A.
One of those leading the youth charge was sophomore quarterback Landon Putman, who returns as the Cougar’s signal-caller in 2023.
“[Landon] is a special kid,” Sellers said. “He’s incredibly intelligent, a fierce competitor, and a natural leader. He had a great offseason and it makes a huge difference when you know that you’re the dude. He knows what Friday nights are all about and we’re excited by what he brings to our offense.”
With a chance to start the season on level ground, Putman will be joined in the backfield by senior running back Carson Power, and will have several of his favorite weapons back in the receiving corps, including Layson Sajdak, and Drew Emerson, as well as a few newcomers in Tristan Bernhardt and Jaxon Myers.
Salina South will also have another year of experience in the trenches, with Brayden Fencl and Aiden Anderes anchoring the O-Line, while Damian Hightower, Cade Miles, and Jayven Correa-Brown lead the charge on the D-Line.
“We finally feel good about both of our line groups and the depth we have there,” he said. “We feel like we will be better to significantly better at every position compared to last year.”
Alex Davidson will return to anchor the Cougar linebacker corps while the all-league duo of Carson Power and Drew Emerson join Dawson Dooley to patrol the secondary.
While some may call it lofty, Coach Sellers and his staff have fully committed to restoring Salina South to its former glory, and the team has bought into a vision that some might even go so far as to call crazy, but which could be the seed for something much greater to come.
“A lot of people will think this is absurd but we’ve had success here and we want to get back to the level where we’re competing for state championships every year,” Sellers said. “Going 0-for last year was a tough pill to swallow, we’re competitive people, but we’ve decided that our expectation is to once again play for a state championship. Our kids have bought into that and our coaching staff is behind them.”
The Cougars open their season on Friday, September 1st with the Mayor’s Cup Matchup against cross-town rival Salina Central at 7pm.