2024 Bullpup Fall Sports Preview: Football

McPHERSON, Kan. – The 2024-25 school year has begun, bringing another edition of non-stop high school sports from August to May. Ad Astra Radio will preview every McPherson High School team ahead of their season, starting off with football.

The Bullpups started off the 2023 season 1-2 following losses to Great Bend and Junction City, but dug into a run winning six of their final eight games, with those two losses by a combined 9 points. The 7-4 record is only the 4th time in Head Coach Jace Pavlovich’s nine-year tenure that they finished with single-digit wins.

Pavlovich says their main goal for the 2024 season is to reach their full potential. “You can’t really put a number of wins or end result in the playoffs due to so many things that are out of our control,” Pavlovich said. “We are going to control what we can and that’s putting everything we have into this team. That includes everyone in the program.”

The team will have some key holes from last season after losing multiple starters to graduation. One of those starters is QB Owen Fetsch, who threw for 19 TD’s in his senior year. Backups Carter Allen & Carter Bengtson threw some passes last season, but according to Pavlovich, Allen will be the man taking the snaps for his senior season. “Allen has been lights out all offseason,” Pavlovich said. “He will be our guy this season. Allen has both the tangibles and intangibles it takes to be a great QB.” Allen threw 10-18 for 93 yards last season.

McPherson also loses key defenders in Teegan Haines and Jayce Schriner, as well as starting TE Gavin Wedel, who all will begin their college football careers this fall. They also lost their top three receivers in Blaise Hoover, Cory Muehler, and Gunner Schumacher, who combined for 16 receiving TD’s.

However, they return key guys on both sides of the ball. They bring back four starters offensively, two of which on the offensive line, which Pavlovich praises as their strongest group on offense. They also bring back RB Isaac Barnett and WR Bishop Brown.

Defensively, they bring experience back with last year’s sacks leader DE Chase Koehn and return starting LB’s Brock Richardson and Chase Delaney, DL Jase Fitzmorris and CB Brody Seidl. “Defensively, we have some holes to fill, but we have some good young kids that are working hard to fill the void [of Haines & Schriner],” Pavlovich said.

2024 will be Pavlovich’s 10th season as the head coach of McPherson, which will make him the longest-tenured head football coach in school history, surpassing his predecessor Tom Young’s 9 years from 2006-14. Pavlovich already holds MHS records in football as the winningest coach (79), best career winning percentage (78.2%), and the highest average wins per season (8.78/season). Young held the previous records with 72 wins, a 74.2% win percentage, and 8.0 wins per season.

“I’m honored to have been a part of this program and community for as long as I have,” Pavlovich said. “It really comes down to having a great staff of coaches. Many of them have been here as long as I have. We have also had some really good players and supportive parents, which is necessary in building and maintaining a quality program.”

Their first game will be a home game on Friday, Sept. 6 at 7 p.m. All home games will be at McPherson College’s football stadium as renovations continue at the high school’s stadium.

All Bullpup football games will be broadcast on 98.9/1540 KMCP and will be streamed online at adastraradio.com.

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