Linton Stockton football underwent an anticlimactic postseason ending last autumn.
The Miners fell 36-34 in overtime to Southmont at Roy Williams Field.
A new chapter for the stout program begins Aug. 23 when the 2024 campaign kicks off against Marion Local (Ohio). They still have one eye peering through the rearview mirror.
“We’re all excited,” senior running back Jesse Voigtschild told the Daily World during the second week of preseason practices. “We’ve been hyped up in practice. We’ve been having good practices. We had a heartbreaker last year that we lost, and I think we’ve all come in with a chip on our shoulders.”
It was a lack of closure that’s foreign to the powerhouse school.
“None of us are going to forget that [sectional ouster],” Voigtschild, who averaged nearly 80 yards per game, said. “We had a picture in the locker room and the weight room this year. We focused on that a lot. We talked about it, we looked at our mistakes and what we could have done better. And times whenever we needed to get it done and we didn’t quite come through.”
The marred ending is still fresh.
“The kids know that was something that burned us pretty good,” 12-year coach Brian Oliver said. “Southmont played a good game and had a pretty good run after they beat us.”
The Mounties rode the momentum of two overtime sectional wins to a regional championship.
Linton has been earth-shattering with its winning spoils, having taken 89% of its games the past three years (33-4).
In a little more than a decade with the Southern Indiana squad, Oliver’s resume is sterling.
He has delivered a perfect season that reached a crescendo with a state throne in 2016, claimed a pair of semistate titles, racked up four regional titles and five sectional plaques.
This season is expected to be another locked-and-loaded campaign for the Miners, who seek a fourth successive double-figure win tally.
Last year
The Miners went 10-2 and lost both games in overtime. It went to double overtime in a one-point loss at Monrovia in Week 3.
Linton rallied for eight straight wins before being tripped up in the sectional final.
The boys in blue and red were victorious in convincing fashion last year, with an average margin of 21.8 points, which ranked eighth in Class 2A.
The Miners were in the top 10 for points scored and allowed, with 36.6 and 14.8, respectively.
Can’t-miss
This year commences with a mouth-watering matchup with Marion Local — the squad with the nation’s most extensive winning streak (48 games).
However, Week 5 is also a game that needs to be highlighted and circled on the calendar.
The Miners host the Sullivan Golden Arrows. Linton is located 17 miles east of this rival.
Linton squeaked out a 14-12 win on the road last year to ignite its surging streak.
The Miners have won the past five tilts with the Arrows.
Program status
It’s crystal clear — the Miners have built an operation that is a state title contender year in, year out. “Our goal every year is to win championships and go to state,” Voigtschild said. Our standard is hard workers. I think a lot of Linton’s success [has come from] us working hard in the weight room.”
Voigtschild had 13 touchdowns last year with 11 coming via plunges into the end zone.
The key cog for this program’s title aspirations could be junior quarterback and linebacker Paul Oliver.
The coach’s son is coming off a big season at two levels of football that has sparked interest from Division I and Big Ten programs.
He averaged nearly 100 yards on the ground last year while playing under center. He crossed the goal line 21 times, 17 of those were rushing scores.
Oliver got to the quarterback in the backfield six times for sacks, reeled in a pair of interceptions and jarred the football loose five times.
Despite just jumping in this year as an upperclassman, he said a lot rides on his shoulders from a leadership aspect.
“I always have to come out and practice my hardest, play the hardest because all the guys follow me,” Oliver said. “It feels good for sure to have those guys follow me and show them the ropes and lead them in the right direction.”
Oliver addressed the weight that comes with that.
“But I’ve played sports for a long time,” he said. “The pressure starts out but eventually goes away.”
He referenced that this contingent is more “pumped up, energetic and loud” in the early weeks of the preseason.
It’s a relatively veteran-led group, too. Eight guys are back on the defensive side of the ball and seven are on offense.
Work in progress
The transition the offensive line makes with new players in the trenches will be a storyline to track.
Oliver said they lost the majority of their offensive line.
“Corey [Andrews] and Hank Gennicks are our two most experienced linemen coming back from last year,” Oliver said. “Hank being a senior, he’s played there for three years.”
“Corey’s a returning [interior] lineman so you got those two most experienced guys, they will come in and really help those guys who maybe have gotten a lot of varsity time,” Oliver added.
Andrews was a menace going both ways last year in his first year in Linton after transferring over from North Daviess.
Andrews, who led the team with 86 tackles, 22 in the backfield and eight sacks last year. He stressed how incumbent conditioning is to settle in on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“I think I’ve learned a lot since last year,” Andrews said. “Last year was my first year here. I got used to everything and this year I’m ready to go.”
“It’s doing good, we got new guys coming in but we are learning all sorts of techniques,” Andrews added. “[Just] making sure we can block whoever [comes] at us.”
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