By Sam Brauen
Under direction of new head coach Jeff Richards, the Bluffton Pirate football team opens their season Friday night at Cory-Rawson.  Bluffton will be looking to continue the momentum of a 7-3 season in 2015 but must replace many lost senior starters to do so. 

Head coach Jeff Richards was hired in January to replace Kyle Cutnaw who resigned after going 10-10 over two seasons at the helm of the program.  Richards graduated from Bluffton High in 2004 and played center on the football team under Dennis Lee. 

Richards went on to play football at Bluffton University.  Jeff has football in his blood as his father, Mike, was the Bluffton High head coach in the 1980’s and joins Jeff on the staff as an assistant coach for this season. Jeff also has prior experience as an assistant coach at Bluffton University and offensive line coach at Louisville Dupont High School in Louisville.

BHS has several playmakers returning from last year’s 7-3 squad that missed out on qualifying for the playoffs by one spot in the final computer rankings.  Dakota Bricker was a first team Northwest Conference wide receiver totaling 509 yards on 40 catches last season. 

Dustin Falk earned all conference honors at running back and kick returner and will be looking to use his speed out of the backfield.  Kaleb Jefferson led the team with ten touchdowns scored last season and is in the backfield again this year. 

Two areas the Pirates have been working on extensively this offseason is line play and quarterback.  Several veteran linemen graduated leaving spots to be filled by a group of hungry young men waiting their turn.  Mitchell Ault graduated from the quarterback position and took with him career school records in yardage, touchdowns and completions.  Senior Jason Bracy has started both scrimmages under center. 

Defensively, many experienced players are ready to continue their careers.  Brady Basinger, Cole Wilson, Justin Haggard and Owen Bischoff join Jefferson, Falk and Bricker to add some veteran seasoning when the opposition has the ball. 

Bluffton opens the season with back to back away contests against Blanchard Valley Conference foes.  The annual grudge match against Cory-Rawson kicks off the season followed by a Week 2 trip to Van Buren.  Fort Loramie comes to Harmon Field in Week 3 looking for revenge of a 23-14 loss last year. 

The Northwest Conference matchups begin in Week 4 with the long trip to Paulding followed by the Homecoming game versus Allen East.  The final five opponents feature four teams that made the postseason in 2015 those being Delphos Jefferson, Spencerville, Ada and Crestview.  The Pirates close the regular season hosting Columbus Grove.

There are several new faces dotting the Pirate coaching staff.  As mentioned earlier, Mike Richards has joined the coaching staff for this season. Brad Jones, Bryan Lloyd and Jake Slager are also new to the staff joining longtime assistant Pat Prichard. 

The Pirates will look to start the year on the right foot with a victory over Cory-Rawson.  BHS has won five consecutive openers over the Hornets by scores of 54-0 and 49-0 the last two seasons.