2025 Football Preview: Chesapeake Panthers

CHESAPEAKE — The game facing first-year head coach Kevin Hutchison is trial and error. The problem with this game is they put a clock on it.

Taking over a young and inexperienced and then adding in some players who haven’t been playing for a few seasons, Hutchison has got to figure out a lot of things and he has to do it quickly.

“That’s been one of the hardest things, trying to see what kids can play what positions,” said Hutchison. “We got a lot of new faces out, and a lot of these new kids are good athletes, but they’ve not played football for three or four years. So, it’s going to be a test for them.”

The Panthers were 5-6 last season and qualified for the Division 6 playoffs. But they graduated 16 seniors which created the youth and inexperience problems.

But Hutchison isn’t sitting around feeling sorry for himself.

“I love it. There’s never a boring moment. I love that. I love football,” said Hutchison, who has spent years coaching football or basketball.

Hutchison has coached for a couple of former Chesapeake head coaches, the late Phil Davis and Andy Clark. He was the middle school head coach for seven years.

Hutchison plans to run a spread style offense and he has hired Brent Wilcoxon as his offensive coordinator.

“I call him ‘The Godfather of the Spread’ because he’s been doing it so long,” said Hutchison with a smile. “We’re going to be an up-tempo, spread offense.”

Defensively, the Panthers will use a 4-man front with various blitzes and the defensive coordinator is veteran Chris Leese will be the defensive coordinator. Reese has coached for several teams in West Virginia but is making his first stop in Ohio.

QUARTERBACK

Starter: sophomore Aaden Nester-Howard (6-2, 170).

Backups: senior Jon-Cooper Barker (6-0, 175), freshman Colton Secrest (5-10, 155) and junior Peyton Muncy (6-1, 190).

Hutchison: “Arden looks like a pro-typical quarterback. He’s 6-1, 6-2, long and lanky, great arm. He seems to be pretty smart. But again, it’s going to be another test. Not much varsity experience. Barker is an athlete who hasn’t played for a while. He’s going to be a running back, to. Muncy is a junior who hasn’t played for a while. He’s also going to be a running back. Secrest is a freshman and he’s never played quarterback before, but he’s been looking good, too,”

RUNNING BACK

Starters: Barker, Muncy, junior Marquis Branch (5-6, 138), sophomore Andrew Isaacs (5-10, 145)

Hutchison: “We’ll be single-back most of the time. but hopefully we’ll have three guys who can share the carries. Isaacs played last year and was just a freshman. Hopefully he has a good sophomore year, too. They’re athletic but none of them have any experience. Hopefully, they’re tough, too.”

RECEIVERS

Starters: sophomore Logan Clay (5-11, 160), junior Dennis Scarberry (5-11, 150), junior Landon Kerns (5-9, 140), junior Ayden Parrott (5-11, 135), senior Montez Carter (5-8, 155) and sophomore Zach Burdine (5-10, 150).

Hutchison: “We have a wide range of candidates for their receiving corps. Hopefully, we’ll have a bunch of kids playing soccer and football this year. Some of those receivers are also soccer players. That’s the first time I’ve ever tried that. It’s very athletic. Everybody looks good until you get hit, We’ll see how they handle that.”

H-back: senior Philip Thacker (6-4, 200).

Hutchison: “Thacker is a basketball player who hasn’t played football since his freshman year. He can move pretty well.”

OFFENSIVE LINE

The Panthers have three players back with any experience on the offensive line with Braxton Adams, juniors Colton Huffman and tackle Jackson Spitler (6-2, 260)

Center: junior Colton Huffman (6-0, 195)

Backups: freshman Marlee Andrade (5-9, 200) sophomore Cody Harris (5-10, 155).

Guards: senior senior Braxton Adams (6-0, 180), junior Trey Adams (5-10, 155), junior Quinton Baker (5-11, 220)

Tackles: junior Jackson Spitler (6-2, 260), sophomore Andy Chapman (6-5, 265),sophomore Hunter Dillon (5-11, 126)), junior Casey Barker (6-0, 250), junior Caden Thompson (5-10, 210)

Hutchison: “ Barker is also looking for playing time at any of the offensive line positions. We have people running with the starting position, but we’re not going to know until after our second scrimmage.”

DEFENSIVE LINE

Starters: Thacker, Chapman, Spitler, Muncy

Backups: Dillon, Huffman

Hutchison: “We will run a 4-man front with a variety of blitz packages.”

LINEBACKERS

Inside: Adams, Jon-Cooper Barker

Outside: Isaacs, Scarberry, Baker, Secrest. freshman Uriah Brumfield (6-0, 180)

SECONDARY

Cornerbacks: Branch, Carter, freshman Jayden Washington (5-8, 145)

Safety: Clay

Hutchison:”Clay lettered last year sho he has experience. Branch, Carter, and freshman Jayden Washington are all battling for one of the cornerback positions. I think we’re a lot more ahead on defense because with football it’s easier to get the defense.”

KICKING GAME

Punter: Spitler

Placekicker: sophomore Lilly Helmstetler (5-5, 115)

Hutchison: "Helmstetler has been the most consistent kicking conversions. Spitler is doing a good job with the punting."

OVERALL

Hutchison:  "I think athletic ability is one of our strengths. We don’t have anybody who is super fast, but I think overall team speed is pretty good. I’ve been at Chesapeake for a while and we don’t have anybody who’s 4.4, but we have a bunch of kids around 4.9, 5-flat.”

2025 Chesapeake Panthers Football Roster

No. Player Pos. Ht. Wt. Gr.

  2 Jayden Washington RB-DB 5-08 145 Fr.

  3 Landon Kerns WR-DB 5-09 140 Jr.

  4 Colton Secrest QB-RB 5-10 155 Fr.

  5 Jon-Cooper Barker RB-LB 6-00 175 Sr.

  6 Zack Burdine WR-DB 5-10 150 So.

  7 Jonas Washington WR-DB 5-07 140 Jr.

  8 Aaden Nester-Howard QB-DB 6-02 170 So.

  9 Peyton Muncy RB-DE 6-01 190 Jr.

10 Dennis Scarberry WR-LB 5-11 150 Jr.

11 Brion Russell WR-DB 5-11 155 So.

12 Easton Lewis WR-DB 6-00 150 Jr.

14 Aden Parrott WR-DB 5-11 135 Jr.

15 Levi Mitchell WR-DB 5-07 110 So.

16 Marquis Branch RB-DB 5-06 138 Jr.

20 Andrew Isaacs RB-DB 5-10 145 So.

21 Logan Clay WR-DB 5-11 160 So.

22 Josh Bland RB-DB 5-10 150 Fr.

23 Lily Helmstetler PK 5-05 115 So.

24 Philip Thacker WR-DE 6-04 200 Sr.

25 Montez Carter WR-DB 5-08 155 Sr.

30 Owen Murray PK 6-02 187 Sr.

51 Jackson Spitler OL-DL 6-02 260 Jr.

52 Colton Huffman OL-DE 6-00 195 Jr.

53 Braxton Adams OL-LB 6-00 180 Sr.

54 Trey Adams OL-LB 5-10 155 Jr.

55 Cody Harris OL-LB 5-10 155 So.

56 Caden Thompson OL-DE 5-10 210 Jr.

60 Nehemiah Elder OL-DL 6-00 260 Sr.

65 Quinton Baker OL-DL 5-11 220 Jr.

70 Hunter Dillon OL-DL 5-11 260 So.

72 Andy Chapman OL-DL 6-05 265 So.

75 Jake Saunders OL-DL 5-11 220 Fr.

76 Jacob Oldaker OL-DL 5-10 250 So.

77 Marlee Andrade OL-DL 5-09 200 Fr.

79 Casey Barker OL-DL 6-00 250 Jr.

80 Uriah Brumfield WR-LB 6-00 180 Fr.

Head coach: Kevin Hutchison

Assistant coaches: Brent Wilcoxon, Chris Leese, Robby Isaacs, Brandon Noble, Jeremy Estep

2025 Football Schedule

Aug. 22 at Symmes Valley L 0-35

Aug. 29 MINFORD 7:00PM

Sept. 5 at Northwest 7:00PM

Sept. 12 at Coal Grove# 7:00PM

Sept. 19 GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS 7:00PM

Sept. 26 at Portsmouth# 7:00PM

Oct. 3 SOUTH POINT# 7:00PM

Oct. 10 at Gallia Academy# 7:00PM

Oct. 17 ROCK HILL# 7:00PM

Oct. 24 FAIRLAND# 7:00PM

#- Denotes OVC game