Division 1 Upper Arlington Golden Bears 2024 Football Preview

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Yappi

Go Buckeyes
Upper Arlington Golden Bears
Columbus, OH
Franklin County
OHSAA Division I, Region 3​

2023 Overall Record: 10-4
2023 Playoff Results: 3-1
Points Scored: 321 (22.9)
Points Allowed: 175 (12.5)
League Affiliation: Ohio Capital Conference - Central

Head Coach: Justin Buttermore
Years Head Coach (current school): 5th
Record (current school): 37-13
Years Head Coach (overall): 21st
Record (overall): 181-54

Assistant Coaches:
Ryan Aleshire
Rob Page
Dujuan White
Marcello Velasquez
Michael Schaefer
Clint Cox
Kevin Cassidy
Sean Branick
Justin McClelland
Ted Wierzbicki
Ian Formaz
Drew Basil

Team's style of offense: Multiple Spread Offense

Top players returning on offense:
Kyle Cox- QB (1700 yards passing 16 TD's, 7 Int's)
Trent Wolpert- WR, All OCC (45 catches, 600 yds)
Wally Swiney- WR All OCC(35 catches, 500 yds)
Cal Thrush- TE (Michigan State commit)
Return 4 of our starting offensive lineman

Top players lost on offense:
Connor McClellan- RB (1st team all OCC)- 1,300 yard rusher, Middlebury College

New impact players on offense:
Drew Parker- TE
Jake Selcer-WR
Alek Diller-RB
Jayden Chinavong-RB
Luke Backes- QB/ATH

Team's style of defense: Multiple 3-4

Top players returning on defense:
Cal Thrush- DE - 1st Team OCC (Michigan State Commit)
Zach Corna- DB 1st Team OCC
Jake Braun-DB 1st Team OCC
Noah Gehlert- SAF (Ohio State lacrosse committ)
Nick Ardelea- SS/OLB

Top players lost on defense:
Cole Compton-DE (Denison University)
Steven Ye- Nose
George Gerber- ILB
Cam Baker- ILB
Tommy Janowicz- OLB
Duke Lashutka- SAF
Mac Igoe- SAF

New impact players on defense:
Owen Ross- DE, James Wilcox- OLB

Expected starters on special teams:
KICKER/PUNTER-Edward Oakley
PR- Nick Ardelea
PR- Wally Swiney
KR- Jake Braun
KR- Zach Corna
KR- Wally Swiney

Twitter:
@GoldenBears_FB

Final Comments:
We will have a veteran team with 33 seniors so starters will be made up of entirely seniors and juniors. We return about 8 offensive starters and expect to be much improved on that side of the ball. With the return of 4 offensive lineman we believe running the football can go from a weakness to a strength this season.

Defensively we return 5 very good players from a unit that played extremely during the second half of the season and the playoffs. However the other 6 starters have very limited experience on a varsity field. Our returning starters will need to be great leaders and play well to bring the inexperienced players along.

We have high expectations and believe we can compete for the OCC championship and a high playoff seed in our region. We have the pieces to develop into a very good team by the end of the year but that will only happen if we continue to have great, competitive practices and get great leadership from our senior class.

2023 Schedule/Results:

08/18/23​
WReynoldsburg (Reynoldsburg)
35​
6​
08/25/23​
WBig Walnut (Sunbury)
41​
14​
09/01/23​
LPickerington North (Pickerington)
8​
28​
09/08/23​
WWesterville Central (Westerville)
28​
12​
09/15/23​
WGroveport Madison (Groveport)
21​
7​
09/22/23​
LHilliard Bradley (Hilliard)
22​
24​
09/29/23​
LOlentangy Liberty (Powell)
16​
19​
OT1
10/06/23​
WOlentangy Orange (Lewis Center)
10​
0​
10/13/23​
WDublin Coffman (Dublin)
21​
3​
10/20/23​
WHilliard Davidson (Hilliard)
10​
0​
10/27/23​
WThomas Worthington (Worthington)
46​
3​
11/03/23​
WPickerington Central (Pickerington)
23​
17​
OT3
11/10/23​
WGahanna Lincoln (Gahanna)
12​
7​
11/17/23​
LHilliard Bradley (Hilliard)
28​
35​
OT2
 
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The team to beat in the best most balanced OCC conference. Defense will be better late than early but the offense will hit the ground running . Non conference ledger not that arduous overall but Glenville is a good test athletically and Berlin will compete with them . They have Coffman’s number but Liberty has gotten them twice in a row . That won’t happen again . Would set their over under win total at 8.5. 8-2 floor 9-1 ceiling
 
Harrycrane said:
The team to beat in the best most balanced OCC conference. Defense will be better late than early but the offense will hit the ground running . Non conference ledger not that arduous overall but Glenville is a good test athletically and Berlin will compete with them . They have Coffman’s number but Liberty has gotten them twice in a row . That won’t happen again . Would set their over under win total at 8.5. 8-2 floor 9-1 ceiling
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Is Glenville a good test athletically only? Let me guess, UA is a scrappy and hard nosed bunch of kids that bring their lunch pails. Full of kids that you’d want to marry your daughter and first in the weightroom and last out. They’re well coached and won’t beat themselves and I can’t forget that they’re sneaky athletic.
 
Tarblooder_Rocketgrad said:
Is Glenville a good test athletically only? Let me guess, UA is a scrappy and hard nosed bunch of kids that bring their lunch pails. Full of kids that you’d want to marry your daughter and first in the weightroom and last out. They’re well coached and won’t beat themselves and I can’t forget that they’re sneaky athletic.
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Not that this incredibly douchy response deserves addressing, but what Harry is saying is that GV is far superior athletically to the rest of their (relatively soft for UA, historically speaking) OOC schedule and is the only team prior to league play that presents the type of late-round playoff athleticism UA is likely to see. Nothing more to it than that.

I dont think any of us are sure what this years' teams will be like until they take the field for real, this isnt college or the pros and things change much more quickly at this level than they do at those levels. But if it is like last year's team, yes their strength is physicality and defense, not explosive offensive playmaking.

Enjoy your visit, lots of us in COH are looking forward to it.
 
ElDuderino said:
Not that this incredibly douchy response deserves addressing, but what Harry is saying is that GV is far superior athletically to the rest of their (relatively soft for UA, historically speaking) OOC schedule and is the only team prior to league play that presents the type of late-round playoff athleticism UA is likely to see. Nothing more to it than that.

I dont think any of us are sure what this years' teams will be like until they take the field for real, this isnt college or the pros and things change much more quickly at this level than they do at those levels. But if it is like last year's team, yes their strength is physicality and defense, not explosive offensive playmaking.

Enjoy your visit, lots of us in COH are looking forward to it.
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Incredibly douchy… No way, I love hard nosed scrappy ball players. I’m looking forward to next Friday as well, we couldn’t ask for a tougher opener.
 
Tarblooder_Rocketgrad said:
Incredibly douchy… No way, I love hard nosed scrappy ball players. I’m looking forward to next Friday as well, we couldn’t ask for a tougher opener.
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Yeah you must have loved it when those hard nosed scrappy Davidson boys beat Glenville back in the 2009 title game. Cannot get over it can you ? I've seen your posts downplaying Davidson saying they were lucky... blah blah blah. Not buying your sincerity here.
 
Tiger Alum said:
Yeah you must have loved it when those hard nosed scrappy Davidson boys beat Glenville back in the 2009 title game. Cannot get over it can you ? I've seen your posts downplaying Davidson saying they were lucky... blah blah blah. Not buying your sincerity here.
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Actually, that wasn’t me. That was someone else. I said HD timely passing and Christian Bryant dropping a potential touchdown led to HD’s victory. You tried it. Blah blah blah, that was 15 years and my son was 1y 4m at the time now he’s a member of the football program. I’m 100% invested and what happened in 2009 has no effect on this season for him or the team. Good luck to your Tigers this year.
 
Tarblooder_Rocketgrad said:
Is Glenville a good test athletically only? Let me guess, UA is a scrappy and hard nosed bunch of kids that bring their lunch pails. Full of kids that you’d want to marry your daughter and first in the weightroom and last out. They’re well coached and won’t beat themselves and I can’t forget that they’re sneaky athletic.
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Bruh 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
 
Tiger Alum said:
Yeah you must have loved it when those hard nosed scrappy Davidson boys beat Glenville back in the 2009 title game. Cannot get over it can you ? I've seen your posts downplaying Davidson saying they were lucky... blah blah blah. Not buying your sincerity here.
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That's was me and I stand by that statement. They did get lucky. You should take that chip you have on your shoulder over my opinion down to the school and maybe the glory days will return. Also didn't I say this in relation to Cleveland Heights of winning the state championship in 2024? Whats "posts"? I made one post in one sentence that was barely even about Davidson.
 
NEOfan said:
That's was me and I stand by that statement. They did get lucky. You should take that chip you have on your shoulder over my opinion down to the school and maybe the glory days will return. Also didn't I say this in relation to Cleveland Heights of winning the state championship in 2024? Whats "posts"? I made one post in one sentence that was barely even about Davidson.
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Luck? I would have to strongly strongly strongly disagree. They were a run dominant and they completed the biggest passes in school history that night, not luck in my opinion. And Bryant dropping a touchdown isn’t luck, poor execution.
 
Tarblooder_Rocketgrad said:
Is Glenville a good test athletically only? Let me guess, UA is a scrappy and hard nosed bunch of kids that bring their lunch pails. Full of kids that you’d want to marry your daughter and first in the weightroom and last out. They’re well coached and won’t beat themselves and I can’t forget that they’re sneaky athletic.
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Friday should be fun. Get there early, parking will be a mess.
 
Tarblooder_Rocketgrad said:
I’m glad you confirmed. I was thinking about leaving CLE around 4:15ish: think I’ll leave at 3:30p. Looking forward to a great game Friday night and a great JV game as well. Good luck to your Bears but not too much luck!
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Both games should be competitive. Find a side street close to the Marv, then you can walk over to Kingsdale shopping center. Several options for a pregame snack and cocktail
 
ironmanz35 said:
Both games should be competitive. Find a side street close to the Marv, then you can walk over to Kingsdale shopping center. Several options for a pregame snack and cocktail
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That was my next thing. Any bars with a pretty good bourbon selection in the shopping center? Thanks!
 
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Tarblooder_Rocketgrad said:
That was my thing. Any bars with a pretty good bourbon selection in the shopping center? Thanks!
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Old Bag of Nails and Houlihans are probably your only 2 options, OBON is a little further walk but the better option IMO, they should have a half decent selection, and are a proper irish pub
 
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