By Chris Parker
Ash Grove football had a strong 2024 season going 8-3 overall before falling to eventual Class 1 state champion Adrian in the district semifinals. The Pirates’ three losses came to teams with a combined 32-5 record.
This season, several key contributors at skill positions return.
“We are really confident with our skill kids on both offense and defense,” Ash Grove head coach Ryan Long said. “Linebackers and secondary, we are confident with those. Running back, quarterback and receivers, (we) are confident with those.”
Kyler Reece returns as a quarterback and linebacker. He was a unanimous First-Team All-Southwest Conference linebacker last season and first-team quarterback. He was Class 1 Third-Team All-State as a linebacker as well. Reece threw for 1,345 yards and 14 touchdowns.
Harrison Thompson returns as Reece’s top target in the passing game. He hauled in 51 catches for 743 yards and 10 touchdowns on his way to unanimous First-Team All-Southwest Conference honors. He was also a first-team all-conference defensive back.
Alex Acosta joins Thompson as a receiver and linebacker. He earned honorable mention all-conference honors as a linebacker last season.
Chase Acosta will be a running back and linebacker coming off a second-team all-conference selection at linebacker.
Look for the running game to be more prevalent this season for Ash Grove.
“We are trying to figure out what we want to be,” Long said. “Last year, we ended up throwing the ball more than we wanted. We really want to run the ball a lot more this year.”
Ash Grove will need to break in a completely new offensive line to be able to run the ball with more frequency this season. Among the graduated offensive linemen were three all-conference selections.
“The thing that is going to give us problems this year to start year off is our offensive line,” Long said. “We lost five offensive linemen. We don’t have hardly any experience coming back. We only have one guy on the offensive line that got varsity snaps last year. That inexperience up front is tough for any football team.”
Defensively, Long wants his team to be go after takeaways once again.
“We had a great year of success last year defensively with turnovers,” Long said. “We hope that continues. That was one of our goals last year was to increase our turnovers. That was one of our goals last year was to increase our turnovers. I think we averaged close three turnovers which is pretty good for any team.”
Ash Grove travels to Sarcoxie for a jamboree on Aug. 22. The Pirates open the regular season on Aug. 29 at home against Diamond.
