Ending last year undefeated, it seems this year’s football JVC team, which is a combination of junior varsity and freshman players, is on a similar trajectory. As of Oct. 16, the team’s record is 6-1, led by freshman captains Carter Gwyn (he/him) and Lincoln Hendricksen (he/him) and sophomore captains Kaid Maehren and Hudson Cowan (he/him).
Hendricksen, who’s entering his 8th season of football, said the team has an advantage due to their unique combination of freshmen and sophomores.
“The biggest strength is probably the sophomores. Most other C-teams don’t have sophomores. Having big, tall, fat linemen that are menacing…yeah, it’s pretty nice,” Hendricksen said.
Gwyn also said that having sophomores on the team is a significant advantage that has contributed to Ingelmoor’s historic dominance of the JVC league. However, he said that due to the team’s regular wins, mistakes can cause a steep drop in momentum, which he highlighted as their primary weakness.
“It was the first loss for all the sophomores on the C-team,” Gwyn said, referring to the team’s first game against Oak Harbor on Sept. 11. “It was the first time they ever lost in high school football. It was rough for them. And it was rough for the freshmen. It was pretty emotional.”
Traditionally, the JVC team has performed better than varsity in terms of record. Varsity senior quarterback Gavin Krambrink (he/him) also credits the JVC team’s success to their sophomores.
“We don’t have enough players for a JV, so we put all of our sophomores and freshmen on one team, and then our juniors and seniors on another team, and the JVC-team plays against other C-teams that are freshmen only. Also, our offense is run so it’s easy to read by defense at a varsity level, but at a C-team level, no one is smart enough to read it. So our offense works a lot better at a C-team level,” Krambrink said.
Cowan said the younger team puts a greater emphasis on running plays and emphasizing each player’s individual skill set.
“The C-team is more connected, there’s better friendships. The C-team all has the same goal: to win. The varsity has the same goal, but they don’t really follow it,” Cowan said.
Gwyn added that the JVC team has a stronger motivation to win, perhaps due to the increased pressure that comes with having a historically strong team. However, he was surprised by the JCV team’s response to varsity’s first loss against Oak Harbor, which he said included singing Travis Scott’s hit song “Fein” on the bus ride home. Krambrink added that the varsity bus was silent on the return trip.
“That was the first high school football game I’d ever been to, and on the bus ride home, I was just amazed that we were singing karaoke,” Gwyn said. “I was thinking in my head, ‘There’s no way that Inglemoor is so used to losing that we can be singing karaoke after we got beat 60 to 8.’”
Assistant Coach Jeremy Eubanks (he/him) said that because of the stronger friendships on the C-team, he anticipates the entire program to grow as current C-team players move to varsity.
“I think the kids are friends inside and outside of football,” Eubanks said over text. “When you have that friendship bond, they seem to trust each other more and push each other and hold each other accountable differently than if they were just playing football together. Each class is different each year, but the past 2 years C-teams have just been a bunch of friends, playing football together, so I believe that we’ll see their success transfer to a varsity level soon.”
