Submitted photo / Pastor Photography The 2024 Grand Valley High School football team.

ORWELL — With some experience returning from last fall’s roster, Grand Valley eyes a big fall campaign during the 2024 season.

Now in the Northeastern Athletic Conference, coach Clinton Nims and company are prepared for the road that lies ahead.

“This is the best offseason that we’ve had in a long time. The guys have been busting their butts and we’re starting to see some results from it,” Nims said. “Team chemistry has been a big part of it, but we don’t have team chemistry if we don’t have leadership from our seniors. Our seniors have done a great job of being leaders, encouraging people, and making us come together as a team.

“It helps when you have success. You’ve put in all of that hard work, you want to see some success from it, and so far in our couple 7-on-7s that we had, we’ve seen some results from that hard work and when you get that success it’s a little easier to come together as a team.”

It’s about focusing on the details.

“Two things we said we needed to focus on this offseason was being tougher and being more disciplined,” Nims said. “We said, hey, our workouts will make us tougher — the coaches, we’ll do that part, but it’s on the guys’ part to be disciplined. It’s their job to show up and put in the work.

“Credit to them, they’ve shown up, and they’ve put in the work. Adversity makes you stronger. When things are easy, life isn’t easy. We’re going to face a lot of adversity in life, and those tough situations prepare us for life after football.”

Posting a 2-8 record last season, the Mustangs have a much different schedule with their move to the NAC. Non-conference showdowns against Conneaut and Edgewood parallel last year’s slate during the first two weeks, with Cardinal thrown in as a familiar foe. They’ll then take on Warren John F. Kennedy and Windham before opening NAC play at home versus Fairport Harding.

A road trip to Mathews continues league play, followed by a non-conference game at Rootstown, then another league contest at St. John. Grand Valley ends their regular season at home versus Pymatuning Valley to round out NAC play.

“We scrimmaged some of the (NAC) teams in the past, so we have some familiarity with them. We’re looking forward to rekindling some of those rivalries and relationships,” Nims said. “Our expectation is to make it to the playoffs and have some success in the playoffs. We have to play teams like Kennedy because we know they’re going to be tough and they know how to play postseason football. We’re going to see teams like that in the playoffs, so we’re excited about that opportunity.”

OFFENSE

The Mustangs are led by senior Sammy Goforth who started all ten games for Grand Valley last fall, passing for 813 yards, five touchdowns and 13 interceptions, all while gaining another 137 yards on the ground.

“Sammy is a gunslinger, he’s not afraid to make plays. You talk about adversity, he’s a guy that loves adversity and finds ways to overcome it,” Nims said. “He’s a guy you want to go to battle with because he’ll fight until the very end.”

Junior Mason Kocab will serve as QB2.

Senior running back John Foss-Peters (397 all-purpose yards, four touchdowns), and tight end Mark Hall are much needed assets that can attack defenses in different ways, on the ground or over the air.

“That makes things easier for us, we’re going to be real good up front,” Nims said. “We have our whole offensive line returning from last year, they’re all juniors and sophomores. We’re going to lean on them a lot, we’re looking forward to playing a little bit of smash mouth football.”

Senior Andrew Soltis was the Mustangs leading rusher last fall (367 yards on 100 carries, two touchdowns), looking to wear down defenses against this year.

“(Soltis) is a farm boy, he’s a tough kid that’ll get the job done for us,” Nims said.

Moving over to the experienced offensive line, juniors Austin Miller, Blake Taylor, Kyle Mullet, sophomores Bryce Meeker and Max Thirion return as the five starters from last fall.

“We’re going to rely on those guys offensively and defensively,” Nims said. “To have a good football program, you have to be good up front and we’re counting on those guys to be good for us.”

DEFENSE

All the same names from the offensive line are present on the defensive line, such as Miller, Taylor, Mullet, Meeker, Thirion, with Hall thrown into the mix. Sophomore Kingston Barnes and freshman Jeremiah Corll will rotate in on the defensive line as well.

Soltis returns at the linebacker position, posting 62 tackles, five for a loss, and a forced fumble. Senior Nick Krieg and Joe Montgomery will assist in the middle as well, along with Mullet.

There’s plenty of athleticism in the secondary with junior Lane Gallagher and Kocab (27 tackles, two fumble recoveries), at safety.

Goforth (22 tackles, one interception), Foss-Peters (16 tackles, one interception) will man the outside. Senior Shawn Hall junior Noah Waldo will be another couple of names to keep an eye on in the secondary.

SPECIAL TEAMS

Senior Ryan Waldo, who’s also on the soccer team, will take over kicking duties, along with junior Lucas Mitchell. Goforth will once again be the Mustangs’ punter.

A slew of returners include Foss-Peters, Kocab, and Gallagher.

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