First-year coach enjoys Ryle run

By Rick Broering, Enquirer contributor

Ryle coach Mike Engler's first year in Union has "been a blast."

The rookie head coach watched his Raiders, who won just five games combined the last two seasons, go from a 1-5 start to a current 6-5 record that includes wins over district opponents Boone County and Campbell County, plus a first-round upset playoff win over George Rogers Clark, 28-14.

"The excitement, not only with the team but the excitement around the school and the fact that they all believe in themselves and believe that they can win, it's been a lot of fun," Engler said. "Once they started believing, it just became fun for them. They enjoy going to practice, they enjoy being together as a team and they're just having a lot of fun."

If the Raiders want the fun to continue past this week, they'll have to take down the only team in the area that might be hotter than them at the moment, the Dixie Colonels.

The two teams will kick off Friday night at 7 p.m. at Dixie in the second round of the KHSAA 6A state playoffs.

The Colonels quickly turned their season around after a season-opening 41-7 loss to CovCath.

Since then, they've won 10 straight games, including a 35-24 win over Ryle in week nine to clinch the district's top seed.

The Raiders found success moving the football that game and were able score points, but shutting down Dixie's offense, particularly dual-threat quarterback Drew Moore, proved difficult.

"Drew Moore is one of the best I've seen in a long time," Engler said. "We were actually able to contain him running the ball a few times the first time we played them, but he has an arm that's unbelievable and he threw the ball really well against us. We went in the game to stop the run last time and he exposed the fact that he can throw the football."

While Moore and his big offensive line have established themselves as the top rushing offense in the area, Ryle's offense with the combo of Colin England and Mitchell Bateman in the backfield is right behind them. England has had a breakout year and became the focal point of the Raiders' offense as the season went on, rushing for 1,082 yards and nine touchdowns. Batemen (428 yards, 7 touchdowns) has gotten less than half the carries of England, but has the talent to be a featured back as well. He showed that last week when he rushed 17 times for 105 yards and two touchdowns in a first-round playoff win.

"Mitchell kind of gets overlooked a little bit," Engler said. "Mitchell has had a great season, too, but because he's playing with Colin and Colin's had such a good season people tend to overlook Mitchell in the process."

The emergence of those two talented runners coincided with the improvement and growth of the Raiders' offensive line. The group – which includes center Jordan Collette, the versatile Logan Ross, left guard Tristan Hall, left tackle Tucker Teepen, right guard Jacob House and right tackle Chase Ross – has developed into a confident and physical unit that can dominate a game.

"Logan (Ross) is the big guy on the line. He makes the calls," Engler said. "He's a Division I talent that is getting looked at by several schools, including Southern Illinois. He's been great, and he's learned every position on the offensive line, which has been a luxury because we've been able to move him around when we have injuries and we can just rotate those guys."

The growth shown, chemistry developed and confidence gained by the offensive line is really a microcosm of the Raiders' entire team this year. And that's also what's made the season so enjoyable for their head coach, regardless of what happens on Friday night.

"It's been a blast. I don't think I've had this much fun coaching a team in quite some time," Engler said. "The biggest thing for me is seeing these young men grow and mature, and to go from putting their heads down when something bad happens to all of a sudden getting excited about everything that goes on. To me, that's just as rewarding as winning a football game. The way that these kids have overcome and grown up over the season has been remarkable."