Preseason football top 10: Falcons hoping to bring community together in 2024

About this series: With the high school football season set to kick off in two months, The News-Gazette will shine the spotlight every Friday on our preseason Top-10 teams for the 2024 season.

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GIBSON CITY — Chad Augspurger isn’t sweating the fact his Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley football team will only have five seniors this fall.

If anything, he’s leaning into it ahead of his third season at the helm of the program.

“It’s small-town football,” Augspurger said. “There are two-ways starters, (and) a lot of these guys had a lot of success last year. ... You look at numbers and you want to have a lot of numbers, but it’s really quality over quantity at this point. We’ve been very pleased with the leadership they’ve shown so far.”

Matt Allen, Austin Kasper, Brayden Elliott, Cohen Kean and Ryker Grauer will all factor heavily into the Falcons’ scheme this fall as the Falcons — the No. 8 team in The News-Gazette’s preseason Top 10 poll — look to build on a 2023 campaign that ended with a 6-4 record and a loss at Aurora Christian in the first round of the Class 1A playoffs.

Especially Elliott, now in his third season as the Falcons’ quarterback.

And only a few months removed from helping the school’s baseball team reach the state tournament for the first time as a pitcher and infielder.

“What you put in is what you get out,” Elliott said, “and I think a lot of people are just going to carry that over.”

It wasn’t long ago Elliott and the rest of the Falcons’ senior class were watching the likes of Nathan Garard, Mitch McNutt, Bryce Barnes and a host of other standouts capture state hardware of their own.

Augspurger was an assistant coach under Mike Allen — now exclusively GCMS’ athletic director — when the Falcons combined to go 28-0 during two seasons and won a pair of Class 2A state titles in 2017 and 2018.

Memories of the Ford County community awash in red and black are something the current Falcons want to restore.

“The whole town coming together and watching the football games was just a great experience,” Elliott said. “I can’t imagine what it must have been like for the players, that feeling of coming out and your whole town watching you play on Friday nights and doing what they did is just unbelievable. And I can only hope for a season like that this year.”

A deep roster of juniors and underclassmen are reasons for Augspurger to believe this year’s Falcons can achieve just that.

Few players are more excited to go than Kasper, who suffered a wrist injury during the second week of the 2023 football season and was sidelined through the Falcons’ basketball season.

“It’s been awhile since I’ve been able to do anything,” Kasper said. “But being able to see the game from the sideline and seeing what coaches are really talking about definitely helped me realize certain things.”

Junior tailback Jacob Chase — noted by Augspurger for his speed — has the fortune of running behind offensive lineman Matt Allen, a First Team All-Area pick by The News-Gazette last season.

“He has done everything we’ve asked of him,” Augspurger said. “He looks very good right now and we’re excited to see what he can do.”

A pair of juniors in Logan Ward and Kale Holzhauer will factor into the Falcons’ playing time on both sides of the ball, too.

“There’s a lot to be excited about with this team,” Augspurger said. “We’re going to need some younger guys to step up. ... There’s quite a few others that we feel are really going to be good contributors for us.”

Another defender in the mix for the Falcons is Jackson Wright, who eyes a step forward for his junior campaign.

“He’s really our player who does whatever the team needs,” Grauer said. “This year, hopefully, he’s got a chance at linebacker and I think he can be a big help. He’s a true teammate, and he’s just an awesome player.”

A successful season for the Falcons, who start on Aug. 30 when they host Ridgeview/Lexington, is just as much about filling the stands for their home games as it is making a deep playoff run. Even with several new foes like Central A&M, Meridian, Tuscola and Warrensburg-Latham on the slate.

“We just want to bring the town together,” Keene said. “With the state championship teams, the feeling around the town was amazing. When those state championship games happened that day, there was nobody in the town. We always (said) somebody could have came in and robbed every single house because everybody was at that game watching. It would just be awesome to get the town that close together again.”

Four-down territory

Four items to know about the Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley football team — The News-Gazette’s No. 8 team in our preseason Top 10 poll — before the 2024 season kicks off on Aug. 30:

2024 Schedule

DATE OPPONENT TIME

Aug. 30 vs. Ridgeview/Lexington 7 p.m.

Sept. 6 at Warrensburg-Latham 7 p.m.

Sept. 13 at Fisher 7 p.m.

Sept. 20 vs. Meridian 7 p.m.

Sept. 27 vs. Heyworth 7 p.m.

Oct. 4 at Tuscola 7 p.m.

Oct. 11 at Fieldcrest 7 p.m.

Oct. 18 at LeRoy 7 p.m.

Oct. 25 vs. Central A&M 7 p.m.

2023 Recap

The Falcons responded well from a 1-1 start, rattling off four straight wins by an average of 24 points, to become playoff-eligible before Week 7 arrived. A close 8-6 home win against LeRoy in Week 8 sealed the first playoff berth in coach Chad Augspurger’s tenure that started at 2022, but Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley went one-and-done in the Class 1A playoffs following a 38-7 first-round loss at Aurora Christian.

Falcons’ postseason history

Peaked in 2017 and 2018. GCMS capped off a magical, unbeaten 14-0 season in 2017 with a Class 2A state championship at Huskie Stadium in DeKalb. And followed it up a year later with another 14-0 season that resulted in another 2A state title, this time at Memorial Stadium in Champaign. GCMS has 20 playoff berths since 1995, and 23 if you count the three Gibson City made it 1976, 1977 and 1986.

Three Falcons to watch

➜ 1. Brayden Elliott. Entering his third season as the GCMS starting quarterback, Elliot is poised for a big senior season.

➜ 2. Matt Allen. Whether it’s pass-blocking for Elliott or clogging up opposing offensive lines, this two-way senior starter for the Falcons will be crucial in 2024.

➜ 3. Jacob Chase. GCMS has produced a long line of successful running backs. Is the speedy junior next in line?