Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
The Lima News
High school football: Bath looks to go from surprise to success
By Chris Howell,
14 hours ago
Bath’s Liam Sullivan (#44) returns for his junior year with a prominent role on defense. Richard Parrish | The Lima News
BATH TOWNSHIP — Through the first six weeks of last season, Bath went 4-2. The Wildcats upset defending state-champion New Bremen 14-7 in week one and pulled out one-score victories against Shawnee, Elida and Ottawa-Glandorf.
Unfortunately for the Wildcats, their last victory came on Sept. 22 against the Titans.
A back-loaded schedule included Celina, Defiance, Wapakoneta and St. Marys, four of the top five teams in the Western Buckeye League.
Those four losses, and a first-round playoff exit against eventual state champion Glenville, left Bath with a final record of 4-7.
That’s a four-win improvement from 2022, when the Wildcats went 0-10.
Last season was about changing the culture for the then-first-year coach Frank Russell. This season, it’s about building on that successful first half and taking another step forward.
“The foundation of our program is that we want to get better every single day,” said Russell, who enters his second year at Bath. “Everything else will take care of itself. That’s our goal as a team for both the players and the coaching staff.”
Part of getting better for the Wildcats is determining the best option to lead the offense.
Last year’s starting quarterback Zach Welsch, a 2022 WBL honorable mention, is battling it out for the job with sophomore Dylan Cole, who’s coming off a strong junior varsity season as a freshman.
Russell used scrimmage season to determine the winner.
“Daniel played really well last year, and we know what Zach did for us,” Russell said. “He was a warrior every week who gave us everything he had and he left it all on the field. Without a doubt, both of those are in our top 22, so they’re going to be playing a lot of varsity football.”
Welsch passed for 1,816 yards and seven touchdowns as a sophomore. He also carried the ball 91 times for 331 yards and scored 13 touchdowns.
Regardless of which player is named starting quarterback, Russell said the other will slot into another prominent offensive role.
Playing the team’s 22 best players is important to the coaching staff. One player who definitely fits the bill is running back Mikey Hale.
The 5-8, 150-pound Hale ran for 1,040 yards and five touchdowns last season on 175 carries. He finished second on the team in total yards only to Welsch, earning him a spot on the WBL’s second team.
Hale, who accounted for 66% of Bath’s rushing offense, even drew a smile from his head coach after a mention of his development.
“He’s really fun to coach because he works really hard, and he’s worked on his body. He didn’t have a WBL-ready body last year, but that’s not the case this year,” Russell said of Hale. “He’s going to bring everything else he normally brings, but now he’s stronger, faster, quicker, and we’re pretty excited about him.”
Defensively, Bath is a work in progress.
During its five-game losing streak to end the 2023 season, the Wildcats surrendered 38 points per game.
Junior Carson Kinnaird returns after recording a team-high 97 tackles and 5.5 sacks. He’s joined by Liam Sullivan, Vinny Vendetta, Jack Rader, Kyle Slaght, Andru McDermot, Ethan Stevens, Foster Deters and Espn Mikesell, who all lettered in 2023.
The Wildcats put together their best defensive game on week one against New Bremen, where they limited the Cardinals to seven points.
“We played well on defense at times last year,” Russell said. “It wasn’t a complete wash, but I felt like our kids started to realize what level of toughness they need to play with on defense. You need to be a little bit different to play defense. We want to run fast and hit hard. That’s a motto we’re trying to live up to this year.”
Bath has the benefit of a backloaded schedule with games against Celina, Defiance, Wapakoneta and St. Marys coming in weeks 6-10.
The Wildcats dropped from Division IV, Region 14 to Division V, Region 20 for the 2024 season. It’s something that Russell thinks his team can take advantage of come playoff time.
“That could be beneficial for us, but we still have to play in the WBL,” he said. “In this league, you have to be at your best every week to win games. What we focus on controlling what we can control so we can go out and compete on Friday nights.”
Bath opens with New Bremen on Aug. 23, then enters conference play on Aug. 30 against Van Wert, followed by Shawnee and Kenton. They’ll face Elida and Ottawa-Glandorf before facing that four-game gauntlet to close out the regular season.
Get updates delivered to you daily. Free and customizable.
It’s essential to note our commitment to transparency:
Our Terms of Use acknowledge that our services may not always be error-free, and our Community Standards emphasize our discretion in enforcing policies. As a platform hosting over 100,000 pieces of content published daily, we cannot pre-vet content, but we strive to foster a dynamic environment for free expression and robust discourse through safety guardrails of human and AI moderation.
Most Popular
Comments / 0