The Shelbyville Central Golden Eagles are coming off of their first 10-win season since 2019, and as the defending Region 5-5A champions, they are looking to see if they can reach those heights once again this year.

Despite losing 11 seniors to graduation, including their starting center, Ean Matusek, third-year head coach John Dryden is sneaky confident about the group he has in preparation for the 2024 campaign. With a trip to Murfreesboro to play the Siegel Stars on tap to open the season on Thursday night, the Golden Eagles will be looking for revenge after last season began with a 55-43 home defeat. In the build up to Thursday’s matchup, Shelbyville has used three different scrimmages during the month of August to get ready for Week One.

“Overall we played well through all three, and guys are starting to come back now off of some injuries,” Dryden said. “We did some good things, which is what you want to see from scrimmages, and you also want to see things you need to correct right away.”

One of those things that the coaching staff has had to work through in both the offseason and fall camp is the void left by not just Matusek at the quarterback spot, but gaps left by all the graduating seniors on both offense and defense. They were such a massive part of the program’s two year turnaround from 1-10 in Dryden’s first year to 10-2 last season, but there is quite a bit of young returning talent on the roster. 

“It’s been a tight race, but we’re going to be going with Stephen Bobo at quarterback,” Dryden revealed. “Mason Shavers is going to take over a starting wide receiver spot, and that will be a good fit for him. We’ve got to have his leadership on the field. He is such a great young man that there was a place for him and he’s going to do well out there. As a whole at wide receiver, we are in good shape. Replacing the offensive line, however, with the guys that left us, it’s been tough. We are very talented but inexpereinced.”

Bobo, a sophomore lefty and standout for the Golden Eagles’ baseball team as both a pitcher and a batter as a freshman, will have a very promising tailback in the backfield with him in junior Robert Bailey. Sophomore Nate Zimmerman along with Torrion Mathis will look to spell him at times, but Dryden has made it clear that Bailey is the “bellcow” at running back. 

Bailey has also impressed the coaching staff by taking a leadership role as a junior. In high school this is something that you simply don’t see everyday, but Bailey has taken it in stride in the build up to the regular season. If the offensive line can progress in the way that Dryden thinks they have the potential to, Shelbyville’s offense will have a chance to make some noise once again this year.

On the defensive side of the ball, the biggest place of concern after last season is at the linebacker spot. Even with that concern, there are some sophomores who have shown flashes in camp.

“Coming into the offseason and into the season itself we were worried about inside linebacker after losing Logan McBee, but we’ve had two different guys step up to be able to play there,” said Dryden. “We’ve moved Robert Bailey back to the outside linebacker spot, and Jackson Themm has played really well as a sophomore through the spring. Nate Zimmerman is a really great young man, a sophomore, talented, hard-nosed, does everything you want, so he’s going to play a lot at both linebacker spots.”

The defensive line is another group that is replacing a couple seniors, specifically at defensive tackle.

“We struggled at first with how we were going to replace Raydaun Crenshaw and Tarvis McClain,” Dryden continued. “Coach Ransom and Coach Curtis have done a great job, and we look to be as good there as we were at any point last year basically through a rotation. It’s taking more than two guys to do it, but it still looks pretty good.” 

After so much talk about last year’s senior class, this year’s batch of seniors have continued to raise the standard of what it means to be a Golden Eagle in 2024.

  “These seniors have really and truly bought in to what it means to be part of our culture, and all the facets of that culture that play out,” Dryden explained. “They have not only bought into it, but they have the expectation that everyone else will follow. That has been huge for us. It’s one of the reasons we played well in the first three scrimmages, and it’s one of the reasons we played well in the spring scrimmage. They are out here doing the work and doing the job, and we are slowly but surely becoming player-led. Any team that is player-led the correct way has a chance to be great, but at the end of the day we don’t know, all we can do is show up, put the effort in, do the right things, and then the Lord takes it from there.”

“They have been instrumental in getting us to where we are right now,” he said with a smile.

The non-region schedule this season for Shelbyville Central is unforgiving, starting with Siegel and Marshall County in the first two weeks, but the outlook going into every game is still the same. 

“It’s [Siegel] is a game just like any other, and you obviously want to win as many as possible in the season. Being the season opener, obviously you want to come out and make a statement and you want to play well, knowing that there are still going to be mistakes,” Dryden acknowledged. “Playing a team like Siegel out of Rutherford County, who plays a tough schedule which in and of itself makes them a tough ball club, it’s good for us to see where we are at. It’s a great test for us to know what we’re working with. Following that up with Marshall County, one of the top 4-A programs in Middle Tennessee, if not the entire state, going back to back like that tells us exactly where we are at, so we are pretty excited.”

To add some extra motivation, next Thursday, August 29, is when Marshall County makes the trip east to Shelbyville, and the Golden Eagles will be honoring the Bedford County Training School before kickoff. 

With three of the first four games coming against non-region opponents, the development and growth of some sophomores at key position groups will be instrumental in building towards region play. 

“Sophomores, we’ve got some guys that are playing well right now,” Dryden said. “We’re fixing to start a sophomore quarterback, we’ve got a sophomore tight end that is going to be starting for us, two sophomore offensive linemen, so they are going to play a lot. They’re talented, it’s just that maturity that comes with experience, not that they are immature at all, but experience plays. That experience is what hurts about losing those offensive linemen from last year, but like I said we have progressed and we feel like we are getting there.”

Shelbyville Central went 5-0 in Region 5-5A play last season, highlighted by a 29-27 home win over Columbia Central early in the season, but they recognize that nothing comes easy no matter what happened a year ago. Every game matters, whether it’s a region matchup or not.

“Last year proved there are no easy wins in this region,” Dryden emphasized. “Yea, we won a couple of them relatively easily on the scoreboard, but you’ve got to come in prepared and ready to play because everything in this region, there’s no guarantee that you’re just going to walk in and win. So the outlook on it is pretty simple: we need to take these first three games and use them for what they are to get ready for our first region game against Columbia Central who year in year out is the most talented team in this region top to bottom. We’ll get one more non-region game against Wilson Central to try and fix whatever we saw from Columbia, and then we hit the meat of it. At that point, you better show up and play football. It doesn't matter where anybody finished last year because everything changes every year. We’ve got to be ready and we’ve got to be prepared and these guys have got to be focused on it.”

How do you make sure every guy is staying ready and prepared in the necessary way to play at a high level? Focusing on the process.

“Not to steal from Nick Saban, but we truly focus on effort and process,” Dryden explained. “The mechanics of a play, we focus on the mental and physical effort that it takes to play, the emotional regulation that it takes to play, we zero in on those things that we can control, and then we allow everything else to play itself out. Sometimes it ends up positive for us on the scoreboard, sometimes it ends up negative, but at the end of the day it’s about these guys maturing in experience and learning how to play a game that leads them into life.”

Focusing on the details to an almost exhausting level is how great teams are built, and Shelbyville Central doesn’t take any shortcuts in that department. However, that doesn’t mean that the team isn’t fun to be around for everyone associated.

“All of our upperclassmen are fun – they’re not the same as last year, but they’re not supposed to be – and focused, and when they show up, they work, and when the work is over, they’re fun to be around,” Dryden concluded. “That’s what I love about this group, and I have loved it since I took over three years ago. They’re just fun to be around because they’ve come to understand when to flip the switch to work, and when they can go play. One of the best things about it is they have truly taken on the family and brotherhood aspect of this game, this team, and this culture, and that just warms my heart.”

“I think that sets us apart.”

Shelbyville Central opens the season on the road against Siegel at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 22, live on WLIJ 98.7 starting at 6:45 p.m.