As Whitley County celebrates 60 years of football, the Colonels are headed into the 2026 football season with one goal.
“[We want to] go from where we are to a little bit better and just keep stacking those days until, you know, we are, you know, [a] really strong football program,” said Whitley County Head Coach Matt Rhymer.
The Colonels are headed into their fourth season with Rhymer.
Last season, the team ended with a 1-10 record and went 0-3 in district play.
This year’s squad isn’t letting last year’s record define them.
“There’s two home field spots in the playoffs,” Rhymer explained. “Finishing first or second in district, playing a home playoff game, that’s, I think, that will be our goal always and that’s been no different this year.”
To obtain that goal, the Colonels are leaning into a “Colonel pride and Whitley built” mindset.
“You know so we talk about Colonel Pride and Whitley built, like, you know having a ton of pride in being a Whitley County Colonel, representing our school, community, each other the right way, and you know, being blue collar and tough and disciplined,” said Rhymer. “I think we have a bunch of guys that fit that mold.”
While the Colonels’ coaching staff work to instill that mentality into the team, it is the players themselves who may be impacting each other the most.
Senior John Richardson described the team like this, “Right now, I feel like we got a bunch of guys that are unselfish and they just care more about the team than themselves”
Fellow senior Christian Wilson echoed Richardson’s outlook.
“This is going to be our building year,” said Wilson. “I know a goal for the whole team, coaches, is obviously to win, but just seeing everybody improve individually would probably be the biggest thing.”
Last season, the Colonels put up 92 points while allowing 448.
The team lost several key players, including its rushing (1130 yards) and scoring (60 points) leader Dee Parker, to graduation but they are returning players like incoming sophomore Brayden Stephens, who was the Colonels’ second leading tackler last year behind Caleb Cureton.
While more than half of this year’s crew will be underclassmen, Rhymer remains optimistic.
“It’s hard to replace guys you know and what their certain skill sets were, but you know really, what that does is it creates opportunities for these guys that have to step up and fill new roles and mature pretty fast,” Rhymer explained. “[Younger players] kind of figure out their role and purpose on the team and do that with great effort every day and take pride in it and take on that leadership role themselves.”
Whitley County will kick off regular season play on Friday at home against Knox Central.
Last season, the Colonels’ only win was against the Panthers. They took home a 34-22 victory on the road.
