Moniteau football 2025 preview: What to watch, 3 things to know and schedule
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Moniteau quarterback Weston Cook throws a pass during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau head coach Clay Kohlmeyer works with quarterback Weston Cook during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau head coach Clay Kohlmeyer works with quarterback Weston Cook during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau football practices Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau's Bryan Hazlet works on conditioning during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau's Brendin Sankey sprints during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau football practices Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau's Bryan Hazlet does a footwork drill during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau football team practices Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau's Braden Beachem runs a footwork drill during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau's Carter Knight does drill work during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau's Carter Knight does drill work during football practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau football players practice Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau football practices Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at Moniteau High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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(L-R) Moniteau’s Brendin Sankey, Levi Lacava, and Braden Beachem during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau’s Levi Lacava during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau’s Levi Lacava during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau’s Braden Beachem during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau’s Braden Beachem during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau’s Brendin Sankey during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
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Moniteau’s Brendin Sankey during the Butler Eagle Football Media Day on Friday, Aug. 1, 2025, at Butler High School. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
New head coach Clay Kohlmeyer and player leadership are preaching two things heading into 2025: accountability and no quitting.
Those were two qualities lacking during a difficult 0-10 2024 season in which they were outscored 453-87, the team said repeatedly during Butler Eagle Football Media Day and the first day of practice.
Kohlmeyer said accountability won’t just be discipline, it’ll also require reinforcing positive performance and traits. Players like veteran leaders Brendin Sankey and Braden Beachem said it means staying together even during tough losses, showing perseverance.
Kohlmeyer, a former Warriors quarterback who went on to play in college, has coached in the Moniteau system as a high school assistant and in the youth program. Some of the players know him already, which has helped with some of the transition.
It’s all going to be about rebuilding, a dirty word in sports but an accurate one. The Warriors believe than can climb out of last year’s nadir and are realistic they won’t turn into a juggernaut overnight.
But a return to respectability? A few wins? There’s a sense of urgency to achieve both of those goals.
“Every day when I (was injured and not playing last year), I had to walk through them hallways at school and listen to kids talking about how bad the football team was,” senior left tackle and defensive end Braden Beachem said. “And it gets annoying.”
The key point in the season when they’ll know if they’ve set a new foundation will be the first few games. Kohlmeyer suggested Week 1’s opener against Coudersport. Sankey agreed. Beachem thinks he’ll know in the first scrimmage and was even more bullish about having a winning season. Sophomore guard and defensive end Bryan Hazlet pointed to a few other dates that will serve as this team’s barometer.
“Looking at the biggest competition, Port Allegany and Karns City, we got to go up against them to see how far we've come and see the progress that we've made,” Hazlet said.
Port Allegany is Week 2, and the Warriors host their arch rivals in Week 4. Last year’s contest in Week 1 ended in a 59-0 Gremlins rout, portending what was to come for Moniteau the rest of the season.
“We want (the school) to be proud of us,” Hazlet said.
Moniteau is playing in a new region this year after Sheffield High School closed this summer. District 9 reorganized the regions, dropping the Warriors from Region 1, where rival Karns City resides, to the small-school Region 3 with Kane, Keystone, Ridgway/Johnsonburg and Union/A-C Valley.
1. A simplified defense: Both sides of the ball are getting a schematic overhaul, with the offense pivoting to a Power-I run game and a simplified zone blocking scheme under coordinator Josh Loos. They are breaking in a new quarterback, sophomore Weston Cook. But on defense is where players expect to see the biggest change.
Sankey said the defense ran a college-style playbook with play call numbers meaning different things week to week. It caused confusion and frustration.
“I think I'm pretty smart, and I couldn't even figure it out for them,” he said. “But these coaches have simplified everything down to where anybody can understand this.”
This year, the Warriors are running a 3-4 scheme under coordinator Andy Larimore that’s more “see ball, hit ball; see player, hit player.” And that has players believing the defense will improve.
“I want it to be so simple that they just have to make some decisions on the fly, and they're not trying to figure out what to do from the get go,” Larimore said.
2. Chemistry class: Sankey, Beachem and Hazlet made it clear the first day of practice there is a better vibe in the locker room already. A new coaching staff has helped, but it’s also fallen on returning players to build a new culture.
It’s cliche every year when teams say a core has been in the weight room all offseason, but the Warriors have seen a renewed effort in training. It translated out of the weight room, too. Players and coaches competed against each other in a March Madness bracket, even watching some of the games together in their field house, and went to a team bonding camp.
Sankey and Beachem, especially, said the new energy should translate to Friday nights. The team too often quit early in games last year, they said, and this year they refuse to do the same, no matter the score.
“This new energy and everything, I'm so excited to be a part of,” Sankey said.
3. Small but stable: Kohlmeyer said he had 31 names signed up during the last signup period shortly before heat acclimatization began. The number participating during the first day of practice was in the high-20s.
There is work to be done from high school down through junior high to recruit more athletes in future years, but this year Moniteau wants stability. It had to forfeit a game in 2024 because too many injuries depleted an already small roster.
- Aug. 22, 7 p.m. — Coudersport at Moniteau
- Aug. 29, 7 p.m. — Moniteau at Port Allegany
- Sept. 5, 7 p.m. — Bucktail at Moniteau
- Sept. 12, 7 p.m. — Karns City at Moniteau*
- Sept. 19, 7 p.m. — Moniteau at Keystone*
- Sept. 26, 7 p.m. — Union/A-C Valley at Moniteau*
- Oct. 3, 7 p.m. — Moniteau at Ridgway/Johnsonburg*
- Oct. 11, 7 p.m. — Moniteau at Union City
- Oct. 17, 7 p.m. — Kane at Moniteau
- Oct. 24, 7 p.m. — Moniteau at St. Marys*
*Division/section/conference game
