[16BBall Fan]

The Broncos of Frederick Douglass coming off of last season's 15-0 and 5A state championship are upping their schedule big time. They have moved to 6A and with the Fayette BOE dropping the requirement that all city schools must play each other it allowed Douglass to add 7 games to their schedule instead of just 1 as they have had in past seasons and add they have. This year Douglass has added Louisville Trinity, Cathedral (Indianapolis, IN), Corbin and this week's opponent Archbishop Hoban who is one of the best teams no matter what class in the state of Ohio.

Hoban is ranked pre-season #5 overall in the state of Ohio and was the DII state-runner-up last season. The Hoban Knights are coached by Tim Tyrrell who is in his 11th season coaching the Knights his record at Hoban is 116-20. In his first 10 seasons at Hoban, they have played in 7 state championship games going 5-2. The Knights return 28 players who played significant minutes last season. The majority of their experience is on the defensive side of the ball. They currently have 5 players already signed to play at the next level with 4 of those 5 on the defensive side of the ball. Those 4 are Ricky WIlliams (WVU) who heads a star-studded line-backer group. The other LB is Devin Bell (Univ. of Miami). They have a very good DB in Ty Campbell (Cent. Mich.) They also have on the D-line 6'1 and 280 pound Jordan Prichard-Swell (Holy Cross) he led the defense last season with 20 sacks.

The one top offensive player returning is a very good one in senior right tackle William Satterwhite he is 6'3 and weighs 302. Satterwhite has signed to play college ball with the University of Tennessee. They did lose some very good players on the offensive side of the ball from last year's team including Ohio Mr. Football RB Lamar Sperling who graduated. They also lost starting junior QB JacQai Long who went back to his home state of West Virginia for his senior season. They have also lost big time sophomore OT prospect and Ohio State recruit Sam Greer is 6'1 300 pounder broke a bone in his leg in practice on July 31. Coach Tyrell says he expects Greer to be out 8-10 weeks.

The Broncos and Coach Nathan McPeek have a lot of new starters this season that are going to have to be ready to play out of the gate this season. Frederick Douglass graduated 28 seniors with 18 of them going on to play at the college level. They have to try and replace 5 starters on offense and 6 starters on defense. Douglass lost their 2 top rushers from last season as well as their top three wide receivers as well. The defense is probably will be the stronger part of the squad in the early going led by two D1 Power 5 DB's in Jeremaih Lowe (Michigan) and Terrion Hicks (Northwestern) also LB Demerco Kennedy. On offense Douglass does return starting QB Cole Carpenter (EKU) as well as Arkansas commit Zuri Madison as well as the excellent PK Cooper Ranvier.

This early part of the season will be some big test in August and early September. Two of Douglass's five opponents are ranked in the MaxPreps pre-season top 100, Hoban is ranked #40 and Cathedral of Indianapolis is ranked #70. There in state schedule for 2023 includes state powers Trinity, Corbin, and Boyle County as well as district opponents Bryan Station, GRC, and Madison Cent. Coach McPeek hopes that these major upgrades in their schedule will prepare them for their 6A district schedule as well as the 6A playoffs. This game this coming Saturday is by far their toughest opponent in the school's history. Both teams probably have 10 or more players other than those listed in the article that have committed to play college ball. They should be a bunch of very good athletes on the field for both teams.  It will be a great experience for the team to get to play at the Pro Football Hall of Fame field and go through the facility. Best of luck to the Broncos!