MANTON — Not a lot to replace, and a lot to build on.
That’s part of what Manton is hoping grows into a successful 2025 campaign.
That’s a big ask for a program that hasn’t produced a winning record or earned its way into the playoffs since 2014.
“We take care of the little things, and wins will come,” second-tear head coach Josh Merchant said. “And we are doing a great job of taking care of the little things, the intangibles and so forth. The kids’ belief is in there. They don’t lack confidence, which is a good thing.”
The Rangers have 14 seniors, all of whom will start on at least one side of the ball.
“It’s going to be really nice,” senior tight end and defensive end Blake Helsel said. “The team chemistry is already going to be there. There’s a lot more kids that are all in on the mentality and the culture is building a lot.”
They lost only one player to graduation last year, center Wyatt Lupien. Sophomore Aspen Emery joins returning seniors Hunter Teneyck, Luke Lindsey, Will Alexander and Chase Herndon on the starting line.
“It’s a little different,” said senior Jaxen Salani, whose father Eric coached the Rangers from 2018-23. “I love coach Merchant. He’s been good to me. He’s pushing me. I’ve always had two coaches that pushed me hard, and I’m grateful to have them both.”
Running backs Jarret Nixon and Salani, fullback McCoy Hicks, tight ends Spencer Wold and Helsel and quarterback George Coffel are also also back.
“You have to have a smart senior leader quarterback and a very strong and smart offensive line,” Merchant said. “We have both of those.”
Much the same lineup starts on defense, joined by Spencer Bartlett and Hunter Sutton.
“Our offensive and defense line are going to be physical this year,” Helsel said. “Staying low on the ball and just getting a lot of push.”
With only two juniors — Hicks and Ashtyn Barnes — the Rangers have four sophomores up on varsity, Logan Petingil, Talen Marrow, Garrett Patrick and Emery.
“One is definitely our size,” Salani said, when asked of the team’s strengths. “We got a little bit bigger. But our attitudes and how we’ve been this year have been 10 times better compared to last year. I think we still have a lot to work on. I don’t think we’re all the way there yet, but we’re all in it.”
Manton has 17 on varsity and 18 for junior varsity, a slight uptick in typical Ranger numbers. Merchant said he’d like to eventually have 15 players from each grade, but that’ll take awhile.
“Our culture is changing a lot this year, and we’re going to have some stuff to build on from last season,” Helsel said. “We’re making improvements in offense and defense.”
The Rangers participated not long ago in Kingsley’s scrimmage, as they usually do. However, the last two years, the Rangers have been buoyed by a good number of former Stags on the Manton side. That includes Merchant, who used to be Kingsley’s junior varsity coach, plus Jordan Bradford and Ryan Zenner. Former Stags players Gavyn Merchant and Owen Graves also help the Rangers.
“It’s different with a different name on there,” Merchant said. “Orange and black is orange and black. But with having a Manton (jersey) versus a Kingsley one, it’s different. We wanted to play well against Kingsley. It’s a rivalry, obviously, their staff against our staff. A lot of text messages back and forth during the week.
“I told our kids, they’re the measuring stick. We want to measure our success, we need to go out there and handle business. And we did pretty well. They got a couple of us in the air, but we handled our business pretty well.”
Former Manton standout and college player Trever Salani is also on staff.
Manton was 3-6 last year, Merchant’s first leading the program. The team finished the season winning two of three, with victories over Lake City in Week Seven and Johannesburg-Lewiston to close out the campaign.
“We have great support through the administration,” Merchant said. “We have great parent support, and the kids all know what expectations are. Year one, when you’re constantly reminding them about this and that. Instead of install and teaching things, this season’s more been review. We didn’t really put anything new in. We want our kids to feel comfortable what we put in last year, and then just take off from week nine.”
The Rangers were shut out for the first two weeks last season, but revved it up to score 216 points the rest of the way, averaging nearly 31 points per contest.
Manton starts the season Friday night at Vestaburg, a team that was also 3-6 last year. Then comes defending Division 8 state champion Beal City on the road in Week Two and hosting 9-2 McBain the following week.
“We want to obviously make a big playoff run,” Salani said. “We want to prove some people wrong.”