Rising Expectations

Anderson football sets high standards for the 2025 season

Anderson High School football returns with high hopes for the season. They have been very successful the past two years, going to the regional finals in 2023, and playing in the state championship in 2024. 

“Our expectations are obviously going to be high for this season. We returned a lot of starters of last year’s team who failed to win a state championship, so our expectations are to improve every week, to get better, and to get back to the regional finals and see if we can make a run out of (a) state championship,” head football coach Evan Dreyer said.

“I think everyone’s trying to win a state championship again because we got so close,” Brian Veil, offensive line coach, said. 

Winning a state championship is not only a goal of the coaches, but also of the players. 

“[My expectations are] probably to win the state championship because we were close last year,”  football player Cooper Snider (10) said. 

Players and coaches alike are excited for Friday night games, where they can showcase their hard work. 

“[I’m excited for] game days because every game is pretty fun,” Snider (10) said.

“[We] spend so much time not playing games that anytime [we] actually get to play one is just the best,” Veil said. 

Although everyone wants to go to state, the coaches’ main focus is on smaller goals to help the players improve weekly. 

“There are a lot of little things that we look at each week, so it’s more like our expectations are… on a day-to-day, practice-to-practice basis,” Veil said.

Even with their first couple of wins, they still have a growth mindset each week, especially because of how different the team is from last year. They returned one starter offensively, so the players brought up from junior varsity have to adapt to the quicker-paced varsity games. 

“Last year’s team was so experienced that we knew that they had a bunch of adversity as juniors. This year, our kids need to create adversity and learn how to handle it, and learn how high expectations are great. I think that’s the key difference,” Dreyer said. 

“There are a lot more kids who aren’t used to Friday nights… so there (is) a lot more for them to get used to,” Veil said. 

To combat this, the coaches are working their hardest to improve the players and get them more experience playing at a varsity level. 

Overall, the athletes and coaches are looking forward to the season and growing as a team. 

“I’m most excited to see how we develop throughout the season,” Dreyer said. 

Come see the team compete at their next home game on September 26 against Milford High School, which is Anderson’s homecoming game.