August 6, 2025 • 8 mins
Van Wert Coach Keith Recker joined Todd Walker to talk about the Cougars trying to bounce back from a four-win season.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We continue to talk high school football, and today we
head over to Van Werton talked with Cougar's coach Keith Recker. Coach,
appreciate you taking time for us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, thanks for a loving me to come on and
talk about the Cougars.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, a lot to talk about as always. You guys
took a bit of a dip last year, just a
four win season, and I know you're hoping that that's
sort of just a rebuilding phase, but I guess take
me through whether that was a young team, do you
have a lot of experience back this year. Just sort
of take me through the numbers game, at least for
your team here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, obviously we'd lose Bristin Wise, who was our quarterback
and had a phenomenal year for us. Was like eighty
or ninety percent of our offense just did a really
good job and Aaron Reker was a really good linebacker
for us. Those are two big losses, but we feel
really good about what we have coming back. I think
(00:56):
sixteen or seventeen starters in total are back. We have
the majority of our line, both offensive and defenses, either
returning starters or seniors. And then we have a lot
of skill guys that are sophomores and juniors. But some
of those sophomores even got time last year, a lot
of the juniors did. So really a good mix of
(01:17):
guys and you know, obviously it was a down year
for us, and I think these guys are excited to
try to get this thing back up and first losing
season in a while. And it's nice because we could
pinpoint certain things that really cost us games. It wasn't
just you know, teams were bigger, stronger, and faster than us.
There were certain things that we saw on the field
that we've really been pushing this fall to start our
(01:40):
preseason camp.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Care to extrapolate on that. What were some of those
areas you think will get corrected this year.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
For us? The biggest and most glaring thing that happened
kind of throughout the season. You could go back to
Week two versus Bath and the number of big play
off of missed assignments that we gave up again, whether
it's a running back motions out and we miscommunicate on
the coverage and we give up a sixty five yard
(02:10):
touchdown that happened probably five or six times against Bath.
And we were talking about a forty two forty three
type of game. You know, you take one or two
miss assignments down and we win that game. You go
to Week ten versus the Light and they were able
to find our mismatches you with our pass coverage, they
(02:31):
were able to get you know, some of their guys
on our safeties one oh one, and they beat us
on those plays and created a ton of big plays.
And we look at that one because that was Week ten.
We're four and five. If we win, we go to
the playoffs. If youl To wins, they go and we
get beat at home on that and we look at
the big plays. So that's been a big stretch for us. Again,
some of it is assignment and some of it's us
(02:54):
as coaches. We've got to mix up the coverages more so.
Teams can't just know where we're going to be and
get a one on one matchup that they like with
their receiver versus RDB or vice versa. So we've really
pushed at this fall as always tackling turnovers and big plays,
those three things, and we look at big plays last
year that really cost us in some games.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Talking about van work, coach Keith Recker his a team
will open the season at Brian coming up in a
week and a half or so. Coach, when you think
about what you've been doing in camp, I think when
we talked before we came on here, you're doing a
lot of work early as far as putting your stuff in.
Is some of that a function of having a lot
(03:36):
of experience back.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, there's so kind of two things. One, yes, a
lot of the sophomores and juniors, the skilled kids. It
usually summers a lot of seven on seven stuff, and
we get into team things as well. But a lot
of those sophomores and juniors played as freshmen and sophomores
last year, so them coming back obviously helps us. And
then the other part is that I talked about with coverage,
(04:01):
and sometimes we were too simple in coverage, and so
we got to June and and and we installed more
coverages just based on the face we weren't ready to
install them. It wasn't like we had our main coverage
down and and we too were ready to go for
the next one, but we just needed to get them
in and get our kids to see them. So come
(04:23):
July and all get to say'd be comfortable. And that's
really paid all for us. Uh. Defensively, they're way more
comfortable with it. Uh. Same thing with the offense. You know,
we weren't maybe weren't ready to go to our third
or fourth run play, but we're putting it in so
that way they can see it, they've heard it. Uh,
they they have an idea of the rules, and we'll
keep fine tuning as we go. And we were really
(04:44):
able to do that really start as the second week
of July. We really felt like we're fine tuning things.
Now they've got it down and and we're really happy
that we we front loaded so much in June to
the point where we're at. We feel pretty good, especially
with our varsity guys. Obviously young guys are going to
take a while to figure it out anyways, but our
(05:04):
varsity guys, we feel pretty good at where they're at,
knowing assignments, techniques and things like that.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, Coach, you guys at van Word have been undergoing
the process of renovating and fixing up Eggers Stadium. Of course,
there was a field turf installation and then a new
renovated press box and that side of the stadium, and
that work is continuing. But I think we're getting close
to being all finished, are we.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, so really nice. This year they renovated our home
locker room. Used to be the visitor you know, a
long time ago, was the home run. We moved out
of there, put the visitors in there, and now we're
back under there. Complete renovation of that, new lockers, new
sound system, projectors, the whole deal. They've done a really
(05:54):
good job. And they added a nice big coaches office
for us, a new training room, really really nice place
for us to call home. We practice up there every day,
play up there obviously half the time, so really really
excited about that. And then next year will be the
final final phase. And so I should say that some
people will be very happy about this finally getting They
(06:17):
got an elevator going up to the platform, so some
people will be excited to be able to get onto
that and get up on the platform to watch the game.
But that's also finishing up hopefully soon. And then next
year will be the final final phase, building in the
end zone area, band bleachers, a new ticket booth, concessions
(06:38):
and restrooms for the visitors, and kind of a nice
central entryway into ager Stadium which will be pretty cool
and good good, good way to top off this big
project that that we're gonna end up probably pushing about
eight million on. And people have done a great job
in our town of approving the bond issue and then
we've had a lot of donors step up and help
(06:59):
us finish this thing.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, and the people of Van Werd and your fans
put their money where their mouth is. As far as
saving the tradition and history of their football team at
Eger Stadium, they could have easily said, now, let's just
build out at the new high School, which is out
on the edge of town, but they didn't want to
do that, and that was something to be saluted. Coach,
(07:20):
what about your scrimmage? Is who you got coming up
this Friday or Saturday? What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
We've got LCC on Friday and then we'll go over
to Cresview the following Friday. So excited to get with LCC.
You know that's always a good scrimmage. Obviously Coach Paulding's
out there anymore, but I'm sure Coach Talley's going to
do a good job there. And they give us a
good kind of a wing tea, but shotguns we give us.
(07:49):
See some wing tea things, but they do a really
good job with some motions and things that we don't
see as much with a tight end wing, you know,
with us being a little bit more empty or maybe
one tight end under HVAC. So that's always a good
scrimmage for us, especially defensively, just to see where we're
at and communication and assignments and see, if you know
(08:10):
what we've all that work we put in in June
and July, the front load, some of those coverages will
help us out and make us a little bit more
sound against some of the things that LCC will show.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
At Savan work Coach Keith Recker the Cougars a couple
of weeks from Friday night, we'll open up the season
at Brian and then they'll dive into the Western Buckeye League.
Addie Laida, coach, we appreciate you taking time for us.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Good luck this season, all right, thank you. I appreciate
that
We continue to talk high school football, and today we
head over to Van Werton talked with Cougar's coach Keith Recker. Coach,
appreciate you taking time for us this morning.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yeah, thanks for a loving me to come on and
talk about the Cougars.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Well, a lot to talk about as always. You guys
took a bit of a dip last year, just a
four win season, and I know you're hoping that that's
sort of just a rebuilding phase, but I guess take
me through whether that was a young team, do you
have a lot of experience back this year. Just sort
of take me through the numbers game, at least for
your team here.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yeah, obviously we'd lose Bristin Wise, who was our quarterback
and had a phenomenal year for us. Was like eighty
or ninety percent of our offense just did a really
good job and Aaron Reker was a really good linebacker
for us. Those are two big losses, but we feel
really good about what we have coming back. I think
(00:56):
sixteen or seventeen starters in total are back. We have
the majority of our line, both offensive and defenses, either
returning starters or seniors. And then we have a lot
of skill guys that are sophomores and juniors. But some
of those sophomores even got time last year, a lot
of the juniors did. So really a good mix of
(01:17):
guys and you know, obviously it was a down year
for us, and I think these guys are excited to
try to get this thing back up and first losing
season in a while. And it's nice because we could
pinpoint certain things that really cost us games. It wasn't
just you know, teams were bigger, stronger, and faster than us.
There were certain things that we saw on the field
that we've really been pushing this fall to start our
(01:40):
preseason camp.
Speaker 1 (01:42):
Care to extrapolate on that. What were some of those
areas you think will get corrected this year.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
For us? The biggest and most glaring thing that happened
kind of throughout the season. You could go back to
Week two versus Bath and the number of big play
off of missed assignments that we gave up again, whether
it's a running back motions out and we miscommunicate on
the coverage and we give up a sixty five yard
(02:10):
touchdown that happened probably five or six times against Bath.
And we were talking about a forty two forty three
type of game. You know, you take one or two
miss assignments down and we win that game. You go
to Week ten versus the Light and they were able
to find our mismatches you with our pass coverage, they
(02:31):
were able to get you know, some of their guys
on our safeties one oh one, and they beat us
on those plays and created a ton of big plays.
And we look at that one because that was Week ten.
We're four and five. If we win, we go to
the playoffs. If youl To wins, they go and we
get beat at home on that and we look at
the big plays. So that's been a big stretch for us. Again,
some of it is assignment and some of it's us
(02:54):
as coaches. We've got to mix up the coverages more so.
Teams can't just know where we're going to be and
get a one on one matchup that they like with
their receiver versus RDB or vice versa. So we've really
pushed at this fall as always tackling turnovers and big plays,
those three things, and we look at big plays last
year that really cost us in some games.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Talking about van work, coach Keith Recker his a team
will open the season at Brian coming up in a
week and a half or so. Coach, when you think
about what you've been doing in camp, I think when
we talked before we came on here, you're doing a
lot of work early as far as putting your stuff in.
Is some of that a function of having a lot
(03:36):
of experience back.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, there's so kind of two things. One, yes, a
lot of the sophomores and juniors, the skilled kids. It
usually summers a lot of seven on seven stuff, and
we get into team things as well. But a lot
of those sophomores and juniors played as freshmen and sophomores
last year, so them coming back obviously helps us. And
then the other part is that I talked about with coverage,
(04:01):
and sometimes we were too simple in coverage, and so
we got to June and and and we installed more
coverages just based on the face we weren't ready to
install them. It wasn't like we had our main coverage
down and and we too were ready to go for
the next one, but we just needed to get them
in and get our kids to see them. So come
(04:23):
July and all get to say'd be comfortable. And that's
really paid all for us. Uh. Defensively, they're way more
comfortable with it. Uh. Same thing with the offense. You know,
we weren't maybe weren't ready to go to our third
or fourth run play, but we're putting it in so
that way they can see it, they've heard it. Uh,
they they have an idea of the rules, and we'll
keep fine tuning as we go. And we were really
(04:44):
able to do that really start as the second week
of July. We really felt like we're fine tuning things.
Now they've got it down and and we're really happy
that we we front loaded so much in June to
the point where we're at. We feel pretty good, especially
with our varsity guys. Obviously young guys are going to
take a while to figure it out anyways, but our
(05:04):
varsity guys, we feel pretty good at where they're at,
knowing assignments, techniques and things like that.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
Well, Coach, you guys at van Word have been undergoing
the process of renovating and fixing up Eggers Stadium. Of course,
there was a field turf installation and then a new
renovated press box and that side of the stadium, and
that work is continuing. But I think we're getting close
to being all finished, are we.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Yeah, so really nice. This year they renovated our home
locker room. Used to be the visitor you know, a
long time ago, was the home run. We moved out
of there, put the visitors in there, and now we're
back under there. Complete renovation of that, new lockers, new
sound system, projectors, the whole deal. They've done a really
(05:54):
good job. And they added a nice big coaches office
for us, a new training room, really really nice place
for us to call home. We practice up there every day,
play up there obviously half the time, so really really
excited about that. And then next year will be the
final final phase. And so I should say that some
people will be very happy about this finally getting They
(06:17):
got an elevator going up to the platform, so some
people will be excited to be able to get onto
that and get up on the platform to watch the game.
But that's also finishing up hopefully soon. And then next
year will be the final final phase, building in the
end zone area, band bleachers, a new ticket booth, concessions
(06:38):
and restrooms for the visitors, and kind of a nice
central entryway into ager Stadium which will be pretty cool
and good good, good way to top off this big
project that that we're gonna end up probably pushing about
eight million on. And people have done a great job
in our town of approving the bond issue and then
we've had a lot of donors step up and help
(06:59):
us finish this thing.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, and the people of Van Werd and your fans
put their money where their mouth is. As far as
saving the tradition and history of their football team at
Eger Stadium, they could have easily said, now, let's just
build out at the new high School, which is out
on the edge of town, but they didn't want to
do that, and that was something to be saluted. Coach,
(07:20):
what about your scrimmage? Is who you got coming up
this Friday or Saturday? What are you doing here?
Speaker 2 (07:25):
We've got LCC on Friday and then we'll go over
to Cresview the following Friday. So excited to get with LCC.
You know that's always a good scrimmage. Obviously Coach Paulding's
out there anymore, but I'm sure Coach Talley's going to
do a good job there. And they give us a
good kind of a wing tea, but shotguns we give us.
(07:49):
See some wing tea things, but they do a really
good job with some motions and things that we don't
see as much with a tight end wing, you know,
with us being a little bit more empty or maybe
one tight end under HVAC. So that's always a good
scrimmage for us, especially defensively, just to see where we're
at and communication and assignments and see, if you know
(08:10):
what we've all that work we put in in June
and July, the front load, some of those coverages will
help us out and make us a little bit more
sound against some of the things that LCC will show.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
At Savan work Coach Keith Recker the Cougars a couple
of weeks from Friday night, we'll open up the season
at Brian and then they'll dive into the Western Buckeye League.
Addie Laida, coach, we appreciate you taking time for us.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Good luck this season, all right, thank you. I appreciate
that
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