2024 Record – 8-4
Head Coach – Brent Thompson
2024: After a nightmarish 2023 season ended in a tough loss to Daviess County, the Trojans rebounded strongly in 2024 built around a powerful defense and strong passing attack, North Hardin stormed out to a 7-3 regular season record despite a tough schedule and were just a couple of plays away from making a Regional playoff. This season, the Trojans will have a senior dominated squad and they will need it with a new tougher district ahead.
Offense: The Offense scored 283-points as compared to 199 the previous season and the Trojans will have to adjust a little as the running game will need to improve to take pressure off the passing game. Thompson will return senior Jakylin Kirkland who threw for 1,115-yards and 13-TDs compared to 6-interceptions. Kirkland will have one of the top receivers in the area in Ronald Lunz (50-catches for 681-yds and 8-TDs). With Marion Jaudon, Joe Calhoun and Dominic Grimes gone, the only other guys with significant catches are Phillip Bostic and Zylan Johnson. The running game only produced 558-yds and must improve. Kaiden Boyd is gone, but LhaMoriya Beard is back. He will be running behind an experienced Offensive Line as seniors Bryce Brown, Roland Brown and Javier Castro along with juniors Navon Coleman and Chazz Fleming.
Kicking: The kicking game was one by committee with several taking their shots, but with Andrew Trujillo and Vicente Garcia gone, that will be left up to Kaden Thompson, Ethan Moss and Josh Stover.
Defense: If any department showed the most marked improvement last season it was probably the defense as they allowed only 226-pts compared to 268 in 2023. For the most part, the defense will be intact although with Julius Evans and Christian Dimatulac gone, Thompson will look for others to fill the Dline along with massive Josiah Hope, who has gottne plenty of looks from D-1 colleges. The linebackers and secondary look good with seniors Malakai Willis, Cohen Campbell, Joe Whaley, Xavier Cruz and Andrew Scott back along with junior Arizon Stills to man a defense which 24-QB sacks, 11-interceptions and 13-fumble recoveries.
Schedule: North Hardin will start off on the road on August 22 @ Lexington Christian (11-3), then back at home to face Meade County 5-6) and Pulaski County (8-5) to start September. Three straight road trips to Central Hardin (4-9), Valley (3-7) and then Oldham County (6-5) before kicking off October with a home game against PRP. A road trip for District games at St. Xavier, then back home to face DuPont Manuel and then finishing the regular season schedule at Warren East. In all, the Trojans will face six teams with winning records in 2024 including two with double digit wins.
Summation: After what happened in 2023, I looked at the 2024 schedule and said six-wins would have been major improvement, so seven wins was really a surprise and a lot of it was the defense which really stepped up setting up the offense in many situations. However, moving to a district which has North Hardin going up against St.Xavier, PRP and Dupont Manuel would be difficult for any team. This North Hardin team however has plenty of experience and should be fine. How many wins will be the big question though. Improving the running game will be a priority for Thompson and will definitely help improve on a possible sven or eight wins this what could be a special season.