Record: 1-10
Head Coach: Brent Thompson
2023: Last year was definitely one to forget for the Trojans. True, they had their moments with several big wins early in the season, but after a huge comeback win over Central Hardin, those victories were erased. So, North Hardin ended up with just one regular season win after playing one of the areas most brutal schedules. The Trojans were a beat-up bunch headed into the playoffs and despite having a lead late, lost to a Daviess County team ending their season. This season, they will still have plenty of talent and lots of questions as well.
Offense: A team which averaged nearly 250-points the past several years, put together just 199 in eleven games and a lot of those problems revolved around the quarterback position and the running game. Thompson will return juniors Jakylin Kirkland and DJ Loggins and both put together great stats throwing for a combined 3,300-yards and 30-TDs, but also 29-picks as well as they played their first full seasons in the QB shuffle. Thompson will look for more consistency this season as well as a more dependable running game which featured Diantae Stills (566-yds 5-TDs) and Ty Davis (48-yds). In past years, when the running game worked, it opened up more options. Also, with Shaun Boykins (84-catches for 1,291-yds 16-TDs) gone and wearing Red and black on Saturdays, the receiving corps will feature junior Ronald Lunz (40-catches for 589-yds 5-TDs) and senior Marion Jaudon (38-catches 5-TDs). Will Ray, who wasn’t eligible until midway through the season made a big contribution with 41-catches for 521-yds and 3-TDs is gone and is Kyle McDonald as well (13 for 209 and 1-TD). The Offensive Line will lose Micheal Prater, TeZhan Fletcher and Elisha Nuckolls, but return center Kaiden Boyd and Javier Castro, so Thompson will look for replacements.
Kicking Game: Isaya Parmes was 21-for-26 on PATS and with both he and Joey Stankovich, who also punted late in the season gone, the Trojans will look for another kicker and punter.
Defense: Considering the problems with scoring points, the defense actually played quite well when you look at their schedule and allowed fewer points (268) last season compared to (324) the previous season. Once again, they will lose six major contributors as Joe Estellita, Jaxson Lente, Trevion Ross (who led the team with 5-interceptions), Darius Wiley and Christian Dimatulas are gone. Thompson will still return Julius Evans, Joe Wheley, Lajordan Ruttley, Josiah Hope and Ariyon Stills and he will look to develop several others as starter and for depth purposes.
Summation: This season, Thompson once again loaded up the non-district schedule with plenty of surprises (Southwestern, Corbin, CAL, PRP and Owensboro Catholic along with Central Hardin and Barren County) along with their District foes as well as they will begin another different District alignment next season and to predict any more than five possibly six wins could be reaching with what they lost. Still, there’s lots of athletes on both sides of the ball so if North Hardin can develop their replacements fast, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see them blossom late come playoff time.
