Even under conventional circumstances, Alan Hensell was going to remember every facet of his debut season as the Franklin College football coach.
The reality that it ran against the grain of virtually everything Hensell grew up loving about the sport made the Grizzlies’ seven-game slate over the past two months all the more extraordinary.
“It was totally different because we didn’t have a training camp. You were limited with walk-throughs and classroom meeting times,” the 38-year-old Hensell said. “Plus, you’re trying to train while school is in session. But I’m really proud of how our guys handled the change and how they adapted to something they’ve never done before.”
And will, they hope, never have to do again.
Due to the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference announced in July it was pushing back four high-risk fall sports — football, volleyball and men’s and women’s soccer — to later in the 2020-21 school year.
Additionally, winter sports teams such as men’s and women’s basketball played abbreviated schedules compared to seasons past.
As a result, the school’s gridiron season played out approximately six months later than usual for the first time. That meant training in the fall rather than playing actual games and taking much of the winter off before reporting back on Feb. 2.
Hensell, a Franklin College graduate who had spent the previous five years as an assistant coach at the University of Buffalo, was introduced as the Grizzlies’ new head coach in December 2019 following the retirement of Mike Leonard, the school’s career leader in victories.
Approximately three months later, the pandemic took effect, spring sports were shut down and Hensell’s job description suddenly changed. Among the adjustments that had to be accounted for was the need for social distancing and mask wearing during countless team and positional meetings prior to and during the season.
The Hensell era started impressively with the Grizzlies defeating Anderson, 55-48, in the opener on March 6 and blitzing host Manchester a week later. Franklin College lost three of its next four before it salvaged a winning season with a 31-18 victory over Defiance on April 17.
Seventy of the players on Hensell’s roster were freshmen and sophomores.
“We were very, very young, so it was a tremendous learning experience,” Hensell said. “The season was a good alternative for what it was. It forced you to evaluate what is important because you were limited in the time you had to prepare for a game.”
The Grizzlies played with only seven seniors this spring, most of whom won’t be back next season. An exception is defensive back Evan Stambaugh, who was the team’s second-leading tackler with 47 and tied for the team lead in interceptions with two.
Stambaugh plans to take advantage of the additional year of eligibility granted to athletes due to the pandemic.
“(Spring season) was definitely weird. In the early part of the season we were having to cancel practices because the field is iced over,” said Stambaugh, who was one of three captains this spring along with junior offensive lineman Evan Hosea and sophomore linebacker Kody Wilkerson.
“I’ll be coming back. I’ve got a lot of buddies who graduated last year who say they wish they had another year to play. There’s a lot of unfinished business. I wasn’t satisfied with how this season went.”
