Multi-Shots/Staff

Whitmer High school’s class of 2029 Freshman Football team 2025 squad. Undefeated NLL Champions.

Whitmer High school’s class of 2029 Freshman Football team had a groundbreaking 2025 season, going undefeated in the NLL. The Panthers often shut teams out leaving no space to score, they worked hard and came out on top.

Not only was the season an overall success,  the players learned to work together and rely on each other. 

“Our team really worked together. We weren’t on each other all the time like we were in middle school,” captain and safety Bryce Varanese shares.

The season consisted of 7 conference, and 1 non-conference games. During those games the Panthers scored 318 points averaging 39 points per game.  Each player had an offensive and defensive position, making sure there was talent on both sides of the ball.

Captain and running back Carter Keeling had multiple things to say about the season. His favorite part was “being able to have fun and go to different positions and messing around because we were beating teams so bad”. 

Compared to the 8th grade season last fall, this freshman squad has had what is technically an unexpected comeback season. 

“Last year’s season was nowhere near this year. We went 4-3 and then turned around this year going 8-0. We had good chemistry, new assets to the team,  better receivers, more depth so we weren’t relying on the same 4-5 kids to do the job each game,” linebacker Killian Zuber states. 

Well rounded, defense played a huge part in the outcome of these games, during the whole season the freshman panthers only allowed 84 points to be scored, averaging 11 points let up per game. 

During the first three games of the season the Panther defense allowed zero points to be scored. The first game of the season, the only non conference game played, was against St. Johns Jesuit and the score of the game was a memorable 58-0. The freshman team went on to put up a score of 39-0 against league rival Perrysburg and then throttled Sylvania Northview with a score of  38-0.

Each player played their part accordingly. 

“It went well because everybody had they head on straight,”  running back Charlie Williams explains. 

Williams went on to share “I feel like we had a lot of talent all around and we worked really hard, and we just worked well as a team”. 

After the victory against Clay, 47-26 the Panthers were named the Freshman Football N.L.L. champions. As a gift and celebration the players shaved their offensive coordinator Coach Munson’s head in one last demonstration of the balance between fun and work. 

“I feel like we the best team to ever come through,” says captain Bryce Varanese.