For the second year in a row, Carroll was knocked out of the Sectional Tournament by Pioneer.
The Panthers pushed all the way to the State Final game before falling to South Putnam.
After winning three straight Sectionals from 2021-2023, the Cougars look to get back to competing for Sectional Titles this season.
“A lot of it is scheduling,” Carroll head coach Blake Betzner said. “When you bring Pioneer into your Sectional, and they’re as good as they’ve been, I mean that’s just part of it.”
Blake Betzner is entering his sixth year as head coach for Carroll. This will be his third senior class he’s coached through their entire high school career.
“You get to know the kids a lot better, seeing them as sixth and seventh graders and seeing them grow up,” Betzner said. “There’s better relationships because you feel like you’ve kind of grown up with these guys.”
The Cougars will look different offensively this year, with the graduation of running backs Aiden Wiles and Emery Deaton, and an injury to last year’s starting quarterback Cale Peters, which will sideline him for the entire 2026 season.
“My first year, Clay Metzger ran for about 1800 yards, and I don’t know how many times I got asked ‘who’s going to take over’,” Betzner said. “And then Keegan Ellis came and had two seasons of 1800 yards, and I got the same question, ‘how are you going to replace that guy?’ and Aiden Wiles was our next guy for two years, so that’s what we hit on with our kids.”
Sophomore Reid Hayden was thrust into the starting quarterback role this offseason and will lead a Carroll offense that has averaged over 30 points per game for four consecutive seasons.
Hayden served as the backup to Peters last year, but Betzner said he is expecting big things from him in 2026.
“He’s excited, he’s put a lot of time and effort into it,” Betzner said. “Reid’s a really smart kid and going to be a phenomenal football player; he’s just going to have to learn very, very fast.”
Defensively, Carroll has been strong, holding opponents to fewer than 14 points per game four of the last five years.
“We have 11 guys that started a game on defense coming back,” Betzner said. “All 11 guys that have been our starting group this summer have started a game at some point last year. We’ve never had that since I’ve been here; a lot of experience coming back on that side of the ball.”
The Cougars will kick off the season with non-conference games against Seeger and Maconaquah, before moving into conference play on Sep. 4th.
“It prepares us early,” Betzner said. “You have to be ready when the season starts; you don’t have two weeks to figure things out… it was important to us that we got some opponents that are going to be hard to beat.”
The Cougars will be featured on the Hoosierland TV Game of the Week four times, including on Sep. 11 for the Bacon Bowl against county rival Delphi.
To view the full Game of the Week schedule, click here.
Listen to the full interview with coach Betzner by clicking below.