'We never flush away a season': Why Central football remains hopeful despite winless start

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — This season hasn’t gone to plan for Central. That much is spelled out in the winless start, but not all is lost. Coach Andy Zirkelbach won’t allow that to be the case, or that mindset to creep in.

Take Friday's 44-0 loss to Reitz, for example. It ultimately was just another week of being 0-1.

Zirkelbach and his staff have preached as much, stating that this regular-season campaign is essentially nine one-game seasons. He doesn't want his players to be discouraged by past weeks or look too far ahead into the future.

"This week's season is over and next week's season and next week's season starts tomorrow morning," Zirkelbach said postgame. "We try not to get high with the highs or low with the lows. ... Try to stay healthy and then try to improve each week."

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The hope is this approach will eventually give his young team the reward of a win on a Friday night. This is the program's worst start since 2003 when the Bears went just 1-9.

“We have four more weeks of building opportunities until everyone starts over at 0-0,” Zirkelbach said. “You can catch fire and go on a run in the postseason. That’s why we never flush away a season even if things aren’t going just the way we want it to go.”

For a team with a significant number of sophomores and juniors starting, this may have always been a rebuilding year for Central to take its lumps and count its losses. Especially considering transfers depleted the roster with quarterbacks Blake Herdes (Mater Dei) and Ben Davies (Reitz) and running back Porter Rode (Memorial) are elsewhere in town after playing significant roles for the Bears last year.

Some of the seniors are "young in terms of experience," Zirchelbach said. But there’s precedent around the area that struggling programs team can learn from these experiences.

All Central needed to do was look across the sideline on Friday. Reitz (5-0) is coming off back-to-back 4-7 campaigns — the Bears even defeated the Panthers last season in a triple-overtime thriller. Elsewhere, Vincennes Lincoln is now 3-2 after going just 7-16 combined since rejoining the Southern Indiana Athletic Conference.

Central struggled last fall, too. It went 2-8 during Zirchelbach's first year at the helm, a far cry from the 12-1 finish of 2020 when they completed an undefeated regular season. The Bears remain hopeful for better days ahead.

They hope to ease the rebuilding process by having the junior varsity and freshman teams practice alongside varsity. Zirkelbach said Central has over 30 members of each team, adding that “there are good things coming.” He’s made it a point to explain to younger players just how vital game experience is at any level.

It simply cannot be replicated on the practice field.

“Experience is worth its weight in gold," Zirkelbach said. “They gotta get those game-speed reps to improve each week and to grow.”

That goes for everyone, new and old. Quarterback Boston Steers is a senior but has returned to the gridiron for the first time since grade school. (Basketball is his primary sport.) Central also has several sophomore two-way starters. Although it hasn’t shown in the win column, Zirkelbach likes where his guys are heading.

There has been tangible growth.

“I’ve seen a lot of good things out of our team. We have grit, we have toughness,” Zirkelbach said. “Our kids have good character and integrity. We just haven’t been rewarded in the win column yet.”

Friday's loss saw trends from previous games continue. The Bears turned the ball over three times. They got into the red zone in both halves, but a missed field goal and an interception meant the scoreboard showed nothing for their efforts.

Learning curves have come at a cost but may pay off in the long run.

"If you get destination disease and just worry about the end result, it's gonna be tough. You gotta really focus on the steps along the way and not just the end goal," Zirkelbach said. "You gotta focus on the steps to get yourself there and absorb yourself in the process."

Even with the potential for a brighter future, many could assume the struggles would case them to lose confidence or pack it in. Not Central. It harkens back to the nine, one-week seasons mindset. Every Friday another opportunity, a chance to grow.

Not all is lost. Zirkelbach and his staff won’t allow it to be. Despite falling to 0-5 as the only winless SIAC team, Central is already resetting its focus to finally picking up a "W" next week against Jasper.

"There's another opponent; there's another week," Zirchelbach said. "Especially for the seniors, this goes so fast. We're just past the halfway point now. Five weeks from tonight, half the teams in the state will be done. ... I told them, especially those seniors, 'Man, you got to stick together.'"

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: IHSAA football: Why Central remains hopeful despite winless start