Wilmington’s down and up and down again 2022 football season ended with a 28-14 playoff loss to Wapakoneta.

The Hurricane finished 5-6 in Ryan Evans first year as head coach. Five consecutive wins in the middle of the season were sandwiched by three season-opening loss and three season-ending losses.

As he enters Year 2, Evans knows his Hurricane squad is in a better place than it was a year ago at this time.

“It’s smoother from an administrative standpoint, a parent standpoint … players and coaches, every one understands what the expectation is,” said Evans.

On the field, Evans said the juniors and seniors on the roster are more acclimated to the coaching staff and its routines and practice habits.

And while there can be some carryover from year to year, Evans knows it’s been a long time since that Oct. 28, 2022 loss in Auglaize County.

“Last year will help us as we continue to try to develop and grow this thing … we want to feed off of last year but it’s a new year, a new team,” he said.

Wilmington opens its season 7 p.m. Friday at Alumni Field against Cincinnati Northwest, a team transitioning in just the last few months to a new head coach. But Evans knows that’s not a detriment for the Knights. He and his assistant coaches know each other and some have worked together in the past. The staff at Northwest is strong.

“They’ll come to Alumni Field and will compete,” Evans said. “They have two good running backs. They’re young at quarterback, offensive line, defensive line.”

Diego Yun was the top offensive player last year, passing for 1,818 yards and 17 touchdowns while leading the team with 795 yards and 11 touchdowns on the ground. He has graduated, though, and leaves a hole at signal-caller.

Kinxton Hill (758 yards, 9 TD rush) and Kaleb Jones (507 yards, 5 TD rush) form a solid backfield pairing that WHS will have to account for on defense.

Northwest was 6-5 last year but 4-1 in the Southwest Ohio Conference. With the losses of Ross and Edgewood, that league is down to Northwest, Mt. Healthy, Talawanda and Harrison.

The last meeting between WHS and NW was in 2013 when the Hurricane posted a 30-14 win. Both teams were members of the SWOC at the time. It was the final season in the league for WHS before joining the ill-fated South Central Ohio League the next school year.

Wilmington had two scrimmages, facing Monroe and Stebbins. The hope for Evans is the tough preseason slate will prepare his team for the regular season.

“Monroe is a playoff football team, a disciplined football team,” the WHS coach said. “In order for us to change the trajectory of what we’re doing at Wilmington, we have to play those types of teams. Week 1 through 5 is going to be grinders for us. We want to build confidence in our young men but nothing is going to come easy.”

Aiden Price returns as quarterback of the Hurricane.

“He’s another one that has really bought in,” Evans said. “He was in a three-way quarterback battle (last year) and he came out as the winner of that one. We had to sit him in the Wapakoneta game last year.

“But now he’s really prepared his body for this. He’s really excelled in both scrimmages, made some good decisions … decisions that he wouldn’t have made a year ago.”