Newfield football carries experience into 2025 season

While some football teams around Section IV have already gotten their campaigns underway, the 8-man season begins on September 12. One program that is aiming to turn things around is Newfield, and they’ll be boosted by a bigger and more experienced squad.

Newfield has consistently had one of the smallest rosters in the section, ending last season with 14 players. Numbers are looking strong this year with 19 players currently listed on the roster, an encouraging sign for third-year head coach Ian Valentine.

“We’re not having to use trash cans and coaches to step in,” Valentine said. “We’re able to field pretty regularly in eight-on-eight against each other and stuff like that. It’s awesome to have the numbers that you need to be able to compete on a regular basis.”

Another important aspect is the amount of returning athletes. The Trojans only lost two players from last year’s team and have a big core of 12 seniors, a vast difference from Valentine’s first two years leading the program.

“Two years ago, we had a senior class of two people,” Valentine said. “Last year, we had a senior class of one person. While it’s hard to maintain numbers with those, what that means is this underclassman group has played with each other, and they’ve been the bulk of the team for the last three years now, and now they get the chance to be that senior group that set something special.”

One of those seniors will commandeer the offense for the second straight year. Warrior Miner returns as the Trojans’ starting quarterback. With Valentine also taking the reins as offensive coordinator, Miner has been adapting to the slight adjustments to the playbook in stride.

“[There’s] a couple tweaks offensively, but to see Warrior’s growth under center and in command in offense—as opposed to learning offense—he’s in a really good space mentally and the ability to control what’s in front of him.”

Every quarterback needs their weapons, and Miner will have plenty at his disposal. The two biggest ones who stand out are his fellow seniors Malcolm Jenkins and LeMari Spears. 

“My goal as coach is always to get the ball in the hand of the guys that can make the play and let them go make the play,” Valentine said. “I try not to make it too complicated, try to keep it as simple as possible. We’ve got plenty of guys that we feel like can go make a play anytime they touch the football, and that’s the goal: just get them the football and let them go make those plays that they can do pretty regularly.”

There’s usually at least one player on every football team that’s designated as their “jack of all trades,” and Jackson Chaffee certainly embodied that phrase for the Trojans. Last year, the senior started at center and tight end as well as being their third-string quarterback. With more depth in this year’s team, Chaffee will see more time at linebacker and continue to play tight end. 

On the offensive line, senior Jesse Ayers will be their starting center while junior Jacoby Mikula returns as the Trojans’ guard.

Newfield’s schedule looks almost entirely different than in year’s past with so many changes to the 8-man landscape. While Groton and Trumansburg move back up to 11-man football, Lansing and Dryden are the newcomers in the 8-man scene. Newfield is the longest-tenured 8-man team in Section IV, competing in every season since the 8-man league’s inception in 2018. Throughout the years, they’ve learned that while the competition always seems to change, the end goal remains the same.

“The ultimate goal is to return to 11-man football,” Valentine said. “With the enrollment that we have, I don’t see that happening in a year or two. That’s more of a five-year plan, but I think that’s what we’re going to see. I think we take the mindset of whoever’s on the schedule, we’ll play it, and we’ll go play whoever.”

The past two years have been filled with challenges, posting a combined 1-15 record that included four forfeited games in 2023 due to a lack of players. But the feeling around the team and the Newfield community is that this year will showcase a much more competitive unit. There are already promising signs after pleasing performances in scrimmages against Elmira-Notre Dame and Thomas A. Edison.

“We’ve taken the lumps for the last two years, and the message this year has been those lumps have to be for something because you have to be able to believe in yourself and believe in each other,” Valentine said. “Once that starts, then the changes you want will be there. They’re not going to come. You have to go take them. And it starts with believing in yourself and believing and believing in each other.”

The Trojans open up the season at home on September 13 against Moravia.