2025 COVINGTON BUCCANEERS

The 2025 Covington Buccaneers have a golden opportunity to put together a memorable season due to the amount of experienced athletes returning and an increase in the number of players on the roster.

SEASON PREVIEW

The Covington Buccaneers have potential to take another step forward in the 2025 season due to more experience, a larger roster and the hard work put in by the majority of the players throughout the off-season.

Covington finished 3-7 during the regular season a year ago and fortunately qualified for the state playoffs for the first time since 2020. The Buccaneers did lose in the opening round of the playoffs against an opponent that eventually won the state championship, the Coldwater Cavaliers. This experience set the tone for the off-season effort put in.

The Buccaneers are relatively still a young team as only three seniors are on the roster; Day’Lynn Garrett, A.J. Reyes and Christian Clark. Fortunately, all three are key players due to the number of games they played over the past three years.

Another key to the Buccaneers’ potential success is the amount of talented junior players are on the roster. Thirteen of the sixteen juniors are returning lettermen and the majority of them started their freshman seasons two years ago.

Overall, Covington has 16 returning lettermen on the roster; seniors Christian Clark, Day’Lynn Garrett and A.J. Reyes, along with juniors Parker Hoying, James Kuether, Tyler Palsgrove, Sam Helman, Jonathan Miller, Filip McMaken. Parker Schaeffer, Brock Lyons, Trenton Havenar, Landin Cassel, Eli Brooks, Jordan Miller and Lucas Lester.

With the increase in the number of players on the roster, the Buccaneers have a junior varsity schedule in place for the first time since 2020. This gives so many of the younger players more experience on the field and potential to improve at the varsity level.

The overall schedule for 2025 is at an increased level of competition due to the non-league opponents. The Buccs open the season for the second straight year against Arcanum, but two new opponents are followed up in week two and three – New Bremen and Graham.

The Three Rivers Conference (TRC) opponents are scheduled throughout the final seven games in the regular season, which is a relatively competitive league. The Buccaneers were a very young team a year ago, but they were competitive even in some unfortunate losses. Even though the Buccs are still a relatively young team, there are more experienced players on the roster and the potential for more success is in place.

Buccaneer head coach Austin Morgan and his coaching staff have established an outstanding culture in the program – a culture that hopefully leads to more success in 2025 and beyond. The team philosophy of being RELENTLESS in preparation and while playing on the field is the ideal standard that will lead to success — as long as the players buy in 100%.

2025 BUCCS FOOTBALL ROSTER

2025 BUCCS JUNIOR HIGH FOOTBALL ROSTER

SEASON REVIEW

The Covington Buccaneers had significant improvement in the 2025 season due to the amount of hard work, effort, intensity and the ability to overcome adversity throughout the season.

Covington finished the regular season with a 5-5 record and lost in the opening round of the state playoff to Coldwater, the defending state champions. But qualifying for the state playoffs was a huge accomplishment considering all of the unfortunate situations the team had to overcome.

Unfortunate situations started off before the season started as two key junior players were lost for the entire season due to injuries – Parker Hoying and Parker Schaeffer. Then, three Buccaneer players suffered unfortunate injuries in the season opener and three more players were injured in week two.

These injuries put the Buccaneers into difficult circumstances throughout the first four games, which led to an 0-4 record. The losses came against Arcanum, New Bremen, Graham and Miami East.

Fortunately, four of the injured players were able to return to the field in the 22-21 loss to Miami East, a team that won the TRC Championship with a 9-1 record. Even though the loss was primarily a result from 14 penalties and some mistakes by special teams, the Buccaneers showed their overall effort and toughness would lead to more success.

The Buccaneers followed up with five consecutive wins over Riverside, Troy Christian, Bethel, Northridge and Milton-Union with the majority of the players on the field. Unfortunately, another key player on the offensive and defensive line was injured in week nine against Milton-Union, which put the Buccaneers into another unfortunate situation in the final week of the regular season against Lehman.

Still, the Buccaneers played hard and put a lot of points on the board (34) even with two freshmen, one sophomore, one junior and one senior on the offensive line. Unfortunately, what hurt the Buccaneers in the 48-34 loss to Lehman was the five turnovers committed.

Covington was able to advance to the state playoffs and faced Coldwater in the opening round for the second straight year. Even though the Buccaneers lost 48-0 to the defending state champions, the way the team was able to overcome the adversity throughout the entire season set the program up for future success.

There were three seniors on the team – Day’Lynn Garrett, A.J. Reyes and Christian Clark. Day’Lynn Garrett and A.J. Reyes were four-year starters in the program, while Christian Clark played in several positions in all three phases of the game.

Day’Lynn Garrett finished to his career by setting three records in the program – 1887 career receiving yards, 141 career receptions and 11 receptions in one game.

The key for success in the next season in 2026 is how much more progression the players will make throughout the offseason and the amount of higher execution that will be made in each game.