Written by: Brandon Baney
Ever since Jon Helmandollar arrived at Wendell three years ago, the Trojans have been building. They went 2-6 in Helmandollar’s first season at the helm in 2021. 2022 saw improvement, as the Trojans went 4-5 and just missed out on the postseason. Then, last season, Wendell finished 5-5, but advanced to the playoffs for the first time in years.
Their postseason journey ended in the opening round with a 42-0 road loss at Bear Lake (now in Class 4A), but the bar has been set. Helmandollar will be forever be grateful to the Class of 2023 for helping Wendell end its playoff drought.
“We lost 12 seniors that really helped build our program,” says Helmandollar. “Each one of them is going to be missed in their own unique way.”
Priority number one is replacing all of the offensive skill players that graduated, starting with quarterback Alex Hirai. Fortunately, that position solved itself rather quickly.
“A bright spot this offseason was Jett Jasper, who stepped up and took over the QB position,” says Helmandollar. “Jett provides our team with instant leadership and is both a threat on the ground and through the air.”
Next up? Replacing 1,000 yard rusher Jesse Chavez, the focal point of the Trojans’ offense the past two seasons.
“Replacing Jesse isn’t going to be easy,” Helmandollar admits. “But we will do it by committee this season.”
Then there’s the wide receiver position. “Our wideouts are going to be a little bit of a work in progress because we lost all of our starters from last year,” says Helmandollar. “We do have some talent coming up with Treyson Vanderham, Ben Chrisham, and Deegan Prince. Plus, Deegan Taylor has put in a lot of work in this offseason and if he continues to work and develop, he will see some time also.”
While the Trojans work in all of those new offensive players, Wendell will lean on its 4-4 defense in the early going. “We are looking to stop the run first,” says Helmandollar. “If we can stop the run, everything else will fall into place for us defensively.”
Linebacker appears to be the strongest positional group on defense. Garrett Youngblood, Julian Ponce, Isaiah Lentfer and Adrian Nava will rotate through at inside linebacker. Outside linebackers include Vanderham, Kayden Shives and Jose Laura. “We lack a lot of experience at linebacker, but we have the depth to move players around if needed,” says Helmandollar.
The defensive line lost Deegan Gonzales and Josh Green to graduation, and Nate Allen to injury. Allen will miss at least half the season with a broken ankle. “We are looking for big things from Sam Carlson up front,” says Helmandollar. “And we have two defensive tackles in Nate (when he returns) and Aidan Scott. They have great size and should be able to free up our linebackers to make plays in the run game. Ryland Winmill also showed some great things this offseason and will fit into the mix for us up front.”
The secondary is, you guessed it, inexperienced. Prince and Santos Suarez are expected to lead the DBs, and Helmandollar is hopeful that the front seven can help alleviate some of the pressure on the back end. “We hope to improve on our ability to put more pressure on the offense,” he says. “I felt like we sat back and let them attack us too much last season.”
One thing going in Wendell’s favor this year is an expanded conference. In years past, the Trojans competed with Declo in the two-team Canyon Conference, which meant the league champion was determined by the single game between the two. This year, the Hornets and Trojans joined District 5’s South East Idaho Conference, and will compete with Aberdeen, Malad, Soda Springs and West Side.
“I’m so excited to work with such an amazing group of players,” says Helmandollar. “We are a lot more inexperienced and young going into this season, and it will be a work in progress, but we are excited about continuing to build our program.”
“Our ability to come together and develop as a team will determin the type of season we have,” Helmandollar concludes.