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Cole Stephens named Putnam County Offensive Player of the Year
In recent seasons, several freshmen have jumped into varsity football feet first and made an impact upon the Putnam County landscape.
Freshman signal callers have become a common sight in that time, whether it was Wyatt Mullin at South Putnam, Christian Kramer at North Putnam or Tayt Jackson and Artrevious Henderson at Cloverdale.
None made quite the impression that Cole Stephens did at Greencastle in 2023, though to be fair, few quarterbacks in the state of Indiana threw for more that the freshman’s 2,675 yards and only one, Lapel’s Devin Craig, was a fellow underclassmen.
Stephens finished 15th overall in the state in passing yards, completing 154-of-229 attempts for 34 touchdowns against 11 interceptions, adding 35 yards rushing on 13 carries for a total of 2,710 yards of total offense.
Helping guide the Tiger Cubs to an 8-3 mark while winning the WIC Small School Division, Stephens was named the Putnam County Offensive Player of the Year as voted upon by the coaches of Putnam County.
Stephens has always had football in his veins thanks to his family.
“I give all the credit to (Greencastle head coach Dave Stephens), who has taught me everything I know about football,” Stephens said about learning and growing into the game. “He got me into it and got me to love it.
“I remember being three years old and watching ESPN’s Top 10 Football Plays on repeat all the time. We’ve put in thousands of hours of throwing and learning about the game.”
Getting his first taste of life on the field in first grade, Stephens played in several areas before entering high school.
“I started off playing in a flag football league before I was allowed to play tackle football because I love the game so much,” Stephens said. “I had to play.
“I’ve played prior to Greencastle at Springs Valley, Pike Central and Owen Valley before this year.”
“(Cole) played flag football at Jasper as the area we lived in at the time didn’t allow for anyone to play under the age of third grade,” coach Stephens added. “In order to get him in some sort of organized football, we went there before he started playing at Springs Valley.”
Knowing that he was likely on the move once again after coach Stephens was hired at Greencastle, the younger Stephens said he knew he had a short amount of time to embed himself among his teammates and did what he could to build up rapport with everyone involved in the program.
“We had our limited contact days and I came in trying to talk to as many people as I could,” Stephens said. “I wanted to get to a base level of understanding with my teammates quickly.
“During the summer, we were together constantly. You have to bond or otherwise you won’t be successful. You’re always looking to be positive; you can’t be negative or hurtful to others.
“It also can’t always be about football,” Stephens added. “Outside of football, you need to get to know everyone as people as well.”
Knowing the system front to back as the coach’s son, Stephens did what he could to help his new team acclimate to the new offensive season during the summer, often directing traffic during practice and scrimmages.
“During the summer, I played a huge role in not only playing quarterback and making throws but making sure everyone knew where to be and where to go in the offense,” Stephens said. “It was moreso trying to be a coach than trying to be a player on the field.”
Once official practices began, Stephens said he still needed to cement his spot in the lineup with Jake Miller returning after starting at quarterback as a junior, though it wasn’t long before the freshman got the nod.
“I didn’t come in as a starter; I had to work for the position,” Stephens said. “I was excited when I was first announced as the starter and enjoyed taking reps in practice that day.
“I was also enjoying my first few weeks of school. I’ve been following my dad everywhere, so this wasn’t anything new to me, having been to a few different schools before.”
Greencastle opened the season with Danville, a tough assignment but one that turned into a highly-competitive 21-14 loss.
“That was a game that prepared me for the rest of the season,” Stephens noted. “Having Evan Lawrence and Trey Ross, at 6’7” and 6’5”, coming off the edge is any quarterback’s nightmare.
“We handled it pretty well. My offensive linemen gave me all the confidence in the world. We had two sacks the whole season as they didn’t let anyone get past them.”
After falling to Northview the following week, Greencastle picked up its first win of the season against West Vigo, the first varsity victory for Stephens and a bit of relief for the team as a whole.
“It was awesome,” Stephens said. “After the first two weeks, even though Danville and Northview are twice our size and we had illness in the latter game, winning at West Vigo solidified to us that we were going to be a good team.
“It wasn’t our time in weeks one and two. We weren’t there yet but we started getting there in week three and that helped us prepare for week four.”
The following week was a key outing at South Putnam, a team that had denied the Tiger Cubs a chance to win the WIC Small School Division since the division model was put into place.
In a contender for the best athletic contest of the 2023 calendar year, Greencastle topped the Eagles 51-49 to wrestle control of the Putnam County Bucket and took charge of the conference, an important win in the context of the season.
“We knew that if we beat South Putnam, we didn’t feel like we would lose a game the rest of the regular season,” Stephens said. “If we lost to South, it would probably change the entire course of the rest of the year.
“Our seniors weren’t going to let us lose that game, though. We were all down on ourselves in the third quarter and the seniors had the mindset of being tired of losing to South and willed us to a victory.
“Greencastle hadn’t beaten South for four years and hadn’t won county in that time, so it was important for everyone that we won that game,” Stephens added. “Myself and (coach Stephens) also knew that the goal of the season wasn’t to beat South but to make a deep playoff run every year.
“Beating South is nice but not always the end goal.”
“It springboarded our confidence as a team,” Coach Stephens added. “We didn’t know what kind of team we had going into that game but that game solidified, for us, that we had done something tangible to prove that we were a good team on the field.
“You could see the confidence in the way the team played after that.”
The win was also the point where Stephens’ teammates became fully invested in him.
“Probably after we beat South Putnam because that was such a huge milestone here,” Stephens said about fully gaining the trust of the team. “There were always going to be questions asked about whether someone is playing if they’re a coaches’ kid or actually a good player and after that, it was a case of people liking me and being a good player.”
In the following games, Stephens and the Tiger Cubs rolled past Sullivan, Brown County and Cloverdale, setting new records for passing yards and touchdowns in a game against the Eagles, before running into familiar faces in Owen Valley.
For the first time in several weeks, the passing game took a back seat to the running game as Greencastle won 35-15 behind four Lamar Moore touchdowns.
Stephens didn’t have a bad game, completing 13-of-18 passes for 160 yards, a touchdown and no interceptions, but was keyed on for the first time in several weeks.
“It’s always difficult to not play as big a role as I had been doing in other games,” Stephens said. “As long as we were winning, though, I didn’t really care.
“I could throw three interceptions or for zero yards but, as long as we won, I would be happy.”
The next two weeks saw Greencastle face North Putnam, the first game to end the regular season and the second as part of the sectional draw.
Played in a first-half deluge, the Tiger Cubs managed to pick up a 17-9 win that Stephens said was a dream game of sorts.
“That was a dream weather game,” Stephens said about the first meeting with North Putnam. “As a kid, you dream about getting the chance to play in a downpour like that because it’s fun.
“On each play, my thought was always about how I was going to grip the football but after that, it was nice and a fun game.”
The second meeting had far higher stakes and was another instant classic in the Putnam County football file as Greencastle defeated North Putnam 30-29 thanks to a late Ian Williams field goal.
In another back-and-forth outing, Stephens said the Cougars threw everything they had into the game but added prior tough outings made the difference in the end.
“We had been down plenty of times but you have to overcome those situations,” Stephens said. “That’s how you become a good team, not by staying up and beating bad teams.
“North Putnam was the best three-win team I’ve ever seen. They fought hard and county games are always closer than you want them to be but North Putnam ran a defense I had never seen.
“They had a great gameplan going in, we had a great gameplan going in and it was a hard-fought battle that we came out on top of at the end of the day,” Stephens added.
The 2023 football season would end at Linton the following week in a tough 26-23 loss to the Miners, an evening Stephens said initially had him a little wide-eyed until the ball was in the air.
“Going into Linton, we were playing a juggernaut of a team traditionally,” Stephens said. “We got there and there were 300 people tailgating outside, playing corn hole and doing all sorts of things.
“I had never seen that at a high school game before. You get nervous when you play a team like that, one that has been traditionally good, but after the first snap, it’s a football game.
“At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what they’ve done 10 years ago or last year, what matters is what they’ve done right now,” Stephens added.
While the numbers Stephens put up throughout the year were eye-popping, the freshman said he was mainly pleased at not being a loadstone to the team.
“From a personal perspective, my goal was to not be a nuisance or play like a freshman on the field,” Stephens said. “I was happy with my performance, the team’s performance and I was really happy with winning the county and our side of the conference.
“I felt like we could have gone deeper in the playoffs but at the end of the day, it’s about as good as you could ask for in year one. I exceeded all the goals that I and coaches had set before the year.
“At the beginning of the season, I worked and worked at trying not to be noticed as a freshman on the field,” Stephens added. “I didn’t want to cost us games or be a liability and it was a good feeling as we won games.”
For now, Stephens can be found on the basketball court in a very different role than in the fall, though the freshman said it was important not to get too far ahead of himself.
“It is a little weird going from being a starting varsity quarterback to being an average JV basketball player,” Stephens said. “It helps you become a team player because you’re not focusing on yourself as it’s a team game just like football.
“At the end of the day, you have to bond with your teammates, work together and figure things out, just like in football. It’s all about the team.”
While also looking to participate in track in the spring, Stephens said there would be plenty of time to work on his skills between now and next year, as well as hitting the weight room often to try and help set up additional avenues of attack.
“I will be at camps and stuff,” Stephens said. “I’ll be taking a visit to Tennessee to see my quarterback coach and I’ll spend plenty of time in the weight room.
“I’ve been eating a bit more and have gained 15-20 pounds since football season ended, working towards a goal of bulking up before next season.
“With the added weight, I’ll be working toward being a better runner with the ball,” Stephens added. “This year, I felt a lot of my passing stuff was OK. I just need to beef up a little bit.
“I still need to take care of the ball better. There were games where I threw zero picks but games where they came in clumps. I threw three against South Putnam and threw two in both games against North Putnam.”
Stephens added his first year was good but there was plenty to come in the years beyond.
“We’re trying to build a football culture at Greencastle,” Stephens said. “We showed in year one that we’re serious about this and trying to become a staple of Indiana football.
“Having as successful a year as we did will help recruit kids out of the hallways to come play, get people more invested in playing, more invested in the weight room and improving their individual performance.”