Shelbyville football near full strength as 2025 season ready to kick off

One preseason football graphic could prove fortuitous for the future success of the Shelbyville football program.

Released through social media, the graphic (shown below) shows the football jerseys and their corresponding numbers for the Golden Bears’ freshmen class. There are 23 jerseys on the graphic, more than double the same three graphics released for the sophomore, junior and senior classes.

The class is heralded – and successful – only losing to New Palestine the last two middle school seasons in two highly-competitive games. Quite simply, they are the future of the program as it prepares for its final season in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.

“What has been exciting is they are giving us something more in practice,” said Shelbyville head coach Scott Fitzgerald, now prepping for this third season at the helm. “That group of kids, even though they are freshmen, have really been able to step up compared to what we had last year in practice as far as a scout team. They are giving us a little bit more because they are just a little bit more talented than what we’ve had in the past. And the numbers are a little bit greater.”

That group excelled, just as the varsity, during Friday’s preseason scrimmage game at Jennings County.

“They’ve been going against our varsity all summer long and all of a sudden they went out to a JV game and it was easy,” said Fitzgerald. “Hopefully, they can carry that over into their own games and have success on some JV nights and that helps us build the program, especially if we are doing well on Friday nights.”

The Golden Bears’ final trip around the HHC will again prove difficult. In 2026, Shelbyville and Greenwood will join the Hoosier Legends Conference, which is debuting this season. The move by the Golden Bears and Woodmen will create an 8-team conference with Beech Grove, Indian Creek, Monrovia, Speedway, Tri-West and Triton Central.

With a physically stronger offensive line and the return from injury of junior quarterback Tyler Gwinnup, Shelbyville looks to improve on its 7.7 point-per-game average in 2024 – the third worst offensive average for the program in the last three decades.

“I was kind of starting to get comfortable when I went down,” admitted Gwinnup. “My confidence is getting there. My decision making is getting better. Those first couple of games (last season), the game was so much faster than what I was used to. I was just finally getting the feel for it.”

Gwinnup (photo) suffered a season-ending knee injury against New Palestine. It came at a time when he was getting familiar with running the offense. He gives Shelbyville a more consistent passing threat which helps get the program’s biggest offensive weapon, junior Grantland Fitzgerald, in more positions to excel.

“The maturity of Tyler understanding, I think a lot before was just look at Grantland … now he is able to see that teams will double Grantland, there may be a guy under and over Grantland. He is maturing enough to understand I can come off that, I can look at it but then come off it and look at another guy. And he knows what other guy he has to be looking at,” said coach Fitzgerald. “That’s the maturity in the offense of knowing where your reads are and not just singling in on just one guy.”

Grantland Fitzgerald (photo) will operate with essentially three new-to-Friday-night-football receivers in senior Gavin Reed, who missed most of last season with an injury suffered in week two, sophomore Austin Martzall and freshman Camden Thoman.

For Gwinnup to be successful, the offensive line has to keep him upright and in the pocket and produce a consistent running game.

“The feel of this team is much different,” said coach Fitzgerald. “You have some young guys that played last year that are older this year, that have spent a year in the weight room with us, have gotten stronger … we’ve gained almost an average of 20 pounds on the offensive line … and we’ve gotten consistently stronger up front.”

The left side of the offensive line returns in junior left tackle Anthony Stafford, sophomore left guard Nolan Cord and senior center Jack West (photo).

“This is really special to me. Just being here these last four years. This is my last ride,” said West. “It’s special but also kind of bittersweet. It’s going to be hard to let go.”

Senior Ben Bailey (photo) takes over at right guard with sophomore Lamberto Leon providing formidable size at right tackle.

Sophomore Ethan Griffin will be in the offensive and defensive line rotations with Fitzgerald labeling him a “Swiss army knife” because of his versatility.

Senior Donavon Martin will be the workhorse in the backfield at running back.

“I love seeing the sophomores and the freshmen putting in the work,” said Martin. “They are dedicated. They come to practice. They come to weights and come with a good mentality.”

Junior Cooper Thoman is another sizable receiver as the tight end in offensive sets.

Shelbyville football practiced at night Tuesday at McKeand Stadium after inclement weather rolled through the county.

The defense will be anchored by the returns of West and Cord at end. Griffin and sophomore J’Kobe Moore will start on the interior defensive line.

Bailey will take charge of the defensive signal calling at the linebacker position next to Cooper Thoman.

Fitzgerald and junior Jackson Myers are the starting cornerbacks with Reed, Martzall and junior Kameron Holland working as safeties.

Stafford will see time on the defensive line. Martin also will work into the defense when needed.

Senior defensive back Carter Dunagan (photo) is out until midseason while recovering from a head injury.

Freshmen Layden Fitzgerald and Kellen Coffey also will see reps on Friday nights in certain situations.

The special teams unit is new this season with senior Rolando Saucedo taking over as the place kicker. Senior Richard Lira will handle kickoff duties. Junior Luke Coomes is the punter.

Myers is the long snapper on the special teams unit.

The Golden Bears open the season Friday at Greensburg – a program in a similar position to Shelbyville just five seasons ago. The Pirates finished 1-10 last season which followed a winless year in 2023.

Former Rushville coach Isaac Sliger is now in charge of the program which gives the Golden Bears an edge that is not normally available when a new coach takes over. Sliger was 11-29 in four seasons at Rushville and defeated Shelbyville twice, including last season, 28-7.

“They are very similar to Rushville last year. They are running almost the same offense,” said Fitzgerald of what to expect at Greensburg. “It will pretty much be the same defense; he just has different guys in there.

“They will be well coached. He has recruited and done a great job of getting some kids out there. I think they had some 50 kids on their roster. He has some big, physical kids.”

Shelbyville’s home opener is in week two when Rushville, under the direction of new head coach Rick Zimmerman, visits McKeand Stadium.

That is followed by the seven-week gauntlet that is the HHC. The Golden Bears are 2-44 against the conference in the last seven seasons.

Shelbyville is currently 0-5 all-time against its future HLC opponents – 0-2 against Beech Grove and 0-3 against Greenwood.

In 99 seasons of Golden Bears football, the program has not played Indian Creek, Monrovia, Speedway, Triton Central or Tri-West. That will make for a historic 100^th season of Shelbyville football.

Shelbyville’s 2025 Football Schedule

Aug. 22   at Greensburg

Aug. 29   RUSHVILLE

Sept. 5     DELTA*

Sept. 12   at Greenfield-Central*

Sept. 19   at New Castle*

Sept. 26   YORKTOWN*

Oct. 3      at New Palestine*

Oct. 10    MT. VERNON*

Oct. 17    at Pendleton Heights*

Oct. 24    Sectional (TBD)

All game times 7 p.m. except Delta and Yorktown at 7:30 p.m.

*denotes Hoosier Heritage Conference game

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