OSHKOSH — The Oshkosh North football team knows that the 20 seniors from the 2025 team aren’t coming back. It knows that Luke Ott is no longer the head coach and that just six starters are back.
But most importantly, the Spartans know they enter the 2026 season with something to prove.
“We definitely have something to prove for everybody who thinks that we’re not going to be as good,” Oshkosh North senior Mayson Feavel said.
Among the changes to the team is one at the top. After four years as the head coach, Luke Ott stepped down and Alec Gulan was hired as the next head coach. Gulan is familiar with the program as he’d been an assistant coach since 2020 and worked with the freshman and junior varsity teams before that.
“I’ve seen some low times here and I’ve seen, last year, a high time. What coach Ott had started and the culture he built, (I’m) just trying to maintain it and build on that to make sure that North is continuing to go up,” Gulan said.
It wasn’t just that the 2025-26 senior class had a large group. They also had success, going 10-2 and making it to a sectional final. It featured Bryce Ott, who threw for 2,252 yards, a running back duo of Jamare Scott and Jamond Thompson-Schreck who ran for over 1,500 yards and Dalton Clark who had 1,192 receiving yards.
Those guys are gone, and there will be fresh faces making plays on Friday nights.
“We have 10 seniors this year which is a small class. We’ll be young with juniors and sophomores, but the nice part is a lot of those incoming juniors have played quite a bit of varsity football already,” Gulan said. “Last year was last year, and I think the kids are ready to kind of move on and write their own story now.”
Oshkosh North returns four of its starting offensive linemen and its top tackler in Manny Tlatelpa, who had 97 total tackles, 24 solo tackles, three tackles for loss and one sack. Lucas Davis was a first-team all-conference offensive lineman and Mason Geiger was a second-team all-conference lineman. Gulan also has his eye on some guys who will have their time to shine.
“Tre Chapman, our running back. He’s a senior. He kind of sat behind Jamond and Jamare last year as a junior and didn’t get the bulk of the carries he wanted. Amaree Davis kind of came on late last year but he was overshadowed by Dalton and Jackson Anderson. So, Amaree’s got a lot of potential at the wide receiver position,” Gulan said. “We got Brendyn Sewall who’s coming up. Obviously, Manny’s our stud on the defense. We got Ethan Kuhn back in the secondary, Joe Sanders up in the front with Sergio (Perez).
“Mason Geiger is a three-year starter, Lucas Davis is now a three-year starter as a junior. Our center and our right tackle are both two-year starters now.”
Gulan also mentioned Julian Rew, who will be the starting quarterback and learned from (Bryce) Ott.
The players are also excited to have those bigger roles and see what they can do.
“We are very highly trained. Last year, they did a great job of teaching all of us up,” Feavel said. “I think we’re equally equivalent as far as skill there, so I think we’ll be just fine.”
Oshkosh North officially gets it season started at 7 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 21 when it welcomes Ashwaubenon to Titan Stadium before facing cross-town rival Oshkosh West in Week 2.
When the lights start to shine on Fridays, Oshkosh North believes that it’ll put on a show.
“I think fans can expect a lot of electric games, a lot of energy,” Oshkosh North senior Amaree Davis said.
Contact or send game stats/info to Ben Schultz at BSchultz@usatodayco.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @benschultz52.
This article originally appeared on Oshkosh Northwestern: Oshkosh North football enters 2026 season with something to prove
Reporting by Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern / Oshkosh Northwestern
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Ben Schultz, Oshkosh Northwestern | USA TODAY Network
