Young Carmichaels building under new coach

Aug 23, 2026 By Jerin Steele 4 min read

CARMICHAELS – During a preseason practice, Carmichaels coach Ken Perkins stood on the back of a tackle sled while encouraging the offensive linemen going through drills.

That’s been Perkins’ home as a coach for many years.

Coaching the offensive and defensive linemen.

Now he’s entering his first year as the head coach of the Mikes and has a young team to mold.

The Mikes have only five seniors on the roster.

“It’s been wonderful, but it’s definitely been a different experience,” Perkins said of moving into the head coaching role. “I’m normally with that one specific group, the offensive and defensive line, most of the time during practice. Normally I’d be watching those guys, but now I’m watching everybody. It’s been a great experience getting to know and work with everyone.”

Perkins was on former coach Ryan Krull’s staff. Krull resigned after last season. He coached the Mikes for 10 years over two separate stints.

“I like a lot of the things that Ryan did and there are going to be a lot of things you see that will stay the same, but there’s going to be some things we do differently too,” Perkins said. “One thing is the balance of run to pass. We want to make it a little more even. Our passing offense struggled a bit last year, so we’re working on it. It probably won’t be 50-50, but we’re going to try to make it a little closer to even.”

Perkins inherits a team with more freshmen than any other class, but has some experienced players to build around.

There were 30 players on the roster entering training camp and the five seniors are: Steven Lewis, Job Smith, Elan Caldwell, Cole Jackson and Aiden Henderson.

“Of course, you always want your numbers to be a little higher, but it’s good to have these numbers,” Perkins said. “I’m not dissatisfied at all with it. We do have some juniors coming back with experience and some sophomores coming back with a little bit of experience, so it’ll be interesting to see how it all works out.”

Caldwell leads an experienced line that figures to be a strength of the team. All five starters return. From left to right they are Jordan Davis, Tristan Miller, Jason Baer, Caldwell and Jackson.

“It’s all about team-bonding and hard work,” Caldwell said. “We’re hitting the sled together and nobody is complaining. I know I can trust each one of them on a Friday night.”

At the skill positions there will be some new faces in the starting lineup.

Sophomore Peyton Morecraft takes over at quarterback for Cannon Bupka, who graduated. Morecraft previously played wide receiver.

The Mikes’ top running back from last year, Will Murray, also graduated.

Junior KC Shook will slot in at running back as part of a three-man backfield with Lewis and Smith.

“I’ve been lifting hard and running to get ready,” Shook said. “I’ve been waking up at 6 a.m. every day and doing all those things and working on footsteps. That helps a lot. I started both ways last year as a hybrid, so I know a lot of what we want to do.”

Carmichaels will again be in the Tri-County South Conference. Almost all of their rivals remain, except Bentworth, which moved to the Black Hills Conference. Frazier makes a return to the Tri-County South.

Playing local rivals like Mapletown, West Greene, Beth-Center and Jefferson-Morgan on a yearly basis allows for friendships to build and bragging rights to be up for grabs.

“We’ve grown up with them since we were little and versed each other our whole lives,” Smith said. “It’s nice to see how we progressed over the years. It’ll be sweet if we can get some of the wins that we’ve been looking for over the last few seasons. We just have to stay focused in everything we do and not just at practice but outside of practice too. Eating the right foods, getting enough sleep, so we can elevate our game on Friday nights.”

The Mikes will look to improve on a 4-5 season and send the handful of seniors out on a high note.

“I’m excited to get one more opportunity playing football with my boys, but I’m also a bit sad, because it’s the last time I get to do it,” Lewis said. “We’re putting in the work and I’m excited to see how the season turns out.”