DELPHOS, Ohio (WLIO) – Last season, the St. John's football team made program history. Despite entering Week 11 with a 3-7 record, the Blue Jays rattled off three straight postseason wins, becoming the first No. 15 seed to advance to both the regional semifinals and the regional title game.

Now it's back to work for DSJ and 27th-year head coach Todd Schulte.

"Yeah, you know, if you can't get a little bit excited or motivated to go back to work as a player after doing something we haven't done in a while around here, then you probably better check your pulse a little bit," Schulte said. "So it's an easy motivator and it's an easy thing to talk about — you know where we were at the end of the year and the excitement we had and the fun we were having with it at the end of the year and come back to work and that way we can try to do it again."

The Blue Jays graduated nine seniors from last year's squad. This year's class includes eight players who played major roles in 2024. The quarterback job remains undecided, with senior Drake Fittro and junior Christian Young competing for the starting spot.

"Yeah, so right now we've got a two-man race for quarterback with senior Drake Fittro — Drake played wide receiver for us last year — and then Christian Young, who will be a junior," Schulte said. "He did start one game for us against Coldwater, but both those guys are wide receivers too. So whoever wins the quarterback position, the other guy is going to go be wide receiver for us. They're both playmakers. They're both guys that have to be either having the ball in their hand or around the ball, and we count on those two guys to make plays for us."

DSJ opens the season against two major rivals: on the road against Lehman Catholic in Week 1, followed by the annual Holy War rivalry at Stadium Park against Lima Central Catholic.

"Well, obviously two big games off the rip," Drake Fittro said. "First one nonconference — don't overlook it at all though. We're preparing hard, we're working hard every day. Two-a-days obviously right now. We come out, show up, we have meetings on our board early in the morning, we come out here, we work hard, we get up on each other."

The road will not be easy, with another tough MAC schedule ahead. DSJ is still chasing its first conference crown since 2011.

"We're trying to work on our fundamentals and make sure we can endure adversity," Christian Young said. "These teams have bigger kids, they're stronger, they're faster, but we just got to be able to face that and make sure our fundamentals are right where they need to be so that we can take on these bigger teams and hopefully come home with an upset."

In their last three postseason appearances, St. John's entered as a No. 12 seed or lower. With playoff qualifiers shrinking from 16 to 12 teams this year, every game will carry more weight.

The playoff formula is simple, Schulte said:

"If you want to get into the playoffs, it's a pretty simple formula — win football games," he said. "One, two or three wins isn't going to get it done this year, so we're going to have to win football games. That's the bottom line."

As the season approaches, the Blue Jays continue to fine-tune their game.

"The kids are working hard," Schulte said. "They're trusting in what we're trying to get done every day, and whether it's our drill work, team sessions or whatever it may be, we're seeing some hard work. We've got a ways to go and we're going to have some growing pains. But as long as we are progressing and working to progress every day, as a coach, that's what I ask for."

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