SEYMOUR FOOTBALL PREVIEW SPOTLIGHT IS SPONSORED BY SCHUH CONSTRUCTION, FOX CITIES BUILDERS, AND SEYMOUR DENTAL
A new era of Seymour Thunder football is underway, but first-year head coach Jeff Marsh isn’t looking to completely reinvent the program.
Instead, Marsh wants to build on what Seymour has accomplished in recent years while creating a renewed sense of pride in the football program and the community.
“We’re trying to take the things that we’ve done the last few years and keep elevating our expectations and keep elevating what we think we can do as a group,” Marsh said.
Marsh takes over the Seymour program after spending years coaching alongside some of the area’s most respected coaches, including his brother, Jared Marsh, who is the head coach at Pulaski.
The two Marsh brothers will now be on opposite sidelines as head coaches, but that hasn’t stopped them from sharing ideas.
“We definitely text back and forth with how things are going and bounce ideas off each other in the offseason,” Marsh said. “I’ve been lucky enough to follow Jared around to several clinics that he’s been a part of, trying to absorb as much knowledge as you can.”
Building Seymour Pride
One of Marsh’s biggest goals isn’t necessarily X’s and O’s. It’s helping Seymour’s athletes develop confidence and take ownership of their decisions.
“We’re really trying to develop self-advocacy among our young men, where it’s not going to be up to other people to make decisions for them,” Marsh said. “We want to put them in a position where they feel confident enough in themselves to make decisions on and off the field.”
Marsh also wants the football program to become another source of community pride.
Much of his coaching staff remains intact, while several new coaches have joined the program. Marsh said they all have a connection to Seymour.
“They either grew up in Seymour, been working in Seymour, and so we’re really looking to continue building that pride and being from Seymour,” he said.
Marsh believes Seymour can once again become a football town.
“I think Seymour can be a football town again,” Marsh said. “I think that we can help show these kids that it’s actually a good thing to be from Seymour. This is a good community with good people.”
Plenty of New Faces
The Thunder have some significant holes to fill following the graduation of a strong senior class.
Seymour will have 10 new starters on both sides of the ball this season.
Marsh, however, doesn’t necessarily see that as a negative.
“We do have a lot of holes to fill,” he said. “We had a big, strong senior class last year with a lot of talent and we have 10 new starters on both sides of the ball.”
But instead of focusing on what Seymour lost, Marsh is looking at the opportunities that are now available.
“That means we’re going to have 20 guys that have an opportunity to prove something to themselves and to those around them, that those last two, three years that they put into the grind are really going to pay off for them,” Marsh said.
One of the key returning players is senior Isaac Feske, an all-conference selection who will have a different role this season.
Feske is expected to remain a key piece defensively, while Marsh plans to utilize his basketball skills on offense.
“He’s a top-notch basketball player, thousand-point scorer,” Marsh said. “We’re going to try and get him the ball actually, so we’re going to move him out a little bit and see if we can get some matchup advantages there.”
Other seniors expected to step into bigger roles include Andrew Marsh, Rigo Rebolledo, David Hamilton, Kessler Jansen and David Caravella.
Marsh also expects several juniors and even some sophomores to see significant playing time.
Young Quarterback Ready for His Opportunity
The Thunder will have a young quarterback leading the offense to begin the season.
Junior Kyle Neppl has earned the starting job after putting in significant work throughout the offseason.
“He came to every single seven-on-seven, every optional practice, came to the weight room,” Marsh said. “So I’m excited to see how his dedication pays off this fall.”
Defense Will Set the Tone
Defense is an area where Marsh has extensive experience, and he expects it to be a strength of this year’s Thunder team.
“I learned football coaching on the defensive side,” Marsh said. “When I was up in Wabeno, ran the defense up there, and I helped Jared in Pulaski. Since I’ve been here, it’s been defense.”
Seymour will run an aggressive version of the 4-6 defense.
“We’re aggressive and we’re going to hang our hat on putting pressure on everybody,” Marsh said. “So I think our defense will be strong.”
Offensively, Marsh plans to use a unique combination of concepts designed to create confusion and take advantage of numbers and misdirection.
He jokingly referred to it as a “dinosaur offense.”
The offense will incorporate elements of the single wing, Wrightstown’s straight-T offense and the old-school Wing-T.
“We’re going to blend all three of those concepts into what we’re going to try and do offensively,” Marsh said. “You get the misdirection, you get the power, you get the balance. I think you combine things and that makes you difficult to defend.”
The Goal: Get Better Every Week
For Marsh, success in his first season won’t be defined by a specific win total.
Instead, he wants the Thunder to be playing their best football when the regular season reaches its final weeks.
“I’ve said this many times: It’s not always about where you start, it’s where you finish,” Marsh said. “If we keep improving as a football team where we’re feeling really, really good about ourselves come Week 9, then that’s a good season.”
Marsh believes the wins and losses will take care of themselves if his players commit to doing things the right way.
“If the kids are doing the things right on the football field and in practice and in the weight room and in the classroom and just representing themselves well, those things will take care of themselves,” he said.
For now, Marsh isn’t putting a hard number on the season.
The first goal is establishing the foundation.
“We want to make sure that we have our offense down, feel comfortable in our defense, can believe in each other and have that structure in place,” Marsh said. “And I think once you’ve got that situated, then it’s time to shoot for the stars.”
And while Marsh isn’t ready to predict exactly where Seymour will finish, he does have one simple annual goal.
“We really would like to win more than we lose every single year,” he said.
The next chapter of Seymour football is officially underway.
2026 Seymour Football Schedule
- Aug. 21: vs Waupun
- Aug. 28: at Oconto Falls
- Sep. 4: at Fox Valley Lutheran*
- Sep. 11: vs Waupaca*
- Sep. 18 at Xavier*
- Sep. 25 at Luxemburg-Casco*
- Oct. 2 vs Winneconne*
- Oct. 9 at New London*
- Oct. 16 vs Shawano*
* Bay Conference Game
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