Ryan Murken

Your Prep Sports

WEST BRANCH – Like most good high school football coaches Matt Hughes makes adjustments each season based on the strengths of his team.

Hughes may do some offensive tinkering to fit his current roster but the second-year West Branch head coach doesn’t shy away from his fondness for physical football.

“We always adapt to our personnel but you are never going to see me be a coach that doesn’t like to run the football,” Hughes said. “My team is never going to be one that’s spread out and running spread all the time, that’s just not who I am so we make adaptations to our personnel but we are still going to run the football.”

Running the football has long been a strength at the center of the perennially successful West Branch football program.

For the Bears to continue that success this season a productive ground game will once again need to a big piece of the equation.

“We are still going to have the West Branch mentality which means we are going to have a great offensive line that is going to work together and we are going to run the football and that’s just who we are, that’s who I am and that’s who I will always be,” Hughes said. “We will make some minor tweaks but we are a running football team.”

West Branch returns just two starters from last year’s team that went 7-3 and advanced to the second round of the Class 2A playoffs.

If West Branch is to run the ball efficiently this season those two returning senior starters will be a big reason for the success.

Senior running back Keaton Gates (6-0, 180) gives the Bears one of the best backs in Class 2A.

Gates was a second-team all-state pick last season after ranking fifth in 2A with 1,289 rushing yards while averaging 7.5 yards per carry.

Senior Shay Kinsinger (6-0, 210) returns to lead a young West Branch offensive line after starting on a West Branch line that paved the way for the Bears to average 210 rushing yards per game last season on 6.5 yards per carry.

“If you are going to have two seniors, those are the two you want.” Hughes said. “They not only lead by their words but they lead by example. They are there every day, they are encouraging kids in a positive way and they are the ones that people are following. Our challenge to them is always to lead in a positive way.”

Kisinger will be key for the Bears up front this season both on and off the field.

The senior captain started leading Sunday offensive line meetings during the offseason and has developed as the unquestioned leader of the group.

“It starts with just setting a positive example for everybody and making sure that I believe in them even more than they believe in themselves,” Kinsinger said. “That’s a big thing because some of the guys who don’t necessarily have as much experience may not be as confident in themselves so just giving them that reassurance that they deserve to be here and you have their back is an important thing.”

Kinsinger was a first-year starter a year ago helping the Bears to a bounce back 7-3 season that followed a rare 3-7 campaign in 2024.

Kinsinger credits the seniors and upperclassmen on those teams for helping to bring him along as a young lineman.

Now he’s trying to pass that on to his younger teammates.

“When I was out there for the first time there were guys that were great leaders that told me I was there for a reason and they believed in me,” Kinsinger said. “I give credit to the young guys they are putting the work in so it will be good.”

Kinsinger is the long returning starter up front but there is talent returning on the roster with junior Garrett Tisinger, sophomore Motley Johnston and freshman Kooper Zuniga.

Both Hughes and Kinsinger see potential for the offensive line to remain a strength at West Branch.

“We need to make sure we stay together and we are physical every play,” Kinsinger said. “We have to take the right steps, you can’t take any shortcuts and we have to be solid, moving forward as one and just get after it.”

West Branch has other holes to fill as it replaces its starting quarterback, top six receivers and top four tacklers from last year’s squad.

Kinsinger will also be a key on the defensive line after making 14 tackles with two for loss last season.

Senior Seth Hosier is back at linebacker after making four tackles last season while Johnston had five tackles a year ago as a freshman.

Senior defensive back Connor Sexton and junior Arik Marsh should both take on much bigger roles this fall.

Marsh had four tackles a year ago and Sexton had three.

“We just have to go out every day in practice and make sure we get better,” Kinsinger said. “We want to be physical and make sure we always give our best. We have three standards that we kind of go by the first one is character, then accountability and effort and as long as we take care of those things the wins will take care of themselves.”

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