2026 Hillsboro Indians Football Preview

HILLSBORO — The Hillsboro Indians have qualified for the state playoffs in three of the past four seasons, but this season they will be revamping spots on their roster that reached Week 11 play one season ago. 

The Indians finished 5-6 last fall with a 1-4 record in the Frontier Athletic Conference, as they defeated Highland County rival McClain to regain the Rotary Bowl trophy. The Indians — who have qualified for the playoffs three of the past four seasons (’25, ’23, ’22) –– faced Miami Trace in the Division IV playoffs, where they were defeated by their conference rival. 

Last season, the Indians earned wins against Western Brown (34-22), Goshen (41-25) and Portsmouth West (49-34) to start the ’25 season with three consecutive victories. HHS also defeated Ponitz Career Tech (50-14) and had the aforementioned win against McClain (35-34) to end the regular season. 

Hillsboro’s 2026 roster (in alphabetical order) includes: Malachi Aber, Rush Abernathy, Maddox Anderson, Rylan Brooks, Gavin Brunner, Landon Burton, Dakota Campbell, Kel’el Captain, Tre Captain, Bobby Clemons, Caeden Douglas, Adrian Ekhator, Carson Fenner, Morgan Fenner, Garrett Greiner, Roman Hardy, Aaron Hatter, Landon Holland, Steven Ison, Malakai Kelley, Jordan Lowe, Jonathan Malone, Braylon Mayes, Jordan McCracken, Nolan Meyer, Kenneth Miller, Avery Moore, Jayce Newton, Cullen Page, Jayce Ramsden, Kaiden Robbins, Gabriel Shaffer, Andrew Shelton, Jacob Shelton, Cohen Skeens, Ryker Snyder, Collin Swackhamer, Ignacio Sosa-Gomez, Brayden Taylor, Cameron Theobald, Alex Thompson, Zeejay Turner, Zeondre Turner, Jay’onte Waters, Beau Whitley, Rush Workman, Connor Yochum, Ryker Zink and Jace Zugg. 

Hillsboro head coach Nathan Horne talked about the offseason and what the Indians have been working on this offseason. 

“It has been good. Every program seems like it's a year-round thing these days. We start basically 30 days after the season with lifting, and we’ve been hammering away ever since, and pick up as you gradually go,” Horne said. “Spring we tick it up a notch, and once school is out you tick it up another notch, and it has been a good summer for us.

“We have a solid core of kids, several returning starters on our interior line, actually five players on the line who started games for us last year. All five had varsity experience. Several of our running backs have varsity experience, including our quarterback. We have some veterans in a lot of spaces, and we have some kids that are going to be new, and they are going to have to develop and getting better is the goal. We are looking forward to it. The kids have been working hard.”
The Indians had four players earn All-FAC honors last season, with those players being Zack Brown, Mason Dumpert and Collin Swackhamer as first-team selections, and JaHari Pitts was an honorable mention selection. Brown, Dumpert and Pitts have since graduated, and Swackhamer will be a senior for the ’26 season. 

Dumpert (quarterback), Swackhamer (linebacker) and Brown (defensive back) were first-team Div. IV All-SE District selections, while Pitts and Landon Jordan (who also graduated) were honorable mention selections last season. 

Brown, Dumpert and Swackhamer were also All-Ohio selections in Div. IV for the ’25 season. 

With Swackhamer returning, his season for ’25 as a junior included 64 tackles and one interception on defense as a team captain. On offense, Swackhamer — who missed the final two games due to injury — rushed for 447 yards as one of the Indians’ running backs. 

This season, Swackhamer replaces the graduated Dumpert at quarterback, as Swackhamer (now a senior) was one of the running backs from the ’25 season, but Horne likes the player that Swackhamer has become. 

“Collin has had some experience at quarterback at the lower levels, and he knows our offense and is a hard-nosed, tough kid. There are things he excels at between the tackles, and so he is a good leader and has been a captain for us,” Horne said. “Collin is a two-time all-league player for us, and hopefully he’ll be a three-time for us. He’s one of our core kids on our team.

“On defense, Collin will be a hybrid type player at safety this season, but he will be in the box some. On offense, it is a little different having him at quarterback, but I have worked with Collin this whole time as far as reps with practice, and he knows the offense. There are some things he is going to be better at, and that is what we’ll do, that’s go to their strengths and adapt to their strengths. I feel like we are able to do that.”

Also returning to the roster is senior Tre Captain, who in five games last year was impressive on the field with 43 carries for 391 yards and seven touchdowns. He averaged 78.2 yards per game.

“Johnny Malone is going to be our fullback, and he got to play at the end of the year and had a good finish,” Horne said. “He’s really worked hard in the offseason and put on some muscle. We are looking forward to seeing what Johnny can do with the additional weight and in a full season. 

“We have Tre Captain back at one of our wing backs, and he had a great start to the season last year. We are expecting good things from Tre. He has good speed, and that gives us some explosiveness from the edge, and he’s had a good summer for us. Braylon Mayes played for us last year and did a good job for us last year, and he is coming off last year’s experience and I think he will pick up from where he left off. 

“Our backfield has some experience with two seniors and a junior, and a senior quarterback, plus some experience on the offensive line.”

When looking at the Hillsboro offense, one of the successful parts of the unit from last season and going into this season is their speed.

“We do have some speed,” Horne said. “Tre gives us another element as far as speed, but Braylon and Johnny aren’t slow, and Swack is not slow either. There are some teams that have that elite running back, but we have a pretty well-rounded backfield when it comes to how many kids we have that can run the ball. 

“It suits our offense with the flexbone offense, so we are going to spread the ball around. I typically have a back that I think is the best and he’ll get the most carries, but we are going to have a lot of carries with this offense. It helps to have three good backs and a quarterback that will run the ball.”

Being able to showcase that speed starts with the offensive line and the work they do up front of the line of scrimmage.

“We have five returning offensive linemen that started at some point throughout the year at least, with Andrew Shelton being our center,” Horne said. “He played most of the year until having an ankle injury, but with his experience he will start at center this year. Kaiden Robbins and Jordan Lowe are senior guards who started at the position last year, so we are expecting big things from them.

“There is Roman Hardy at left tackle, and he played at left tackle last year and he’s also a senior. Garrett Greiner is a junior and will play at right tackle some and played at center some when Andrew was down. All five of those kids had significant varsity time last year, so we are experienced on the o-line this year.

“It is fun having the experience because you can get into the details with the audibles, and they can call different things from the line themselves based on the technique the defense is giving us,” Horne continued. “It is fun to see the kids do that, and I enjoy seeing them and being able to change the blocking assignment.”

Hillsboro’s tight end will be Ryker Snyder, a sophomore, who has previously been a fullback. 

“Ryker has worked hard, is a good kid and will be a big part of what we do this season,” Horne said. 

The Indians’ defense will have Swackhamer and Captain be the leaders of the secondary, with the interior line being a platoon committee with players like Connor Yochum and Aaron Hatter filling the interior role. At defensive end for HHS will be Roman Hardy and others. Linebackers will be Malachi Aber (MLB) and new outside linebackers Mayes, Malone and Jayce Zugg. 

“We will probably try having a rotation to keep some of our running backs fresh, plus having Collin as a hybrid player,” Horne said.

The Indians will be road warriors to start the ’26 season with three consecutive road games, and a total of six road games for the season. Hillsboro opens at the Western Brown Broncos in Week 1 (Aug. 21), followed by a Week 2 game (Aug. 28) at the Goshen Warriors, and for Week 3 (Sept. 4) the Indians will be facing a new opponent, the Waynesville Spartans.

Hillsboro will have another new opponent in ’26 when they have their home opener in Week 4 (Sept. 11) against the Warren Warriors, followed by a Week 5 and final non-conference home game against the Williamsburg Wildcats on Sept. 18. HHS will play on the road in Week 6 (Sept. 25) to start FAC play in Fayette County against the Washington Blue Lions at Gardner Park, beginning another three-week road trip.  

From there, Hillsboro will take on the Jackson Ironmen in a Week 7 game (Oct. 2) at Alumni Stadium in Jackson, and in Week 8 (Oct. 9) the Indians will return to Fayette County to take on the Miami Trace Panthers on the road at Tony's Welding and Fabrication Field. 

The Indians will wrap up the regular season with two final home games at Richards Memorial Field when they host the Chillicothe Cavaliers in Week 9 (Oct. 16) and the McClain Tigers in Week 10, as that will be the Rotary Bowl game (Oct. 23). 

“This group of kids is a fairly close group of kids. They seem to get along really well and they have been working hard and have a good attitude. That’s been encouraging. We have some younger kids that are going to have to step it up and fill some of the holes we have. That’s the question, can those kids step it up and can we stay healthy? Where we are good, we have to be excellent,” Horne said. “We have to be excellent on the interior offensive line, and control the line of scrimmage and we are going to have to hammer away at people. 

“I’ve told the kids that all summer and all spring. We have to be excellent at that spot for us to have a chance and for us to be successful. The league is tough, it has always been tough. We are not the smallest school, but we are with Washington C.H. and McClain in numbers and the size of the school, and it is just a tough league. We also play a tough non-league schedule with Western Brown, and they are always tough. From there it is Goshen, and they have every kid who scored a touchdown for them last year returning.

“We also have Waynesville, and they have a good program,” Horne continued. “We also have Warren and Williamsburg. Then we open the FAC season at Court House. Our schedule is a grinder, but like I said, we have to stay healthy, and we have to excel at what we do well.”

With the season getting closer, Horne spoke about what he’s looking forward to watching with his team.

“I am looking forward to us running the ball and seeing our offensive line go to work,” he said. "I am looking forward to seeing Swack read the triple, and I’m looking forward to seeing Tre taking it to the edge and taking it the distance. Those type of things I think are going to be fun for us, but we have to work on pounding the ball so we can hit home runs on the edge.”