After walking off the practice field Friday, Stillwater High football coach Chad Cawood’s initial thoughts on his 2026 squad are pretty simple.
“You can tell we have a bunch of veterans out here,” Cawood said. “The old guys, man, you can tell they’ve played a lot of football around here, and they had a good week.”
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The Pioneers wrapped up their first week of spring practice Friday morning at Pioneer Stadium, and they picked up right where they left off last season. Stillwater returns 17 of 22 starters – nine on defense and eight on offense – from the 2025 team that made the state semifinals.
Cawood said it was a successful first week, and the future is exciting with a stable of veteran starters.
“We’ve got a lot of experience, which has helped with the depth that we need,” Cawood said. “There’s some guys that normally would be starting for this team as a junior that, they’re gonna play, but they’re gonna be role players just because of the depth we have with the senior class and those juniors that started last year.”
One of the most experienced parts of the roster is at linebacker, where the Pioneers return three starters in seniors Bryson Brown and Kyle Stokes, as well as junior Jakoby Petree. All three ranked in the top four on the team in tackles a year ago and combined for 17 sacks and two interceptions.
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In front of them, on the defensive line, senior starters Treyson Germany and Bradford Mitchell are back long with senior Parker Peterson, who was in rotation, too.
“So, we’ve got six guys in the box that have played a ton,” Cawood said. “And then after that, you’ve got some guys that are ready to step in. There’s two sophomores-to-be in Rocky Kolone and Paxton Peterson that all these college coaches that are here to see the older guys, they look at those two guys and are like, ‘Who are they?’ Those two are talented, so that’s kind of fun.”
In the back end, Peyton Campbell returns as a three-year starter at free safety. His experience showed Friday with an interception in the flat. At cornerback, senior Dax Renollet is back on one side with sophomore Cyrus Johnson and junior David Thomas on the other end, and senior Caden Johnson returns strong safety.
The Pioneers graduated their starting gator, Isaac Sensintaffar, who led the team with 106 tackles. There’s a competition for the job between senior Dian Fix and junior Brenton Adams, with sophomore Maddix Staggs in the mix, too.
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One spot that’s not up for grabs is at quarterback. Junior Satank Taptto was in competition this past spring and split reps throughout the season, but not this year.
“It’s done. Tank’s the man,” Cawood said.
As a sophomore, Taptto threw for 869 yards and 15 touchdowns, and he ran for another 253 yards and six touchdowns. He split time at QB with Ethan Evans, who graduated, and prepared to take the reins fully this season.
Cawood said Taptto progressed well this past season and is ready to take a jump in Year 2 running the offense.
“He’s looked really good out here. He’s been raised in the program since he was young,” Cawood said. “He understands the play calls, understands the communication, and he’s put a really big focus on feet technique, and he’s looked good this spring.”
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Taptto will have a full arsenal of receivers to work with, too. Junior wideout David Thomas returns from a 49-catch, 880-yard, 13-touchdown season, and the Pioneers have back senior Deakon Jones, who led the team in receiving in 2024 but was injured four games into the season.
Sophomore Cyrus Johnson and junior Chandler Johnson both became consistent options last year, too. And now the Pioneers are adding more threats in basketball players Nic Williams and Ivan McFarlin II, a 6-foot-7 junior who just placed second at state in the 200-meter dash with a school record time of 20.90.
“I hear Ivan wants to play football, and I’m like, ‘Let’s go,’” Cawood said. “He’s never played. He’s learning, but man, he’s like a sponge. He wants to learn. He’s eager. There’s not too many guys that can run like that, that are tall like that, that are physical like that.
“You add Ivan to Deakon and David and Cyrus and Chandler, and then there’s other guys behind them that are ready to go that are doing a good job. And then Bryson (Brown) and Bradford (Mitchell) and Peyton (Campbell) are all sort of sitting there at receiver. So, we feel very good about where we’re at.”
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The group with the most change is the offensive line, which last year was one of the team’s strongest units and is made up of four seniors and a junior. The only returning starter is senior center Paxton Pitchford, but Cawood said juniors like Xuanxavier Alanis, Daniel Hornbeck, Roddy Spatz and senior Carter Levings have stepped up.
“That group as a whole in the offseason had a really good offseason,” Cawood said. “And when you do that in there, not only the strength, but the core strength, the mobility and things like that. They’ve had a good week, and we don’t see anything dropping off.”
Cawood said it will help the transition of the offensive line to have depth at the skill positions, like with Taptto and the receivers, plus junior running back Jaedan Adams.
Adams carried the ball 210 times for 1,449 yards and 13 touchdowns as the offense’s workhorse last year, and Cawood expects the two-time state champion wrestler to only get better this year.
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“He’s got some of the best hands we have on the team, too. His vision, his toughness, it’s second to none,” Cawood said. “He’s fun. He doesn’t ride any roller coaster of emotions. He stays the same way all the time, just like he does on the wrestling mat.”
Week 2 of spring ball begins Monday, and Cawood left his team with a reminder.
“Whatever your goals are for the fall, none of that matters if you don’t get better today,” Cawood said. “And we have to get better today.”
