By Max Fraser, Staff Sportswriter
In the proud tradition of Woodstock Union High School varsity football, few teams can compare to the 2024 squad.
Along the way to a record-tying twelfth Division 3 state championship, last year’s Wasps not only ran the table without losing a single game — they also outscored opponents by a whopping 345 points over the course of the regular season and playoffs.
The defense recorded more shutouts (5) than games in which they allowed themselves to be scored upon (3).
The Wasps’ average margin of victory was 43 points. The spread would undoubtedly have been larger had Coach Ramsey Worrell not frequently gone to his second unit well before the final horn sounded.
“For the last month of last season, every game was pretty much over by halftime,” Worrell reflected in a recent conversation with the Standard. “We really only had to compete for two quarters and a half, sometimes it was just two quarters.”
For engineering the Wasps’ dominant run to the state championship — the second in his decade-long tenure as head coach — Worrell was named Division 3 Coach of the Year by the Vermont Football Coaches’ Association.
More than a dozen of Worrell’s players were also named to first or second all-state teams, including all four members of the Wasps’ high-scoring backfield: quarterback Aksel Oates and running backs Caden Perreault, Vincent Petrone, and Carter Warren.
But with Perreault, Petrone, and Warren all having graduated — along with twelve other seniors from last year’s team — and an off-season divisional realignment that will make for significantly stiffer competition this year, the 2025 Wasps will have their work cut out for them as they begin their title defense at home on Friday, September 5, against the U-32 Raiders.
“There are going to be a lot of differences this year,” Worrell told the Standard. “We’re probably the first team in the history of Division 3 that are defending champs who are not considered favorites. Maybe we’re one of them, but we’re not the favorite.”
In particular, Worrell is worried about Bellows Falls, a perennial Division 2 powerhouse that was moved down to Division 3 this year. Mount Abraham is also moving down and poses its own challenges.
Says Worrell, “Mount Abe will be tough: they’re a big school that co-ops with [Vergennes Union High School], so they usually have big kids.”
But Woodstock will have size to its advantage this year, too — especially behind center, where Oates will be returning to run the offense in his senior year.
“Most teams in the state don’t have a six-foot-three quarterback who can throw the ball,” Worrell points out. “We do.”
Oates brings Woodstock an elite blend of size, throwing accuracy, and playmaking athleticism at the quarterback position. It is an essential combination in the Wing-T offensive system that Worrell likes to run, which thrives on deception and will likely incorporate more play-action passing this year as the Wasps look to develop a new backfield around returning seniors Asher Emery and Riley O’Neal.
“Last year we won by breaking off a lot of runs — but this year we’ll probably look to throw a bit more,” Worrell told the Standard. “We’re not typically a throwing team, but Aksel is very good at throwing the football: he’s big, he can see over the line, and we’ve got kids who can catch. If I don’t throw, then I’m wasting his talents.”
And Oates is far from the only returning talent on this year’s roster. Emery and O’Neal may have been behind other backs on the depth chart in previous seasons, but they were both contributors during last year’s championship run — at least until O’Neal got hurt midway through the season. They bring experience and skill and can play on both sides of the ball.
Rowan Larmie, who plays tight end and defensive end and made first-team all-state for both offense and defense last year, is another two-way player Worrell is expecting a lot from his season.
“Rowan might be the best player in the division,” says Worrell. “He’s a monster of a young man.”
If there are question marks heading into the new season, they are on the defensive side of the ball and on the line. “We’re a little thin on the line this year,” Worrell acknowledged. “We don’t have a lot of linemen — but the linemen we do have, I really like.”
Continued Worrell, “Defensively, I don’t know what to expect of us.”
In the team’s second and final preseason scrimmage last Friday, those potential weaknesses were clearly visible. Against a bigger, stronger Hartford team — playing in Division 2 this year after decades as a Division 1 powerhouse — the Wasps had a hard time opening up running lanes through the Hurricanes’ stout defense, which refused to bite on the various ball fakes and other misdirection that Worrell’s Wing-T schemes threw their way.
Defensively, Woodstock struggled to contain Hartford’s swift and powerful running backs, who were able to get through or around the Wasps’ defensive line more or less at will.
For Worrell, the tough match-up against the heavy favorites in Division 2 was precisely the final preseason test he was looking forward to for his squad.
“Hartford is going to be the challenge I’m hoping for,” Worrell told the Standard in the lead-up to the scrimmage.
Speaking of his squad, Worrell continued, “All this group knows is last year, and what that felt like. That’s not what it’s going to be like this year.”
“This year, we’re going to have to compete for four quarters — and we’re going to have to do it with less subs, so they’re going to have to be conditioned to do that. I don’t know that any of these guys were all that tired in the fourth quarter last year. They’re going to be tired this year.”
Still, if this season’s title defense looks to be an uphill campaign, Worrell can’t say enough good things about the group he’s taking into battle with him.
“I am loving the chemistry of this group, from top to bottom. They’re all coachable, they’re all accountable, they’re all reliable. They want to learn, they want to further their football IQ. It’s fun coaching them,” Worrell says.
Looking forward, Worrell added, “The goal is to be in the mix to the point where at the end of the season we’re playing our best football. By then, the sophomores won’t be sophomores. The juniors won’t be juniors. They’ll have a full season of football under them.”
“They’ll have some more of that in-game experience, and hopefully enough so that we can make a run again,” Worrell concluded.
