By Justin Sokeland
WBIW.com
BEDFORD – Measuring improvement depends on the starting standard. Bedford North Lawrence football’s base point was not very high. Whatever the metric – wins, competitiveness, culture, work ethic – the bottom floor had been established and the top level seemed unreachable for a program about to shift through total regime change.
New coach, new system, low expectations. BNL was not on anyone’s off-season radar in May, when an unproven, inexperienced coach stood alone, with no staff, with nothing but faith and a lot of prayers on his sideline. Six months later, following an incredible turnaround season that captured the imagination of the fan base and earned the respect of competitors, the Stars were brilliant in the sky, a surprising supernova in the darkness.
The 2025 campaign ended in near-perfect symmetry, unforgettable bookends. Winning the stunning opener at Martinsville, unfortunately falling in the sectional championship to the same team. The Stars completed the year with a sparkling 8-4 record, with no titles to display but with a regeneration of a program that became one of the unexpected storylines in Southern Indiana. Where did they come from? More importantly, where are they going now?
When the season concluded, when the roars of approval softened and the silence of finality descended on the locker room, coach Brayden Tidd had plenty of reflection ahead. What a whirlwind, from his hiring in mid-May, to the November battle for a sectional crown. The 49-35 loss to Martinsville in the Sectional 23 finale still stung, but the afterglow of BNL’s accomplishments was going to outlast that pain.
”We were thrilled with the season as a whole, not thrilled with how it ended,” Tidd said. “Getting that close and coming up short really stinks. But I’m proud of the guys. Coming in, you don’t know what you have, you’re starting fresh. So I was really pleased. I thought the kids exceeded expectations, they really bought in to what we wanted to do.”
BNL had little choice for the chosen direction. Coming off a two-win disappointment, when mercy-rule beatdowns were far too common, the Stars were down, but not defeated. The energy level changed immediately with the Tidd hire and the revelation of his assistant staff.
“They trusted us to throw everything up in the air and restart,” Tidd said.
When the airborne pieces started to hit the ground, the outlook shifted. There were factors in BNL’s favor – a huge senior class of 18, a conference schedule weakened by graduation, and a desperate hunger to succeed. That came to a head in the August opener, when the Stars stunned Martinsville 33-15 for only the second road win in the history of the series. What??
“Having that many seniors, and as a senior you want to win as bad as this group did, it makes it easier to buy into a new staff,” Tidd said. “Where it all took off was after a couple of the summer scrimmages, when they saw the defense get stops and the offense put up points. They got a little bit of taste.
“After the first game, you go into that, it was like ‘OK, this could be really good.’ That set the bar for the rest of the season, it was a perfect game to start the year. There was a lot of uncertainty, so that set it off.”
BNL’s liftoff took flight with four consecutive wins in Weeks 3-6. The rocket was fueled by a passing offense that exploded, with senior Dayson Kirby throwing for 3,379 yards and 36 touchdowns (second in the state in both categories). He had plenty of worthy targets in Jaden Gilbert (61 catches, 907 yards, 6 TDs), Parker Kern (46, 669, 8 TDs), Cam Gates (36, 559, 7) and Malakai Goodman (37, 725, 5). Brody Horton emerged as a running game complement with 897 yards and 13 TDs. The Stars averaged 36 points per game.
“It was a blast, especially loving to throw the ball like I do,” Tidd said. “It was a lot of fun when you have that many playmakers on offense. There was so many things we could do, and we expanded the playbook as the year went on. We never did anything too fancy, because we had the guys to line up and go at it.”
The defense was anchored by linemen Gibson Crane and Brady Byers, who combined for 58 tackles for loss and 19.5 sacks before Byers suffered a season-ending hand injury in the postseason. Driven Axsom logged 82 tackles, Jackson Jones totaled 5 interceptions. That’s also the group about to be hit hardest by graduation, with the loss of eight key athletes.
“I want the seniors to be remembered for their hard work and leadership,” Tidd said. “We had a bunch of really good leaders. Even if they didn’t have the captain title, there were a lot of them that were vocal leaders. That was off the charts for this team. We want to the younger guys to look at them and want to be leaders like those guys. They were awesome. Most importantly, they played hard.“
BNL, chasing the second sectional title in program history, started the postseason with a 50-0 win over Jennings County, followed by a 41-21 triumph over Shelbyville. But after falling behind early in the title clash, after scrambling within 28-27 in the second half, the Stars could not duplicate the earlier victory over the Artesians.
“It was heartbreaking, especially after beating that team once,” Tidd said. “We knew we had the guys to do it, and to be right there for three-plus quarters and not bring it home is heartbreaking. You wanted it for these kids, because they worked their tails off. It was crushing.”
The future promises a continued arc of success, quite a contrast to the previous outlook. The top receivers are all juniors, so finding a new thrower (with Cutler Chastain high on that early depth chart) and two new offensive lineman will be vital. On the other side, BNL will be tasked with bulking up a defense to stop the run.
“We will go through and see how we can evolve on both sides of the ball,” Tidd said. “We lose three really good ones on offense, so we have ideas on those. You won’t know until you let them compete for a spot. Defense will be the key. That’s a lot for replace.
”I’m looking forward to it. They’re hungry.”
