Ruthenburg Looking For Respect in His First Year With the Panthers

Photos by Hannah Tacy & Henry Black, JTV Sports

Trey Richmond | JTV Sports

Monday August 17th

(8-17-2026, 12:00PM): After a 1-8 record in 2025, Addison welcomes former 13-year head coach, Casey Ruthenburg, into his first year head coaching for the Panthers.

The Panthers new staff has not had a typical off-season. Ruthenburg was officially named the head coach just over a month ago, he was the head coach at Dearborn Heights Annapolis for 13 seasons. However, in the short time in the role he was able to get valuable experience, like Chad Duffing, who will be the defensive coordinator. Duffing spent 18 seasons coaching for Manchester football and he found his way to Addison after a one year layover as the head coach for East Jackson. Even with the experience on his staff, the off-season has been a “whirlwind” for Ruthenburg, but he has been helped along by an “extremely supportive” administration that believes “successful sports programs are key to a successful school,” said Ruthenburg. He continued by saying that Addison has “great kids with great traditions and habits that I can build upon. This is a great job and I’m super happy to be out here in Addison.”

Ruthenburg is keeping the offensive philosophy similar to years past for Addison, run heavy. The players say that this is what they’ve always done, it’s the way they have played since third grade and it’s not going to change. Ruthenburg will be handling the offensive coordinator duties in his Wing-T offense. The goals for the offensive unit are to finish drives and maintain the clock to help out the defense.

Leading the charge for the Panthers rushing attack will be Logan Jewell who will run through anybody, along with Caden Olsofsky and Micheal Beard who do their damage in space with their agility. Paving the way for the runners is the offensive line headlined by Carter Martin, a senior who is being moved from center to guard. Ruthenburg was so impressed with Martin’s movement and kickout ability, he felt it was necessary to move him out. Filling the void in the middle of the line is freshman Colt Tison. As a freshman, he was already dubbed the most improved player on the team as well as the biggest and strongest guy by his peers. Ruthenburg is excited for his freshman to start saying, “his confidence and consistency will be there week one.”

Duffing’s defense will be tough up front, looking to throw people to the ground and stop the run. The defense will be led by the linebacker unit consisting of Logan Jewell, Caden Olsofsky, Micheal Beard and sophomore Trent Bailey. Addison is looking to leave an impression on opponents and stay in their heads after the games with their physical play. When they get on the bus Ruthenburg wants his opponents to say, “we just got beat up.”.

2026 Addison Football Schedule:

(all games at 7pm unless noted)

Thursday 8/27 vs Perry

Thursday 9/3 @ Manchester

9/11 @ Hanover-Horton

9/18 vs Vandercook Lake

9/25 vs Napoleon

10/2 @ Columbia Central

10/9 vs Jonesville

10/16 vs TBD (Cascades Conf. Crossover)

10/23 @ Blissfield