BATAVIA – Ben Fiegel’s expectations for his senior season at Batavia starts with elevating those around him.

The production, then, comes later.

“[I want] to bring everyone else up with me,” Fiegel said. “Obviously, me personally, I want a good amount of sacks, I want a good amount of tackles.”

After a standout junior season in which he recorded 58 total tackles, seven sacks and 17 quarterback hurries alongside graduated linebackers Tyler Jansey, Jack Sadowsky and Brody Osborne, Fiegel is ready to lead with the same ferocity exemplified before him.

Batavia’s four starting linebackers last season were the four leading tacklers for the Class 7A runner-ups, a combined 357 tackles. Fiegel, who transitioned to middle linebacker from outside this season, projects to be flanked by RJ Bohr and Ben Brown.

“…A lot of guys that didn’t play last year are playing this year..they learned so much, and so did I. I learned so much,” Fiegel said. “We’re completely different players with them, and now it’s like we’ve got a group of two-year starters because they could’ve started at another school last year just because of our linebackers room. We’ve got some good returning production coming back and worked their butts off.

“[Bohr] is gonna be a dog. He’s going to be really good. He’s filled shoes really well,” Fiegel said. “[Brown] is playing like a whole different player than last year. I worked with him probably the closest this offseason and he worked his [butt] off. He’s a completely different player. He’s a wrestler and he brings that mentality to us. He brings the juice every day. He’s tough as hell and I don’t really know a situation where he’s not the first guy going ‘let’s attack it at the point’ and that’s the kind of guy he is.”

Fiegel verbally committed to Southern Illinois University on July 24

“I loved it. The campus is beautiful. I thought it was a good place in-state, so it was nice to stay home a little bit,” Fiegel said. “The fact they took a chance on me early, I really liked that. It meant a lot because it was my first opportunity to play Division I scholarship football. That’s always been a dream of mine as a kid and they fulfilled that dream for me.”

Add in the football amenities, facilities, coaching staff and the engineering and computer science academic track, Southern Illinois proved to be a future fit for home. Fiegel expects to stay at linebacker at the college level.

“They said I could play any spot on the field that they wanted me to [for any linebacking position], they have some guys that do that. They see me as the same build as them,” Fiegel said.

Texas transfer Malachi Smith acclimating to Batavia

Starting a new chapter in his high school football career, all Malachi Smith initially knew about Batavia football was through basic Google searches – and their state championship pedigree.

Smith, a 6-foot-1, 280-pound incoming junior originally from College Station, Texas, could soon find a home often in opposing backfields. After playing as a sophomore at Bryan High School with 20 tackles, 10 for loss, with four quarterback pressures and one sack, Smith projects to be a key cog between Jordan Buckley and Cody Heeringa at nose guard.

“This town is pretty huge on football,” Smith said in referencing Batavia. “I’ve heard a lot about the games. Just the energy in practice, this is a football town. I can just tell it it kind of thrives off football. I love it here, actually. I love the energy.”

Fiegel is excited about his new teammate.

“Malachi is a dog. When he’s in the backfield, he’s going to make a tackle,” Fiegel said. “…When he fully learns our defense, it’s going to be hard to stop him, Jordan and Cody.”

That analysis seems to jive with Smith’s self-scouting report.

“I’m a very aggressive player. Like, I never shy away from any hits,” Smith said. “I’m a very aggressive player. Anything that comes my way is probably going to get hit most likely. I just love to hit. That’s all we did in Texas was hit; A lot of hitting drills, so kind of growing up that way, just hitting, hitting, hitting, by the time I got older, it’s all I knew. It’s what I love to do now.”