Delta Football looks to get back over the hill under Todd Casebier

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - The Delta Panthers football team has won a lot of games on the Western Slope this decade. The last couple of seasons, the team has fallen short of championship aspirations, but heading into the 2026 season, Delta has brought in a legendary Western Slope Football Coach, Todd Casebier, to help get them back to their winning ways.

“I mean, I’ve watched the tapes from the last couple of years and we’re completely different on offense, but our defense is the same scheme as it’s been,” Casebier said. “But mostly we need to have the success that they’ve had and get back to that those deep playoff runs that Coach Johnson had. So that’s again a big challenge, but right now our folks is on the first game, right? You can’t worry about anything else other than that. And our guys have had a really good preseason workouts, but we find out a lot on Friday.”

Casebier is no stranger to Western Slope football, having previously coached at Palisade, Rifle, Fruita Monument and Montrose. Now the players are looking to him to help get them over the hill and back to competing for titles.

“Yeah, we were all super excited. We all knew his record. We all knew what he was about and we were super excited for him to come here and get to work. I feel like that’s what we’ve done so far,” Quarterback Cole Morlan said.

“We knew that he was the one right away. We knew that with his record and with how he coached, we would be great with him,” Wide Receiver Alex Ryan said.

While things are looking good for the Panthers on paper, they will get hit with a dose of reality right out of the gates. The team has to play a classification above them on the road when it opens its season at Eagle Valley.

“We’re 2A playing a 3A on the road, so enough said they were playoff 3A last year and they were 9 and 0 at one point. So they got all of our attention. We’re going to have to play really well to win. And that’s what, we’re okay with that. It’s a high-stakes game for us. We’re excited to compete, but we’re not ready yet. We’ve got a couple more days of practice,” Casebier said.

“We’re just expecting a good game. We’re expecting to play great as a team and just go through adversity and just see how we can fight through that. It’s going to be a week 0, which is basically just we’re going to see who’s ready first and I think we’re doing great as a team to do that,” Ryan said.

The fate of this year’s Panthers team is still up in the air. But there are few places better to catch a football game on a Friday night in Delta.

“It means the world to us. It’s the greatest thing ever to know that we have a great culture, a great fan base out here just to support us the whole time. There’s all these just little things that just add up to Delta football. It’s awesome,” Ryan said.

“I haven’t experienced that yet, but I’ve experienced it as a visiting coach here and also experiencing other Western Slope towns. So we love Western Slope football. And again, the Friday night, you know, one horse town’s a special deal. We’re looking forward to it. Unfortunately, three of our first four games are away. So we’ll have to wait a couple weeks. But when the time comes, we’ll be ready,” Casebier said.

The Panthers play the Eagle Valley Devils Friday at 7 p.m.