Aug. 19—BEMIDJI — It's been a long time since Kyle McMartin has coached on a football field — in a full-time capacity, at least.
After becoming assistant principal at Bemidji Middle School in 2017, McMartin gave up coaching football at the varsity level, occasionally helping out with the middle school team.
But after head coach Bryan Stoffel
resigned in May,
McMartin stepped in on short notice and became
the new BHS head coach.
Given the circumstances, his main concern was for the players and helping them through the transition. Thankfully for him, many on the coaching staff came back for the 2026 campaign, with several players not missing a beat throughout the summer.
"Just knowing that there's still people in the coaching staff that you know and trust and all that stuff, it's good to keep those guys around," said senior Owen Vandermeer. "Even the new coaches, too. Just taking their advice and working with them has been super good."
All the work led to Monday, the day the players and staff have been looking forward to all summer: the start of training camp, signifying a new era of Lumberjacks football. A few practices in, McMartin has enjoyed every second of it.
"I've been pretty clear that I've been nervous and excited at the same time," McMartin admitted. "I've been incredibly thankful for a coaching staff that has stuck around. That was one of my hopes ... when I was offered the job, and hats off to them. I'm really happy with the people that I'm working with.
"And if we do well this year, it won't be because of me. It'll be just a little bit more because of we."
McMartin, a coach with a defensive background, is keeping the defense relatively similar to that of previous years. Meanwhile, a new, yet familiar, face will be in charge on the offensive side of the ball.
Mitch Hendricks, son of longtime head coach Troy Hendricks, is the new offensive coordinator.
While the triple-option offense will stick around, there are some new twists to it. Just exactly what those twists are won't be revealed until the season opener on Sept. 3 against Elk River.
Whatever the offense will look like, Bemidji will have an experienced leader guiding them through it.
McMartin and Hendricks inherited a high school coach's dream at quarterback: a third-year starter in Vandermeer, who took over the starting position during his sophomore year and hasn't looked back.
The rarity of being a third-year starter in high school hasn't exactly hit Vandermeer; rather, he's just thankful for the experience he's gotten the past two seasons, experience that he'll rely on this fall.
He, along with many players on the offensive side of the ball, has been hard at work offseason.
"Most of the boys — even through the offseason in the winter — have been in the weight room, putting in the work, getting stronger, getting ready for this season," he said. "That's definitely made a big impact on players who are going to start and all that."
Vandermeer and the rest of the offense have been adjusting well under Hendricks, who's installed a new version of the triple-option offense. While Vandermeer didn't want to spill too many secrets, he described the new offense simply as "different."
"He's super smart," Vandermeer said of Hendricks. "His play calling is way different than what we've had in years prior. We're going to build off that and just see where it takes us."
Questions of who will replace important 2025 contributors like Rhys Sneide and Miles Gish on offense won't be answered until Week 1 in Elk River, but with Hendricks at OC and Vandermeer at QB, McMartin has all the faith in the Jacks' ability to score.
"(We're) really excited about our offense," he said. "We like the high-powered capacity that it has if it's done correctly. And if our kids do as they're asked and take the coaching and make adjustments when they're told to, I think we'll do pretty well."
Defensively, McMartin is excited to see what Bemidji's defensive line can do. Seniors Jerry Farmer, Nehemiah Schwinghammer and Logan Caron are expected to be big contributors.
Caron suffered an injury in the offseason, tearing three ligaments in his ankle. Once he comes back, he'll be a big piece as one of Bemidji's top defensive ends.
Along with the defensive line, McMartin expects to see big contributors in the defensive back and linebacker positions, even though some of them won't get all the glory in the stat book.
"You might see that some kids don't necessarily come big on stats, but that's because they're putting pressure on the offense to be able to open things up for other people," McMartin detailed. "... what we've been stressing is that we all play our role and we do what we need to do, and people are going to be successful because other people did their job.
"So that's going to be our main focus. And that hasn't necessarily changed from the past. It's just more of making sure that they understand that that expectation hasn't gone away."
All these ingredients may be a good recipe for another section championship appearance, something Bemidji did in 2025,
losing to Alexandria 49-21.
It's the goal for every football team in the state to win their section championship, but now that the Jacks have been there, it makes them want that goal even more, especially for returners like Caron.
"We got a bitter taste in our mouth last year because we just didn't play great in that section championship," he said. "But I think this year we've got a lot of guys back, we've got a lot of new systems that are looking really good, so I think it should be a good year for us."
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