FISHER -- A steady, but not overwhelming number of cars drive along Route 136 on a cloudy, pleasant Thursday evening in August.
A Dollar General sits across the road. So does a car wash, aptly called the Wet Rabbit.
Youth football players are starting to show up to the grass practice fields for their practices situated just beyond the center-field fence of the baseball field next to Fisher High School.
While all this is going on, Jeff Palmer is getting his steps in. Wearing an orange T-shirt, gray basketball shorts and a white bucket hat, the second-year Fisher football coach points out where he'd like senior quarterback Blake Green to throw the ball on a particular play. Or how he'd like his linemen situated on extra-point attempts.
Football season is in the air.
And for the small community of Fisher, nestled in northern Champaign County approximately 10 miles north of Mahomet and 10 miles west of Rantoul, that means it's time to cheer on the Bunnies again.
"We were selling our fundraiser cards the other day, and there was a guy who stopped me and said, 'You look really familiar. What's your name?'" Green said an hour after practice ended, sitting inside an empty classroom in Fisher High School. "I told him my name and he goes, 'Oh, yeah, you're the quarterback.' It's great knowing everybody. By no means am I some popular jock. I just try to get along with everybody. It's really cool to know I have everyone in my corner rooting for the team."
Even if rooting for Fisher football this decade has resulted in more lows than highs. The Bunnies have 15 playoffs appearances in their program's history. But none since 2019. Fisher finished 2-7 last season, ending a 19-game losing streak with a 21-12 win at Red Hill in Week 5 last September.
Mixing in new talent
The Bunnies are only three seasons removed from playing a junior-varsity only schedule during the 2022 season because of low numbers. Palmer is their fourth coach in the last five seasons. And he has 25 players on his roster this season, with just two seniors in Green and Jesse Arndt. Of the 25 who will wear the black and white jerseys the Bunnies sport this season, 10 are freshmen.
"We have some freshmen that look like freshmen," said Arndt, a 5-foot-11, 210-pound offensive lineman who starts at left guard and also starts at defensive tackle. He is also the only player on this year's roster who has played football all four seasons at Fisher. "And we have some freshmen that are a lot bigger and play like juniors and seniors."
For Palmer, a 1986 Fisher graduate who played football, basketball and ran track for the Bunnies during his own athletic career, he is embracing what lies ahead in the next two months. Starting with Friday night's season opener at Casey-Westfield, a perennial small-school power that went 10-2 and reached the Class 1A state quarterfinals last season.
"It means so much for me to be able to coach in my hometown," Palmer said. "A lot of times, coaches wouldn't want to go back to their hometown. I think the criticism you worry about hearing since this is my hometown is there, and I'm sure my wife hears it some, but the support from the community has been really, really good."
Building back up
The Bunnies had made three straight 1A playoff appearances from 2017 through 2019, winning a first-round game in both 2018 and 2019. All under former coach Jake Palmer, Jeff's son who resigned after the fall 2021 season to focus on his duties as the Fisher Grade School principal.
"COVID hit and it just devastated us," Jeff said. "The interrupted COVID year, we went 2-2, and that team probably would have gone 7-2. They were a really good bunch of kids, but we had two or three two-way starters get hurt, and then it just unraveled."
Fisher football has tried to pick up the pieces since. But after Jake Palmer resigned, Fisher went through one-year coaching stints with Carrick MacDonald in 2022 and former Illini linebacker Matt Sinclair in 2023 before the elder Palmer emerged to fill the void.
The fact he's back for a second season isn't lost on his players.
"It's definitely easier having him back since my first two years had two different coaches," Arndt said. "This year, having him back was more of a refresh than just learning new concepts and knowing what he expects."
Given their small roster, nearly every Fisher starter will play both ways. The 6-0, 170-pound Green returns for his second season as the Bunnies' quarterback, having only picked up the sport prior to his junior year.
"One thing about Blake is he's kind of a goofball," Jeff Palmer said with a laugh. "The kids all like him. He had never really been a guy that's been the dude, so for him to be in that role last year, a lot of guys struggled with that and believing in him. I don't think these guys have problem that this year. He's an animal in the weight room. He's our fastest skill kid. Just a really, really good athlete."
Names to know
Green will operate the Bunnies' flex-T offense -- what Palmer likes to call a hybrid of the flexbone and wing-T -- with an offensive line of junior Gavin Rushing (5-8, 240) at center, Arndt at left guard, sophomore Weston Ensign (6-6, 240) at right tackle and sophomore Sylas Rohl (6-4, 270) at right guard. Sophomores Korbyn Stipp (6-2, 235) and Justin Landers (6-0, 225) are vying for time at left tackle.
Sophomore Andrew Todd (5-10, 170) is the Bunnies' fullback, while sophomore Bo Epperson (6-1, 185), along with freshmen Colt Daugherty (5-11, 185) and Colby Chandler (5-8, 150) could get some carries, too, out of their halfback positions.
Junior wide receiver Cohen Zehr (5-11, 150) and sophomore wide receiver Logan Baer (6-2, 155) are poised to catch passes from Green, while freshman Colten Hewerdine (6-3, 200) is slotted in at tight end.
Fisher plays a 3-3-5 base defense, with Rushing, Arndt and Rohl along the defensive line. Epperson, Todd, junior Cooper Miller (6-1, 170), Daugherty and Ensign are expected to see time at the Bunnies' linebacker positions, with Baer, Green and Zehr in the secondary.
These are the players the Bunnies will rely on during their final season in the competitive Heart of Central Illinois Conference before Fisher joins the Lincoln Prairie Conference in 2026.
"Going to the LPC next year is going to help us immensely," Palmer said.
Planning for the future
Until then, the Bunnies will square off against familiar foes once more this fall. Fisher is in the five-team HOCIC Small, with conference home games against Heyworth on Sept. 26, LeRoy on Oct. 3 and Central A&M on Oct. 17 and an Oct. 10 game at Tuscola. Meaning, technically, five nonconference games are on the schedule, starting with Casey-Westfield on Friday night before a quick trip north along Route 47 to play at longtime rival Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley on Sept. 5.
The Bunnies' first home game at Kellar Field happens Sept. 12 against Ridgeview/Lexington, with a Sept. 19 home game against Westmont and an Oct. 24 game at Aurora Central Catholic to cap an interesting nine-game schedule.
"We're not looking to schedules teams just to find a win on the schedule," Palmer said. "We're looking to schedule teams that will help make our program better."
The Bunnies will have a team meal on Thursday night inside the high school's cafeteria, where they'll apply the fierce-looking Bunnie logo to the front of their white helmets.
But for Green, Arndt, Palmer and the rest of the Bunnies, they want the 2025 Fisher football season to be defined by more than their one-of-a-kind nickname and cool-looking helmets.
"Our motto last year was turn the ship," Green said. "We want to build everyone up, turn the ship and get everything going in the right direction. It'd be great to know I'm part of something that changes the program for the better."