Roll with the changes

Every new season brings along with it change and each of the six teams in Crawford County have changes in districts and schedules for the upcoming high school football season.

Now a seven-team league, the Southeast Kansas League plays its first round-robin pigskin schedule since 1980.

The SEK League went to upper and lower divisions in 1981 and played under that format until 2003. Recent years have been marked by league champions gauged by win-loss percentage, as teams played a varying number of league games. Pittsburg, for example, played five league games in 2010 and 2011 during back-to-back league championship seasons.

Pittsburg opens with Labette County and then plays Independence, Fort Scott, Chanute, Parsons and Coffeyville for a full league slate this season. Chanute, Coffeyville and Independence are road games.

“I do like the format where we’re all playing each other,” Pittsburg head coach Tom Nickelson said. “We get to see Parsons and Independence again. . . . It gets to show you a true league champ instead of the win-loss percentage. We’re excited about that, excited to play all you guys (in the SEK) and we know we’d better bring our A-game.”

Pittsburg last played Independence and Parsons in 2007.

Frontenac makes its debut in Class 4A this season with district games against  Parsons, Independence and league rival Girard. The Raiders start their season with three of their first four games on the road before closing out their regular season with four of their last five games at home.

“It will be a challenge at the start with three of four road games,” Frontenac head coach Mark Smith said. “We’ll have to step it up against good competition and I’m confident our players will step up to that challenge. We’ve got to weather the storm on the road and play tough.”

Frontenac plays early road games against Riverton (opener), Southeast and Colgan and hosts Galena, Erie, Baxter Springs, Parsons and Girard.

First-year head coach Smith will be helped out by a large senior class and his coaching staff of James Hartzfeld, Jason Lee, John Palumbo and Bill Sullivan.
“What I have learned being around the kids this summer is they have great chemistry and they want to do well,” Smith said. “They work hard and they want to win. I got lucky to get a good coaching staff. They have a great rapport with the players.”

Frontenac returns interior players Cody Lindbloom, Kylor McCartney, John Murray, Nick Zafuta, Brett Macary and Garret Tackkett.

“The o-line and the d-line are the keys to a strong offense and a strong defense,” Smith said. “When you’ve got seniors and some younger guys mixed into good lines, it just makes your team that much stronger.”

Frontenac enters the jungle of Class 4A — a classification which had 15 teams with at least eight wins and seven teams with at least 10 wins last season (Abilene, Basehor-Linwood, Buhler, Eudora, Paola, Topeka Hayden and Ulysses). The Raiders play two Southeast Kansas League teams, not run-of-the-mill football opponents for the Raiders.

“It definitely will be a challenge,” Smith said. “There’s so many great teams in 4A that it will make you a better team. We’ll have to be playing our best ball near the end of the year. I think the kids are up to the challenge.”

Girard posted its first winning season last year under head coach Leon Miller, who took over the Girard football program in 2008.

After quarterback Anthony Scholes injured his throwing hand against Osawatomie last season, Girard switched to a wishbone offense and ran the ball extensively the final six games of the regular season. The Trojans are one of a few remaining wishbone teams in an era of spread and pro-style offenses.

Brayden Johnson moved to quarterback and Scholes joined Matt Perez and Nick George in the backfield. Scholes gained 1,203 yards rushing and scored 16 touchdowns, averaging 133.7 yards per game and 7.8 yards per carry; he’s the lone returning 1,000-yard rusher in Crawford County.

“I don’t care what you tell me,” Miller said. “You’re a tight end, you’re this, you’re that. I want 11 guys that want to put a hat on and go out on the field and say ‘I’m a football player.’ This group of kids understands that and we’ve had kids make some sacrifices. They may not get their name in the paper but they’ve made the sacrifice to make this team better.”

Girard opens its schedule with four out of five home games — Caney Valley, Riverton and Columbus straight out the gate and then Colgan after its first road game against Southeast.

The Trojans play three of their final four games away from Frank Jameson Field — Galena and district opponents Parsons and Frontenac — with their lone home game against Independence. Miller previously coached both Frontenac and Parsons.
“We open up with Caney Valley (a Class 3A state quarterfinalist two years straight),” Miller said. “OK, we’ve got Columbus and Riverton. After that, it doesn’t get any easier. We’ve got to be ready to play from Day 1 and I think we will be.”
Long a stalwart on the Class 2-1A level, St. Mary’s Colgan moves into Class 3A and faces Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League schools Galena, Riverton and Southeast in district play.

“Our district’s tougher than it’s been,” Colgan head coach Chuck Smith said. “Going 3A, it will make a difference in Game 10 (first playoff game). It won’t make much of a difference earlier in the season. We’ve always played Girard and Frontenac and the best teams in our league. We’ve tried to play Riverton as much as we can.”

No longer playing five district games and four league games, Colgan returns to a full CNC League schedule with Erie and Baxter Springs its first two weeks, then league games against Frontenac, Girard, new CNC member Columbus, and its three district opponents. This schedule makes Colgan eligible for a league title and its players eligible for All-CNC postseason recognition.

“We’re real excited about playing Erie and Baxter Springs,” Chuck Smith said of the schedule. “We’ve got the whole league. We’re real proud of the CNC.
“That’s a positive. It means a lot to these kids to win those awards and to have that recognition.”

Southeast moves from a district where none of the four teams (Southeast, Erie, Frontenac and Northeast) had a single win between them entering Week 7 two years ago to a district with three perennial league title and state playoff contenders.
“You look at Colgan being an annual state title contender in 2A and some of the teams Riverton’s had and some of the teams Galena’s had, it’s going to be tough,” Southeast head coach Clint Rider said. “I thought the district Galena and Riverton had with Caney Valley and Cherryvale was the toughest (3A) district in the state.”
Rider said he knows that it will be a dogfight for a team coming off a 1-8 record but 22 returning starters (11 offense, 11 defense) should help. Southeast and Cherryvale are the only Kansas schools in 11-man football who can make such a claim.

“That’ll definitely be a big advantage for us,” Rider said, “and hopefully the kids will be able to bring their knowledge of the schemes we installed last year and hopefully, it will be a benefit that will allow us to play at a high level at the beginning of the year.”

Southeast opens its season against Columbus. The Lancers have the distinction of being the first CNC League opponent for Columbus.

“That’s exciting not only for them but for us,” Rider said. “We’re only 11 miles apart but we’ve only played once (in football) in the last 30 years. It will be good for both of our communities.”

Northeast drops from 3A to 2-1A. The Vikings have two holdover opponents from 2011 — Fredonia and Oswego — and play new opponents in Humboldt, Eureka, Galena, Jayhawk-Linn, Bluestem, Olpe and Lyndon.

“We’re excited about our schedule,” Northeast head coach Phil Hobbs said. “Our schedule changed quite a bit dropping down to 2A with our district and we also have some new non-league opponents that we haven’t seen before. We’re excited about those opportunities.”

Olpe and Lyndon have long been successful football programs at the small-school level. Lyndon features big man Dakota Jiskra (6-foot-3, 255 pounds), a two-time All-State defensive lineman who recorded 134 tackles, 35 tackles-for-loss and 16.5 sacks his sophomore and junior years.