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ARMA —
At this early junction in the season, every team hangs onto high hopes for the upcoming year, especially since all teams own the same record and nobody has yet partaken of the bitter cup of defeat.
Wins have been difficult to come by for the Northeast Vikings during recent years but the Vikings have 29 players out, including 14 returning starters (7 offense, 7 defense) and 11 freshmen.
“It’s been good,” Northeast head coach Phil Hobbs said of the first couple days. “We’ve had good numbers. Everybody’s stayed healthy so far. We start full pads (today) but everybody’s working real hard. We did two-a-days Monday and Tuesday. We started school (Wednesday) and we’ve got everything in that we wanted to get in. We would have gone two-a-day (Wednesday) but since we already had everything in, we went ahead and gave them the morning off.”
Northeast graduated its second-leading rusher and leading tackler Tyler Hribar and tight end Chase Cleland.
Returning are leading rusher, team captain and junior quarterback-defensive back J.T. Richardson, senior running back-linebacker Killian Willard, sophomore fullback-linebacker Antonio Slingluff, junior receiver-defensive back Nick Younge, senior receiver-defensive back Sam Brooks, junior lineman Dakota Gesslein, junior lineman Joey McDowell and senior lineman Mike Beasley.
Rehabilitating a program long in the doldrums takes hard work and commitment just to make it back to respectability and Hobbs said the Vikings have made strides in the weight room and in offseason conditioning.
“We had 25 that made it to 85 percent of the weights this summer,” Hobbs said. “We had three or four with perfect attendance and a half-dozen others that missed only one or two days. I think that says a lot for the commitment these athletes have to better this program. It’s going to take a little bit of time and hopefully we’re in a situation this year where we can get some more wins and bring more people in and build some confidence.”
Hobbs said only 13 players had the same 85 percent attendance during the previous summer.
The Vikings have three coaches helping out Hobbs: former Altoona-Midway head coach Jim Leonard, new Northeast head girls basketball coach Scott Post and Northeast principal Jason Clemensen, who coached the Northeast baseball team to a Three Rivers League title in 2011.
Hobbs said that Clemensen, a former Pittsburg State baseball player, has made an impact on a team where tackling has long been a pressing issue.
At this early junction in the season, every team hangs onto high hopes for the upcoming year, especially since all teams own the same record and nobody has yet partaken of the bitter cup of defeat.
Wins have been difficult to come by for the Northeast Vikings during recent years but the Vikings have 29 players out, including 14 returning starters (7 offense, 7 defense) and 11 freshmen.
“It’s been good,” Northeast head coach Phil Hobbs said of the first couple days. “We’ve had good numbers. Everybody’s stayed healthy so far. We start full pads (today) but everybody’s working real hard. We did two-a-days Monday and Tuesday. We started school (Wednesday) and we’ve got everything in that we wanted to get in. We would have gone two-a-day (Wednesday) but since we already had everything in, we went ahead and gave them the morning off.”
Northeast graduated its second-leading rusher and leading tackler Tyler Hribar and tight end Chase Cleland.
Returning are leading rusher, team captain and junior quarterback-defensive back J.T. Richardson, senior running back-linebacker Killian Willard, sophomore fullback-linebacker Antonio Slingluff, junior receiver-defensive back Nick Younge, senior receiver-defensive back Sam Brooks, junior lineman Dakota Gesslein, junior lineman Joey McDowell and senior lineman Mike Beasley.
Rehabilitating a program long in the doldrums takes hard work and commitment just to make it back to respectability and Hobbs said the Vikings have made strides in the weight room and in offseason conditioning.
“We had 25 that made it to 85 percent of the weights this summer,” Hobbs said. “We had three or four with perfect attendance and a half-dozen others that missed only one or two days. I think that says a lot for the commitment these athletes have to better this program. It’s going to take a little bit of time and hopefully we’re in a situation this year where we can get some more wins and bring more people in and build some confidence.”
Hobbs said only 13 players had the same 85 percent attendance during the previous summer.
The Vikings have three coaches helping out Hobbs: former Altoona-Midway head coach Jim Leonard, new Northeast head girls basketball coach Scott Post and Northeast principal Jason Clemensen, who coached the Northeast baseball team to a Three Rivers League title in 2011.
Hobbs said that Clemensen, a former Pittsburg State baseball player, has made an impact on a team where tackling has long been a pressing issue.
“Defensively, he’s done a tremendous job,” Hobbs said. “We went to the first 7-on-7 and we weren’t very good defensively. We got out here and practiced before the next one and put some things in and cleaned it up. We did a great job in our team camp and I can’t say enough about the job he’s done defensively. He’s really helped out.”
At practice on Wednesday, Clemensen emphasized speed and running back to the huddle after every play — NO LOLLYGAGGING.
Northeast starts its season Aug. 31 on the road against Humboldt, the start of a string of less familiar or unfamiliar opponents this season. The Vikings play seven opponents not on the 2011 schedule — Humboldt, Eureka, Galena, Jayhawk-Linn, Bluestem, Olpe and Lyndon.
The Vikings play in the Three Rivers League and only three schools in the 10-member league have 11-man football programs: Northeast, Jayhawk-Linn and Oswego. This fact leaves holes in the schedule to be filled — Northeast previously filled them with Missouri schools like McAuley Catholic and Drexel.
“We’ve got some tough games,” Hobbs said. “We went out and we tried finding some teams dropping down that were closer to our size, either a 2A or 3A. With the CNC schools, they’re all 3A or 4A now. We put Galena on our schedule. We didn’t have anybody else to pick up Week 4 and that’s going to be a tough game for us. . . . We had to go out and find Leon-Bluestem and Eureka. We’ve got a lot different schedule, a lot of travel.”
Northeast faces road trips to Humboldt (140 miles round trip), Eureka (226 miles), Galena (80 miles), Olpe (256 miles) and Oswego (100 miles).
Olpe and Lyndon especially seem to interest Hobbs.
“We’re looking forward to playing those teams,” Hobbs said. “I’ve talked about Lyndon and Olpe in the years I’ve been here. Those are the schools everybody strives to be like and for us to go to those places and to play those teams, it’s big for us. . . . Those are the places that we want to be. We want to be like those teams and to work like those teams. That’s what we’re trying to build here.”
