Colgan gets top spot in CNC poll

If the coaches in the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League are right, this will be the year of the Panther.
At least, that is the thought early on as CNC coaches voted the St. Mary’s-Colgan Panthers to win the league football title.
Coaches votes were made public Thursday during the 2008 1340 The Ticket CNC Preseason Coaches’ Luncheon.
Colgan head football coach Chuck Smith said that he has been trying to gauge the Panthers’ success for the upcoming season for most of the summer.
“All summer long, I kind of guessed where we would fall,” Smith said. “There are really no easy games for us this year and our kids have a tremendous challenge.”
Behind Colgan (63 points) was Girard (59), Riverton (48), Galena (39), Frontenac (34), Southeast (33), Baxter Springs (22), Erie (18) and Northeast (8).
First-year Girard head coach Leon Miller said, as for the season, that he is not in the favor of the scheduling gods.
“I know that it is the preseason poll, but we open our season with Colgan and Frontenac so, somebody doesn’t like me,” Miller said.
Most coaches reflected on the toughness of the conference and this year is no exception.
“You look at our teams and there are probably six or seven that have made the playoffs in the last few years,” said Galena head coach Bo Sarwinski.
Another coach, Jeremy Neville, an assistant for Southeast, made things very clear when speaking at the luncheon.
“I am not coach Burdette and I am not the head coach at Southeast,” Neville said. “You are going to see a lot of new faces on the sidelines for Southeast. Bryan (Burdette) and I are the only two that are returning from last year.”
Neville was filling in for Lancers’ head coach Bryan Burdette, who has been in Indianapolis coaching the Cherokee 11-12 All-Star baseball team for the last week and was unable to attend the preseason meeting.
Coaches also had an opportunity to discuss the prospects for their team during the upcoming year.
Northeast first-year head coach Phil Hobbs said that numbers will, again, be a concern for the Vikings.
“We have had a pretty good summer,” Hobbs said. “We have had a good turnout for weights but, like always, we would like to have better numbers.
“That is going to be a big factor for us,” Hobbs said. “We don’t have the depth that we would like to have but we have a core group of 13 or 14 kids and that is what we are going to build from and, hopefully, we can make that work.”
But Northeast does not seem to be the only school with a numbers issue.
“Our numbers are going to be down and we will probably be in the low 40s but our younger numbers are up and we are encouraged by that,” said Frontenac head coach John Polumbo.
Erie first-year head coach Don Barcus said that he has been impressed with his young Red Devil squad.
“I am really impressed with the work ethic that our kids have,” Barcus said. “I think that we can be successful based on that.”
Most of the coaches said that it was too early to tell just what kind of a team they will put on the field when the season starts Thursday, Sept. 4 with the Kickoff Classic between St. Mary’s-Colgan and Girard at Hutchinson Field in Pittsburg.
“We have some skill kids but we have to find a quarterback,” Miller said. “We have some kids we are working on but we will have to wait to put the pads on.”
For the Panthers, Smith said that it will be a new crop of seniors that will have to wear leadership hats and get accustom to that.
“They have to take the leadership role that they have never had to do before,” Smith said.
For Baxter Springs head football coach Brett Hartley, the Lions are still working on finding an identity for the 2008 season.
“We are still in, what I consider, to be in the building process,” Hartley said. “We are a baseball town and we expect to be good in baseball for 10 months out of the year and for the other two months, we expect to be good in the other sports.”
Some coaches even talked about their offensive philosophy on the field.
“Offensively, we will run the one-back or no-back stuff that you are used to seeing from me,” Miller said. “No, I like to play physical football and there is really no secrets in coaching so everyone really knows what I am going to do.”

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140

2008 CNC Preseason Coaches Poll
1. SMC         63 (7)
2. Girard         59 (2)
3. Riverton         48
4. Galena         39
5. Frontenac     34
6. Southeast     33
7. Baxter Springs     22
8. Erie         18
9. Northeast     9
First-place votes are indicated in ()
Coaches were not allowed to vote for themselves.