Little change for Lancers

Four days into high school football practice, Southeast head coach Clint Rider has already started losing his speaking voice and sounds a little bit like he’s caught a cold during the middle of a miserable winter. Rider tried explaining what’s happened to his voice Thursday evening.

“To me, you’re going to have a lull in there somewhere,” Rider said. “I guess losing my voice is a time where I had to help pick them (the players) up. They’ve done a better job of picking themselves up. I’m just yelling because I’m excited. If I yell because I’m excited, I guess that’s a good thing.”

The Lancers have been holding two-a-day practice sessions since Monday — starting times of 6:30 in the morning and 4:30 in the afternoon.

“We’ve had great weather and the kids’ intensity has been real high and their attention to detail,” Rider said. “I’ve been really impressed with the offensive line so far. I think they’re doing a great job picking up the blocking schemes and their effort has been real high. I am real proud of what they have done.”

Temperatures were below average for mid-August on Monday and Tuesday and returned more toward status quo Wednesday and Thursday.

“It was steamy out here (Wednesday),” Rider said. “We hit a wall. We had to fight it. We’ve talked about responding to adversity and weather’s one of those little things where you can preach to them about it. We did a good job responding to it and it’s been just a great week of practice so far. There’s still a lot of things we need to clean up but I think if their attitude’s right, we’ll get there.”

Southeast returns all 22 of its starters (11 offense, 11 defense) from last season. Only the Lancers and the Cherryvale Chargers have rights on that claim for 2012.

Offense: senior quarterback Josh Thompson, sophomore running back Colten Charlton, senior receiver Dan Peak, sophomore receiver Ryan Rakestraw, sophomore receiver Caleb Biancarelli, senior tight end Jason Reed and offensive linemen Justin Galloway (senior), Bryce Blockburger (sophomore), Bryan Horgan (senior), Joseph Smith (senior) and Cameron Clark (junior).

Defense: defensive ends Reed and Riley Ulery (sophomore), defensive tackles Galloway and Clark, linebackers Thompson, Rakestraw and Horgan, cornerbacks Jarod Watson (sophomore) and Phillip Underwood (sophomore), and safeties Biancarelli and Avi Sharma (senior).

The Lancers finished 2011 1-8 under first-year head coach Rider, installing a Pistol Spread offense which saw the Lancers post some high numbers offensively with Thompson finding receivers like Peak, Biancarelli, Rakestraw and Reed for some big plays during a tough season overall.

Rider spoke of the differences between Year 1 and Year 2.

“Practices are so much faster,” Rider said. “The way the players are able to speak to me in coach speak, they’re talking with me in the right terms and they don’t have a blank stare on their face. They’re using football-specific words and they’re asking me good questions. So whenever I have to stop and think ‘That’s a good question,’ then I start to think we’re getting deep into things and they’re starting to understand it at a higher level. We’re starting to focus more on our technique and fundamentals.”

Rider wanted to emphasize the impact of the weight room on the Lancers.

“I think the weight room’s paid off,” Rider said. “I really do. If I could stress anything else, it’s allowed us to practice a lot faster and we’re hitting harder so far with this only being the second day of practice in pads. The weight room’s been one of the biggest things for us.”

The Lancers open their season with new Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League member Columbus, a meeting of towns only separated by almost 14 miles along K-7 Highway.

“That’s exciting not only for them but for us,” Rider said. “We’re only (14) miles apart but we’ve only played once (in football) in the last 30 years. It will be good for both of our communities.”

Once Southeast gets past its pre-district schedule, three area football powerhouses await the Lancers in district, all three CNC League rivals.

“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,” Rider said. “I thought the district Galena and Riverton had with Caney Valley and Cherryvale was the toughest (3A) district in the state.”

Southeast holds a single practice session today — 4 p.m. start — and plays its annual Lawnchair Scrimmage 9 a.m. Saturday morning.

Volleyball
The Lancers — Class 3A state tournament qualifiers two years running — do not have an operational air conditioner in the high school gymnasium and have been holding their own two-a-day practice sessions this week from 7 a.m.-12 Noon, wrapping up a busy week this morning and taking a team picture Saturday morning before the Lawnchair Scrimmage.

“We’ve been doing pretty good,” Southeast head coach Maya White said Thursday night. “The girls are really working hard and everybody’s doing a good job of team building. The veteran players are reaching out to the younger players and helping them out.”

White returns for her second year at the helm and the Lancers have Amy Martin, Olivia Powell, Tori Colvin, Rachel Bole, Chloe Biancarelli, Marina Stricklin, Tessa Robin, Kalee Ewbank and Miri Gordon among seniors and returning players from a 35-8 team and tri-CNC League champion with Frontenac and Girard. The Lancers graduated tri-captains Bridget McGuire, Ashley Martin and Shiloh Blockburger, as well as Christine Bone and Kayla Yancey.

White said that 32 girls are out for volleyball — six seniors, four juniors, 10 sophomores and 12 freshmen.

The Lancers open their season with a quadrangular against Riverton, Baxter Springs and Erie hosted by Erie.