Frontenac hopes seniors, depth will help new coach

The Frontenac Raiders have a first-year head coach with a great pedigree, an increased number of players, a strong core group of seniors and several players from the state championship baseball team in May.

“We have 62 kids out right now,” Frontenac head coach Mark Smith said at practice Tuesday night. “That gives us a lot of depth. We can do a lot of drills with those kinds of numbers.”

Just for a little recent historical perspective, Frontenac had 41 players on its 2011 roster and 42 in 2010. A leap from 41 to 62 represents a 151 percent roster increase over just one year for the Raiders and seems most reflective of the fact that Frontenac makes its debut in Class 4A, arguably the most difficult classification in Kansas.

Frontenac returns 15 starters (8 offense, 7 defense) — led by seniors Devon Keith, Bryce Burdette, Tanner Craig, Ross Edge, Taylor Johnson, Cody Lindbloom, John Murray, Kylor McCartney and Nick Zafuta.

“That’s a strong point for this team, 18 seniors,” Smith said. “That’s a lot of good leaders. I believe winning state baseball last year helped them. They’re confident and they want to win it again.”

Burdette, Edge and Zafuta played baseball and baseball players Bryan Wade, Avery Coronado, Gus Brunetti and Blake Barto return to the gridiron after not playing football their junior years.

Frontenac enjoyed an up-and-down 2011 season — three straight losses (Neodesha, St. Mary’s Colgan, Galena), five straight wins (Girard, Baxter Springs, Riverton, Southeast, Northeast) and two straight losses (Erie, Wellsville) added up to a 5-5 record.

Burdette led Frontenac with 636 rushing yards and six touchdowns, plus contributed a passing touchdown and a receiving touchdown. Burdette caught a team-high 14 passes for a team-high 178 yards. He added 55 tackles, 4.0 sacks and two interceptions through nine regular season games.

The Raiders defense logged 49.5 sacks over its nine games.

Smith enjoyed a standout playing career at Colgan (coached by his father, Chuck) and Pittsburg State. He ranks No. 3 all-time on the Gorillas’ career total yards chart — 7,554 yards (5,190 pass and 2,367 rush) — and No. 1 in career completion percentage by completing almost 65 percent of his 521 pass attempts from 2005-2008.

Frontenac gave Smith his first head coaching opportunity, replacing Kevin Carey, who departed for an assistant coach position with Missouri Southern after coaching Frontenac to back-to-back state playoff appearances.

“I’m still learning,” Smith said. “It will take me a little bit, but we have great assistant coaches. They keep things going if I mess up something. The kids are listening, they’re playing hard and giving good effort and that’s all you can ask for as a coach.”

Head coaches often say they receive too much credit for when they win and they’re only as good as their assistant coaches around them. John Palumbo, Bill Sullivan, Jason Lee and James Hartzfeld give Smith a veteran staff.

Palumbo, a high school quarterback himself at Frontenac (1984 graduate), began coaching football at Frontenac in 1987 and served as defensive coordinator for 13 seasons (1993-2005) until he took over as head coach after Leon Miller left for Parsons. Palumbo helmed Frontenac four seasons and finished with a 20-21 overall record, highlighted by playoff appearances his first two seasons in 2006 and 2007.

Sullivan coached on both the staffs of Miller and Palumbo and he’s the head coach of the state championship baseball team. Lee coached on Palumbo’s staff and serves as the head track coach. Hartzfeld played at Frontenac and helped Sullivan last year in baseball.

Like every football team in Kansas, Frontenac started practice last Monday.

“The kids are excited,” Smith said. “They’ve been going pretty hard with the pads on. The last couple days have been hot so they’ve responded to it, they’ve gotten in shape and they’re ready for that first game.

“We only had three days of two-a-days. Once school started (Aug. 15), we had only one more day. We had two-a-days Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.”

Frontenac opens its season Aug. 31 on the road against Riverton, another solid team in the wide-open Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League.

“We had a good scrimmage Saturday,” Smith said. “A lot of good energy, a lot of good plays and the kids are getting better. I think they’re ready to hit somebody else other than their teammates.”