Weekend Rusher

Mike Vernon is grinding. It's 10 minutes till 3 a.m., and Vernon's work day still isn't over. At this point, it can't really be called a work day anymore. Friday just blended into Saturday.

He's blinking hard to recharge his eyes burnt from from staring at his computer, but he's not complaining. In fact, he looks to be loving every second of it.

 

His coaching colleagues are completely dependent on him for their tape session in a couple of hours, and that's why he's not only sticking with it but enjoying it. The responsibility is pleasing, because he knows he'll get the job done. The contribution is not a burden, not when you're doing the job for a five-time state champion program.

 

Youth can log a ton of hours. Vernon knows it. This is his first year on staff, he's in his 20s, and yet, as video coordinator, he has been entrusted with the task of creating the lifeblood of the Hutchinson football program.

Tape -- it doesn't even run through projectors anymore, now it just spins on a DVD or relays in ones and zeros on a hard drive, but it sure as hell still runs through every Hutch coach's bloodstream. Every weekend starts with tape, and every weeknight ends with it.

And Vernon's the guy who better have it prepped by 5:30 a.m. on Saturday morning when head coach Randy Dreiling wakes up for the week's first tape session.

It's just about 3 a.m. in Dreiling's basement, where Vernon's pupils are now dilating from an overdose of screen viewing, and Dreiling's checking up on the progress. For the second straight week -- Hutch taped Rockhurst's season opener on August 28, drove it back from Kansas City to Hutch by 2 a.m. and broke it down by 6 a.m. -- the video editing software is experiencing a glitch. Vernon has had to manually insert pauses at the end of each play from Friday night's game against Rockhurst for review.

"We're good, coach," says Vernon. "It'll be ready in the morning." And like I said, Vernon's loving it, even though his first two weeks as the Hutch video coordinator has required him to power through added technological adversity.

Dreiling just shakes his head, upset that the equipment has not yet been corrected, but he's also feeling some pride and gratitude on behalf of another devoted, capable assistant coach.

Vernon's been in the basement, the War Room, as they call it, since 10:30 p.m.

 

"We're good, coach," he says again

 

 

Turn back the clock to about 11:05 a.m. on Friday, before Vernon was breaking down the tape of Hutch's 55-27 throttling of mighty Rockhurst. Dreiling and assistant offensive coordinator Dustin Delaney -- Dreiling retains the OC title for himself -- were jogging past Gowans Stadium during lunch break, and a Hutch fan had already parked himself in front of the stadium gates for that night's game.

"I'm sure that wasn't necessary, but I have to give him credit for wanting to be the first one there," says Dreiling. According to Hutch radio play-by-play Rusty Hilst at the end of the night, this fan was the first in the stadium on a night when Gowans hosted the biggest fan base for a sporting event in Hutch history. That was a guess by Hilst, but he's been calling every Hutch High and Hutch juco sporting event since the 1960s. I believe him.

In all seriousness, though, showing up at 5:30 p.m. was probably a bit too late. The Gowans home-side grandstand was covered by then. There was still room to squeeze in fans, but that's it. All its territory had been staked out.

 

An hour and half before game time, half a full Hutch side is littered with fans wearing shirts that say "You're in our house now" on the back.

I'm guessing any Rockhurst fan who saw those shirts knew what they were talking about. Even after Rockhurst's 28-21 win over Hutch in KC the previous year, Hutch had taken on a mystique among the Rockhurst faithful. Hutch brought about as many fans as Rockhurst to their own home game in 2008. Also, parents of Rockhurst players were known to have some fear of Hutch. One parent told the Hutch coaches who taped their game the previous week that they were kind of looking forward to the Hutch game again so that his kid would toughen up some. Even before Friday night's overwhelming 55-27 Hutch win, Rockhurst knew Hutch as that team which was more physical than any other they had ever seen.

You're in our house now. That meant no mercy this time. There would be no one to alleviate the driving speed and strength with which Hutchinson domineers opponents.

But if I had tried to tell anyone before the game that Rockhurst starters would be dropping like flies at the end of the second half, no one would have believed it. But it happened. Several Rockhurst starters didn't finish the game. They'd had enough. Even Missouri's proudest program, an 8-time state titlist and coming off a 35-13 win over a last year's Class 6 state finalist which had beaten Rockhurst in the playoffs 14-9 last year, couldn't match Hutch's physicality, preparedness and intensity.

"When's Nate going to be here," asks Tyler Fee shortly before kickoff. Fee, a senior Hutch linebacker, didn't finish last season due to an ankle injury. Hutch's top returning linebacker in 2009 didn't even play in the state final shutout over St. Thomas Aquinas in 2008. Ridiculous.

Who's Nate? Nate Dreiling was Hutch football's leading tackler the past two years before moving on to play ball at Pittsburg State, which decided to red-shirt him this season. Thus, Nate was due back in Hutch tonight for the game, despite the fact that Pitt was playing another top 10 Division II opponent the next day, Chadron State. Fee had yet to spot the leader who's shoes he'd filled.

Hutch slot back Deveon Dinwiddie, a water bug of a kid with an all-day sweet tooth but also with an electronically clocked 4.34 40-yard dash, takes the opening kickoff to the Hutch 42-yard line.

As Hutch senior quarterback Cooper Bell, as short, lightweight and spry as Dreiling's other son, Grant, who started at QB for Hutch's greatest team to date in 2007, takes the field for his first-ever start, Nate walks up next to me, shakes my hand and tells me the first play is going to the house.

"What did I say?" Nate asks seconds later, after Josh Smith went 58 yards for a touchdown. It was an unlikely run. Smith, termed Moose by coaches, teammates and booming sellout crowds, was hit in the backfield, but he spinned away, touched the ground with his hand to stay up, simultaneously stomped on the tackler and tackled an oncoming potential tackler by pounding him head-on onto his back, bounced it outside and ran away from a pack of chasers.

In his postgame interview with Hilst, Dreiling had this to say about the run: "That's not how we like to do it. We like to get five yards before he gets touched. But when your name's Moose, you run over people."

Indeed.

Rockhurst was game for a quarter, though. The first quarter provided six or seven of the most bizarre minutes of football I've seen. Hutch was about to roll Rockhurst up, not giving an inch on the line, ready to force a three-and-out. A Hutch defender had 6'5" Rockhurst quarterback Frank Arbanas in his grasp, but Arbanas, a junior, showed great strength against single tacklers all night. Matt Galliart, covering Josh Sykes in the flat, left Sykes to pressure Arbanas after he'd got away, and Arbanas then dumped it to Sykes. Galliart had no support behind him and Sykes out-ran everyone to the endzone. We were 1:29 into the game and it was 7-7.

The madness continued. Hutch plodded for 5 to 15 yards on several downs, then Bell pranced between the tackles for a 26-yard score.

But, and this should be emphasized, Rockhurst was a team with a bevy of offensive weapons. Six-foot-seven, 201-pound Cooper Beckett brushed off one-on-one coverage and caught a lob up the sideline for a 56-yard touchdown on the subsequent play from the line of scrimmage, making in 14-14. Beckett's 6'7" strides made him unstoppable all night; Rockhurst just didn't have enough time in the backfield to get him the ball every down.

And at this juncture, we turn to line play. If George W. Bush had been watching this game, he would have called the Hutch lines "the deciders".

Rockhurst coach Tony Severino said after last year's game that Hutch was the most physical team they had ever gone up against. After this game, he'd tell the KC Star that "their lines beat us to death out there." He would also tell Dreiling that Hutch was the best team they've ever played from Kansas, including the Olathe North teams which had Darren Sproles. Why would Severino say that? Again, line play.

I have written before about how Dreiling lives vicariously through his offensive line. He also told me on a radio interview in August that Hutch puts its best athletes on defense. These are starting points for discussion on Hutch line play.

I draw my verdict on why they are so good, though, based on my observation of Dreiling's instruction. "You can't wheel around that guy, Hank, he's going to blow the play up," Dreiling said to left tackle Hank Schmedemann at practice on Tuesday while teaching footwork. "You're going to get us killed!" he adds, about to blow a gasket.

 

He then acts out the proper positioning and movement for a lineman, and he does this all the time. I saw him during pregame on Friday doing it a couple times during his personal time with the offensive line unit in the end zone about 20 minutes before the game started.

He gets down low in the squatting position and forcefully and purposefully moves one leg forward, then other, very smoothly, the feet moving just above the surface of the ground so as to not waste time, maintaining balance and center of gravity with each movement, positioned throughout to drive a defender with his legs. The best thing I can come up with as an analogy would be the movements of a very suave sumo wrestler on the attack.

At 6:30 a.m. on Saturday after the game, while Dreiling, Delaney, Bill Foust and Bo Frondorff broke down the Rockhurst-Hutch game tape that Vernon had finished organizing, I saw what no one watching the game saw, even though it happened a couple yards away from the part of the play a fan is always watching (where the ball is). Smith's Houdini act on the sideline on the opening play of the game was incredible, but equally outstanding was Schmedemann's block of the Rockhurst three-tech on the game's opening play. In a matter of less than two seconds, Schmedemann had driven the poor kid six yards back from the line of scrimmage. I would ask you to forgive my hyperbole, but I'm not exaggerating. Schmedemann came forward but balanced out of his stance and forced his man into a furious back pedal before putting him on his back six yards from the line of scrimmage and moving up field to block another guy.

That happened all night. Ross Lovett also frequently put Rockhurst players on their backs at first contact. And it wasn't just on the offensive side of the ball. I had an inkling before Friday night's game that this was going on already before I saw the tape, just because I remember discussing the play of former Hutch defensive lineman Forrest Stucky, now at Pitt State with Nate Dreiling, with Derby coach Brandon Clark. In Derby's win over Hutch last season, one Hutch player certainly played well. Stucky drove offensive linemen onto the backs every other play.

This is what Severino was talking about when he said the Hutch lines "beat us to death." Justin Goetz, Hutch's square-jawed terror of a defensive end, brutalized Rockhurst on Friday. Like I said earlier, the only reason Rockhurst's Beckett didn't have multiple 40- and 50-yard scores is because Goetz, Geneo Grissom and the Hutch linebackers were in Arbanas' face almost immediately.

And so behind the fierce line play, Hutch strung together three unanswered touchdowns to lead 35-14. The game had the feel of being over mid-way through the second quarter because it was. Anyone on either sideline would agree with that sentiment.

Ben Heeney, the next great Hutch defender, and Fee combined on a sack of Arbanas on Rockhurst's third possession, and they punted at 14-14. The rout was was on. Smith scored to finish out the quarter. Deveon Dinwidde put Hutch up 28-14 eight seconds into the second quarter. On the subsquent play from the line of scrimmage, Grissom batted an Arbanas pass high into the air, and Goetz sprinted under it from the other end of the line and screamed 20 yards untouched into the end zone. Twenty-three seconds into the second quarter, Hutch led 35-14. After less than 13 minutes of play, the game was over.


I couldn't help but notice at Tuesday's practice how risky an offense the Hutch triple option can be, and thus how careful and in-synch its executors must be. It is by nature susceptible to fumble with players who are not alert.

The quarterback puts his arms and the ball in contact with the fullback so frequently on fakes. He must hold on tight. The hand off also seems to take place about a yard behind the offensive linemen's backs. Defensive linemen must not be let past the line of scrimmage. The pitch is often made through the air just feet in front a defender. It all must be done precisely and accurately.

What is peculiar about it is that it is a run-first offense, yet it is a big-play offense. Case: At 35-14, Hutch was threatening at the Rockhurst 20-yard line. A false start and a sack of Bell on Hutch's only pass attempt of the night put them back 15 yards. But then Dinwiddie gets a first down on the next play; Bell faked to the fullback and went to him and Dinwidde scooted through the tackles and outside for 25 yards. There are two things to remember here: Bell has all the time in the world to fake in the backfield, and holes are big on the Hutch line.

Then, Bell ran for a 16-yard score, with his hand literally on his lead blocker's back until he was well inside the 10-yard line. That has to be unusual.

That was Hutch's fifth touchdown on five possessions.

They did not score on their sixth possession of the half because the closing seconds put them in two-minute drill mode, which ended with a missed 45-yard field goal. The kick was close, though.

Hutch Community College football coach Rion Rhoades, who was on the sideline for the game, put it humorously. "Hutch doesn't have a punter."

Hutch's first team would score on 7 of 8 possessions, the one failure coming as time ran out in the first half.

Dreiling told me at the beginning of the season that their offense was going to be unstoppable. I didn't take him literally, nor did he mean it literally. But it was literally unstoppable on Friday night.

 

Xs&Os

After junior DeShawn Dinwiddie broke out for 21 yards to inside the Rockhurst 20-yard line on Hutch's fifth possession of the first half, Dreiling wanted more from the back-up fullback (who, as a note, might be the best pure athlete on the football team): "We're blowing their three-tech 10 yards off the ball. Just go!" said Dreiling, before making a hand motion, showing vertical between the tackles then out to the sideline. The three-tech is the defensive lineman who lines up on the outside shoulder of the right offensive tackle. This one line of instruction taught me a lot about football. (I don't know anything about football. Thanks to William Thacker and Grant Dreiling for explaining to me was a three-tech is. I think I got it right.)

Earlier this week, Randy Dreiling and assistant offensive coordinator Dustin Delaney scripted the same six of seven plays for the Rockhurst game. Delaney called every play on Friday night, except for the blown-up pass play. Dreiling really wanted to throw it once, I guess.

 

6A/5A Power Rankings

1. Hutchinson

2. McPherson

3. Manhattan

4. Blue Valley Stilwell

5. Salina South

6. Olathe North

7.Gardner-Edgerton

8. Bishop Carroll

9. Salina Central

10. Wichita Northwest

 

4A Rankings

1. Buhler

2. Andale

3. Topeka Hayden

4. Bishop Miege

5. Wellington

 

3A Rankings

1. Conway Springs

2. Garden Plain

3. Marysville

4. Silver Lake

5. Wichita Collegiate

 

State championship game predictions

6A: Blue Valley Stilwell over Manhattan

5A: Hutchinson over Gardner-Edgerton

4A: Buhler over Topeka Hayden

3A: Conway Springs over Marysville

Winners (Those Who Could Be Big Winners)

Carroll went up 28-0 on Heights in the first half and won by the same score. If Carroll is compete in Class 5A, it will be their defense, not the offense led by Blake Bell, which makes it happen. I could hear linebacker Timmy Chadd's excitement in the Eagle's quotes from him after Friday's game.

Buhler absolutely pounded a highly-touted Andover side. Jordan Oden rushed for 330 yards. Let that sink in. Buhler cannot be satisfied, though, until they beat Andale on the first week of district play.

Dodge City pounded Southeast 26-3 in Wichita not because of Ty Thomas and Landon Head hooking up through the air. Garden City transfer Jace Banner holds down the backfield and plays linebacker. The Dodge-Garden game will have that extra element to it this year. Can Dodge break through in Class 6A for the first time since the early 1990s?

Mulvane traded touchdowns with Great Bend Friday night before junior quarterback Gus Strunk linked up with A.J. May for the winning touchdown. Coach Dave Fennewald told me about Strunk this past summer after I saw him throw and be mobile at the Midwest 7on7 camp in Derby. He's started in baseball since his freshman year and basketball as a sophomore. Good for Mulvane getting this win, especially after losing Tharp last season. This is turning out to be an outstanding four-year run by Mulvane.

Trinity Academy licked Bluestem, and I know it's Bluestem, but this second-year program will compete in Class 4A next year. Really compete.

Sunrise Christian Academy beat South Haven, a top area team in 8-man Division II, 68-36. Sunrise does not compete in KSHSAA playoffs, but they're obviously good. Here's their profile in the upcoming 8-man report in Vype: Sunrise improved from a 3-6 record in 2007 to 7-3 last season in Trey Page’s second season as coach, including an appearance in the KCAA state championship game. Sunrise averaged over 55 points per game in 2008. Junior QB/DB Andrew Westerfield (5-11, 160) rushed for over 1,500 yards and passed for over 1,500 yards last season. Senior WR Matt Fager (6-3, 180) compiled over 1,000 receiving yards and caught 17 TDs. Senior OL Sid Melugin (5-11, 185) is a three-year starter in the line. Senior RB/DE D.J. Sands (6-4, 225)uses his wingspan on defense.

 

Kansas Runaround

Joanna Chadwick reports Carroll's Gang Green defense may be back after shutting out Heights 28-0.

Terez Paylor quotes Rockhurst coach Tony Severino as saying Hutchinson's lines beat his guys to death.

Rick Peterson writes that Topeka Hayden has replaced 20-plus seniors after defeating Shawnee Heights.

Charles Redfield on Manhattan's winning touchdown in the final two and half minutes.

Tracy McCue on Wellington's statement game against Kingman.

Mark Schnabel on Newton's dominant defensive performance against Liberal.

Tom Keegan lays it out -- Lawrence Free State turned the ball over five times, Olathe East none.

 

Quote of the Week 1

"National gurus can't believe he has played only 11 games in high school."

-Carroll football coach Alan Schuckman on Sports Daily this week. OU-bound Carroll quarterback Blake Bell had started only 11 games at quarterback going into Friday night's game against Heights.

 

Quote of the Week 2

"We should just become Notre Dame and be independent."

-Hutchinson coach Randy Dreiling at football practice last Tuesday. Friday night's game against Rockhurst marked the second half of the home and home scheduling agreement between the two schools. An Ark Valley-Chisholm Trail League scheduling meeting this week determine whether Hutchinson will have an open week on the schedule to go out and find a marquee game, as they did two years ago with Rockhurst. There's also still the potential for Hutch moving back up to Class 6A when next year's football districts are released in early October.

 

Quote of the Week 3

"There was a major difference in the aggressiveness out there. Their lines beat us to death out there."

-Rockhurst football coach Tony Severino, as said to the KC Star's Terez Paylor, regarding Hutchinson's line play on Friday night.

 

Award Winners

Stat of the Week

School district neighbors Hutchinson and Buhler combined for 1,049 rushing yards Friday night. Hutch gained all of their offense against Rockhurst on the ground -- 468 yards. Buhler gained 581 rushing yards against Andover, 330 of which belonged to returning 1,300-yard rusher Jordan Oden. Also on Friday night in Reno County, Nickerson's Weston Cottrell rushed for 311 yards in a loss to Wichita Collegiate.

 

Player of the Week

Wichita Northwest running back Demarcus Robinson. He gained 189 yards on 35 carries to bring Northwest back from a 13-3 deficit to Kapaun to win 16-13. One wonders if he can carry the ball that many times and last, though. Thirty-five carries... that's quite a load, even for a stout little guy built low to the ground.

 

Team of the Week

Mulvane Football. Did anyone give Mulvane a chance against Great Bend? I didn't. The teams trades scores all night in Mulvane Friday, before first-year junior quarterback Gus Strunk linked up 28 yards with A.J. May, Strunk's second TD pass of the night. This is a huge win for Class 4A Mulvane over an albeit former Class 5A power, Great Bend. Mulvane coach Dave Fennewald told me before the season that Strunk has started for the baseball team since his freshman year and started hoops as a sophomore last winter. Strunk showed off excellent mobility and a strong arm this summer the Midwest 7on7 camp at Derby. It looks like Dylan Hagerman is a nice running back, as well, gaining 157 yards Friday night. Good for Mulvane, after missing out an a state title run last season when Huldon Tharp tore his ACL before the 2008 season began.

 

Coach of the Week

McPherson football coach Tom Young, who earned his 297th win Friday night at Goddard, winning 40-17. Young sits tied on the all-time career coaching wins list with Wichita coaching legend Ed Kriwiel. They have the fifth-most wins all-time. Young has three state titles at three different schools, and at Derby in 1994 ended Lawrence's run of five consecutive state titles.

I would also throw in Rockhurst football coach Tony Severino. I'm still trying to figure out when was the last time Rockhurst was beaten by at least 28 points, as they were on Friday night at Gowans Stadium, but I know it must be extremely rare. Yet Severino was about as classy as it gets. He heaped praise on Hutch and its coach Randy Dreiling in the postgame. Respect is mutual between the coaches. Dreiling took out the first team on both sides of the ball after their touchdown early in the fourth quarter. Still, I seriously doubt Rockhurst will schedule Hutch again, although, the next two years would be the perfect window for Rockhurst to snag a couple wins from the Salthawks. This season's version of Hutch, especially on the offensive side, is very special and will be difficult to replicate over the next two seasons.

 

Not So Quick Hits

Smith Center defeated Plainville 59-0, extending its winning streak to 68. From here on out, they're breaking their own state record for consecutive wins each week. But that's not my point I want to hit on with this win. I'm not going to beat the dead horse that is their winning streak against that schedule by writing about in this column each week. (Ok, maybe I will.) My point this time, though: Last season, Smith Center beat Plainville even worse; they put up 70 or something ridiculous like that. I wonder if Smith Center coach Roger Barta, who got his 290th win against Plainville, enjoyed it at all. Plainville, his alma mater, used to have a proud football program. It has to make him a little bit sad every time he pounds his hometown, especially when he remembers a time when they were better than that.

 

Heights football coach Rick Wheeler said on Sports Daily radio show this week that their goal is still to get that level of consistency where they can be termed a program. The 28-0 shutout loss to Carroll Friday is certainly a setback, but Wheeler will make that team better all year long. Still, that was a tough loss for a team which needed to prove they could recover from drastic roster losses from season to season. Carroll proved it could; Heights did not.

 

I spoke with Randy Dreiling on Friday and Saturday about his top players not being recruited to NCAA Division I schools. Geneo Grissom will be his first signee. There are maybe five other guys at Hutch who can play Division I football. They physically dominated a school that annually produces Division I guys. While Dreiling doesn't wish to focus on this, because he's proud of guys who are great high school football players, I will say this. Rockhurst students jeered Hutch with this in the early going of the game, chanting "Where Are We?" Exactly, Hutch isn't on the recruiting map, but they need to get there. I can'tell Dreiling is stunned by the fact that senior Josh Smith is not getting looks. Both Nate Dreiling and Forrest Stucky on defense last year should have been D-1 guys. Severino was shocked that Deveon Dinwiddie isn't getting bites. And Hank Schmedemann, at 6'2" and 300 pounds, should be recruited, as well. I'm starting to doubt whether it will happen, though.

 

In soccer, Berean Academy, a Class 2A school, defeated defending Class 4-3-2-1A state runner-up Rose Hill 3-2 on Monday. Here's Berean's report in the upcoming issue of Vype: First-team all-state midfielder Lonnie Penner (13 goals, 5 assists) returns for Berean, which earned a berth in the state quarterfinals in 2008, losing 5-3 to eventual state runner-up Rose Hill. Eighth-year coach Russ Busenitz also returrns midfielder Caleb Veer, who compiled 8 assists and 4 goals last season. Both Veer and Penner play with both feet. Six-foot-fove junior GK Karlin Wiebe (8 shutouts) returns in goal as a great shot blocker with his size. Owen Beverlin, Cameron Dunn and Trenton Thiessen return to the defense, and Josh Sommerfield returns to the midfield. With the return of 13 letter winners, Berean will find out where they’re early on as usual by playing in the North Cup, made up predominantly of Class 6A and 5A schools.

 

In volleyabll, Carroll defeated Heights 23-25, 25-16, 23-25, 26-24, 15-9 in a five-game epic on Tuesday. That's quite a way to get things started.

 

Bruce Haertl said Thursday again that after watching Blake Bell in last year's Heights game, he had no doubts that he'd be playing on Sundays. Okay, but I will combine this sentiment with what his co-host wrote in his annual reader survey column last week. Bob Lutz said he didn't have a good feeling of East High product Bryce Brown playing college ball, but he did about Bell. I think Lutz would change his mind about Brown if he say Saturday's Tennessee game, in which Brown trucked over two defenders for a 4-yard goal line touchdown. Brown also showed great speed and power in the open field. I can't believe his abilities at East just one year ago are already translating on Saturdays. What a special kid.

 

The Wichita Eagle ranked Gardner-Edgerton ahead of McPherson in Class 5A in their initial rankings on Friday. No way. Gardner played one good team last season, St. Thomas Aquinas, and only scored a combined 18 points against them in two games. McPherson would have beaten Aquinas last year, and both Mac and Gardner return many player

 

Email of the Week

Yeah -- my tip would be to forget football. How about a preview of City League boys and girls bowling?

No, wait -- I want you to save that until I'm there.

And you that Hammer will not be placated until Sara Lungren is in studio for a live interview on Cheney volleyball. Either Sara or a lifesize cardboard cut-out. Whatever works.

Enjoy.

Ted W.

-My co-host on Preps Weekly, Ted Woodward, giving me advice on what to do in his absence on this past Saturday's radio show after the first night of Friday night football in Kansas. Hammer is our very able engineer at Entercom.

 

Something I never want to see again

One athlete jacking another athlete in the face on the field of play. Oregon running back Legarrette Blount acted like a thug, although the Boise State player who incited him to react should also be punished. Unless you're making a play during the game or mutually congratulating one another after the game, two football players should otherwise never touch each other.

 

Maglight

On Preps Weekly radio show on KFH Saturday morning, I spoke with Kapaun cross country coach Damian Smithhisler about his top girls runner Mackenzie Maki. Maki, a junior at Kapaun, defends her 5A cross country title this fall coming off a 58-second win in the 3200-meter at the state track meet last spring. She is a very special athlete and person -- a real pleasure to meet. Read her story in the next issue of Vype Magazine in a week and a half. She will appear on the cover.

 

Also, if you can still find one, pick up the current August issue of Vype, our football preview. With McPherson football coach Tom Young getting his 297th career win Friday night, you need to read or re-read Jim Misunas' feature story on him in the August issue. Young is one of the best coaches we'll ever have. Here's my favorite quotation from Young in the story: "The game itself has changed some. The preparation and challenge to develop a good team is still the same."

 

Did you see that?

Watch Josh Smith pull a Houdini act on the first highlight. I watched the play from two different angles on tape -- the end zone and grandstand -- and this was one of the most incredible runs I've ever seen, Barry Sanders included. I watched the play occur and be rewound 10 times probably from both angles when the Hutch offensive staff was breaking down the tape Saturday morning. You can't see it on this video, but Smith came around the corner of the line and was confronted by Rockhurst defenders, none blocked. He was hit behind the line of scrimmage, which forced him into a spin toward the sideline: the defender held on to his foot, and Smith's right hand hit the ground. Smith regained his balance, and simultaneously stomped the defender as he tried to regain traction and met the next tackler head-on, sending him backward immediately onto his rear end. From there he felt a few more arms brush his Moose-like frame and went to the house for 58 yards. It was the first play of the game from the line of scrimmage. Former Hutch great, linebacker Nate Dreiling, the Salthawks leading tackler in 2007 and 2008, called it right before it happened, the fact that Hutch would score on the first play, that is. Smith is freaking incredible. Listen here to Randy Dreiling talk on Preps Weekly about how he has no idea why Smith hasn't been deemed Division I material by college coaches. He's one hell of a football player, I know that.

 

If I were coach...

After Northwest took the lead 16-13 over Kapaun with 5:27 remaining in the fourth quarter on Thursday night, I would not have elected to chuck the football 15-20 yards downfield three straight snaps, as Kapaun did. None were completed, Kapaun punted, and that was basically the ballgame. Jonathan Truman led a three-man Kapaun rushing attack which compiled 114 yards, gaining 5.7 yards per carry. They could have been better, and I expect better from them as the season progresses. They'll be ready for Carroll, I think.

 

Bold Prediction

Carroll will beat Northwest in Week 2 and coast to City League and district titles, which, once again, will not help them in the playoffs. They need a scheduling infusion somehow.