As anyone familiar with 8-man football can tell you, it’s the district games that matter.
Jeff Blattner, in fact, former long-time coach of Haviland, and now at South Gray, was fond of calling the first four games of the schedule his “preseason” since the last five were all district games—the contests that determine whether or not your team is going to the playoffs in a given season.
With four of the five teams covered by Game Night grouped into the same 8-man district for the next two years, taking a moment to preview District 5 of Division I seems worthwhile.
Kiowa County (formerly Greensburg and now including Haviland), Macksville, Skyline and St. John were also in the same district last year—a district that included Jetmore and Spearville. Those four are joined this season by perennial powerhouse Pretty Prairie, a so-so Fairfield (Langdon) squad and a South Central team that struggled to go 2-7 a year ago in Division II.
In case you’re counting, that’s seven teams, rather than the usual six, meaning District 5 teams will be playing six, rather than five district games. Five of Kansas’ eight districts, in fact, are made up of seven teams this year, whereas only one was that large the past two seasons. (Pretty Prairie and Fairfield were in that larger district, which included Canton-Galva, Claflin, Stafford, Little River and Goessel.)
At this point Prairie has to be considered the odds-on favorite to win this district outright, if not go undefeated in the regular season as they did a year ago. The Bulldogs, in fact, didn’t lose until the third round of the playoffs when they were outscored by Baileyville—a team that lost the championship game to Quinter by two points.
Not only was C.T. Young’s team loaded last year, they’ve lost only an offensive lineman to graduation from that squad that went 11-1.
The real dogfight would appear to be for the second playoff spot in this district, with Macksville and Kiowa County likely to battle to be the second team out of District 5 to play in November. While the Mustangs are perennially competitive the Mavericks should be even stronger than last year thanks in large part to the influx of such Haviland players as Ross Binford, Montana Ralstin, John Musquez and Colter Brown. Key district games will be between these three teams, while the others should be jockeying for fourth place.
Macksville went 7-2 in the regular season winning its district over Greensburg (now Kiowa County) and would have been undefeated if not for two of its first three games having been against the likes of Victoria and Otis Bison. Like Greensburg, Mack lost in the second round of the playoffs, getting spanked by eventual state champ Quinter 50-0, the same score by which the ‘Stangs blanked Clint Young’s Greensburg team the last Thursday in October.
Kiowa County (which was then Greensburg) went 5-4 in the regular season and mauled previously undefeated Minneola 74-28 on their turf in round one of the playoffs. Clifton Clyde ended the Ranger season the following Saturday.
From there the District goes down in a hurry with Fairfield having finished 4-5 last season, losing badly along the way to all three quality teams on its schedule, including a 54-16 loss to Prairie, 60-12 defeat at Goessel and 58-16 beating at the hands of Central Christian.
Skyline finished 3-6 after slipping past a mistake-prone Greensburg team in Pratt the next to last game of the season and has lost such stalwarts as Trey Befort, who went to the State Meet in both discus and shot. The 'Birds, however, are rumored to be loaded with speed this year.
South Central moves up from Division II to join this pack after a 2-7 record in 2009. Their only two wins came against hapless Fowler and Bucklin, each win by eight points.
The highlight of St. John’s season was likely a 36-26 besting of Spearville. It’s most forgettable had to be coming up on the short end of a 78-76 shootout with Skyline.
Bottom line for District 5 is that three of the seven teams made the playoffs last year—the same three that should be in the running for two spots in 2010. Whether Kiowa County can snare that second spot for postseason play will depend largely on whether Clint Young’s team can avoid the kind of letdowns it experienced last year against Skyline and Macksville, and whether it can finally get over the hump against the ‘Stangs for the first time in Young’s tenure. Of course, Young (Clint, that is) would probably like nothing more than to beat his older brother (C T) when the ‘Dawgs come to Greensburg in October. It will, however, take a win over at least one of the two to move the Mavericks into a playoff slot. With Ross Binford and Cody Headrick on the field at the same time whenever Kiowa County has the ball the Mavericks would seem to have the edge.
Either way, here’s my fearless prediction of how this district shakes out for 2010.
-
Pretty Prairie*
-
Kiowa County*
-
Macksville
-
Skyline
-
Fairfield
-
St. John
-
South Central
*Denotes qualifying for postseason play
