Entry of June 29--GREENSBURG-- Anyone who saw Greensburg’s 18-14 win at Ashland in ’08 likely remembers the Rangers’ Clint Young calling for a screen pass on a critical fourth and six play with two minutes remaining that not only gained a first down but paved the way for the last-minute game winning drive.
What they may not remember was Young having13 suited up that night, versus 39 Blue Jays across the field. That will change this season as Young told The Signal Monday he’s expecting to have “between 33 and 36” suited up for his home opener in September.
“I know Robin (Rose, assistant coach) said he ran into some kids at Haviland the other day who haven’t been to our summer workouts yet,” Young said. “They told him they’ve been on vacation with family and have had trouble finding a ride over to Greensburg but that they’re expecting to come out.”
As for Greensburg Young said there’s “a few” kids who “could help us in situations” but have yet to show up for a workout, presumably because “they think they’re just basketball players. But that’s on them if they want to come out and help us this season.”
All told, Young has seen as many as 26 show up for a practice and is averaging around 20 who faithfully make it for weight training at 6 a.m. three mornings a week. The commitment is starting to show results.
“I’m starting to see a physical difference in some of the kids,” he said. “I wish we’d taken before and after photos of them, but we’re starting to see broader shoulders and conversion of baby fat into muscle. I’d say by August we’ll see a five to 10 pound gain in most of them.” After last week’s regimen of lighter weights and more reps—a switch taken every five to six weeks—Young said at least half the group saw an increase in their max on Monday morning.
While the emphasis the week of June 15 was on offense, Young said last week was devoted to working with defensive backs and linebackers, while it’s the linemen’s turn this week.
“We put in all our stunt packages last week and just from Tuesday to Thursday I saw good progress,” Young said. “Steve (Heft, defensive coach) does a good job with them, especially teaching them man-to-man pass coverage. We’ll use some zone, like in third and long situations, but mostly it’s going to be man coverage. We’ve got some guys with speed that can cover.”
As for which positions may or may not be nailed down, Young said the situation remains largely fluid as to particulars, though, “we have a general idea of who we want to compete in certain areas for a spot. But with the number we’ve got and the number of athletes we’ve got I want to be solidly two-deep everywhere so just because a guy isn’t starting at a spot doesn’t mean he isn’t going to see the field as a two.”
While Young said he’s more or less got Haviland’s John Musquez penciled in at one tight end spot—“he gives us a really good edge because he’s a big, strong, physical kid who’s a mismatch for any safety or corner”—he points to Bryce Yohn as a contender for the other side, along with another “who hasn’t shown up yet…but either one could be a possession type of receiver as tight end.”
Competition at line spots should be between Lymon Morehead, Colter Brown, Jordan Wyrick, Shannon Webster, Bryce Yohn, and Kirby Lewis. Though at least some of the starters may go both ways Young said, “We’ve got enough depth there that we’ll probably rotate quite a bit, especially when a kid gets winded on one side of the ball.”
While Ross Binford and Cody Headrick will be handling quarterback/slot receiver responsibilities, Young said it’s uncertain as to who may be getting the bulk of work at running back.
Having seen some varsity work last year as a freshman, Mullinville’s Keenan Behee made an impression on Young then by “the way he runs…He’s not afraid to be hit and he’s fast.” Another sophomore, however, Haviland’s Montana Ralstin, has caught Young’s attention thus far this summer. “Ralstin has enough speed that he could see the field at either running back or wide receiver. He’s got decent hands and runs good routes, plus he works really hard every day trying to get better. We’ll put him to work somewhere.”
Senior Ty Schaef is another Young expects to get some carries. Throw in a pair of freshmen that have impressed Young as well—Trever Powell and Evan Jacks—and the competition for backfield work is indeed stiff.
As for Binford and Headrick, Young says “either would be our best wide receiver…either can run our offense. Cody, of course, already knows our offense from last year, but Ross is picking it up really fast. We’d like to be in a situation where we can feature Cody (a righty) having the option to throw when moving to his right and Ross (a southpaw) the same option when moving to his left. We line up in the I and you could even see Cody under center and Ross at tailback, or vice versa.”
Young has also been pleased with the work ethic he’s seen thus far this summer, noting, “We’ve had a lot of drills to promote competition. We had a kid this morning that ran a 300-yard shuttle in 51 seconds and that was at the end of a two-hour workout. That meant the others had to go again to see if they could better their time and darned if Bryce (Yohn) doesn’t come up with a 55-second time as a personal best. They’re pushing each other to get better and it’s paying off.”
As many options as he has offensively, Young says the defense could be even better, and that in addition to the high level of competitiveness he sees five days a week, it’s a matter of athletic prowess that’s the key.
“You know, last year we had a few great football players and a few great athletes,” Young said. “This year, we’ve got quite a few great athletes, so I guess this year will settle the question of whether you’re better off having great football players or great athletes.” Young said he’s betting on the athletic side of the ledger, which means if he’s right, this could indeed be a memorable season.
Greensburg, KS —Entry of June 22
“We should’ve done this a year ago,” Robin Rose said over his shoulder as the 18 players present last Thursday night headed to the sideline for a water break. There was no mistake as to what the former Haviland and now Kiowa County assistant football coach was referring to.
“Yeah, we’d have been tough,” concurred defensive coach Steve Heft. Tough enough to have extended the season to the championship game? Rose and Heft nodded quietly.
Rose and Heft, of course, were musing over how salty a team could have been fielded for the 2009 season if Haviland and Greensburg had joined forces a year earlier. Tanner Stevens, Tanner McFarland, Garret Somerhalder, Ruben Perez teamed up with the likes of Nathan Charlton, Billy Stensland, Grant Sirois and Thomas Derstein is a vision that can induce a bit of daydreaming. Power game or deadly passing game? Pick your poison opposing defense.
But back to reality and the realization that even with the returning players from last year this is shaping up to be a team with tremendous offensive firepower and enough bodies to allow more than a few to avoid having to play both ways.
Watching the offense run plays for nearly 90 minutes Thursday evening left me impressed with the speed and versatility of this group. While Cody Headrick and Ross Binford took an equal number of snaps the first 30 or so minutes, with the other at the slot position, Binford was under center a majority of the time following, which may or may not be significant. In any event, Headrick and Binford both looked good throwing on the run to their wide outs. With both on the field Headrick can throw in motion naturally while moving to the right, the same for Binford going to his left.
>Some other observations included seeing Bryce Yohn carry the ball out of the backfield on several reps, as well as catch a few tosses out of the backfield. That’s one I hadn’t seen coming.
>Montana Ralstin, especially for a sophomore, turned a few heads. . .well, actually only mine since I was the only spectator there most of the time. Ralstin showed nice hands grabbing ropes shot at him on crossing patterns and likewise showed the kind of speed that made him a competitive hurdler as a freshman this past track season. He also proves to be elusive running the ball out of the backfield.
>Imminent senior transfer Kirby Lewis is every bit of 300 pounds, and showed decent agility considering it hasn’t been that long since he slipped out of his brace for a broken ankle sustained this past semester. His bulk along with that of Lymon Morehead on the other side of Shannon Webster at center is a luxury of size and security Binford is likely not using to feeling as he breaks huddle.
>Speaking of Morehead, the kid has come a long way since his freshman season. He seems ready to be an effective lineman as he enters his junior season in the mold of Kenny Cesmat, in terms of size and footwork. He came off the ball quickly enough the other night to do an effective job of leading interference for the ball carrier behind him. “Follow him (Morehead),” Coach Clint Young urged one back who’d just run outside of the sizeable lineman on the just completed play. “Why wouldn’t you want to run behind him? They’ve (defense) got to get through him to get to you.”
Of course, there were around a dozen kids who were gone the other night who’ve been showing up regularly during these voluntary summer workouts—gone to church camp and various other commitments. Seeing them and even a few more present for the weeklong camp in mid-July will reveal even more of the promise this upcoming season holds. And from what was on display Thursday night, there’s more than a little of that to go around.
Greensburg, KS —
Entry of June 15...GREENSBURG-- Now we know the name of the 6’3”, 300-pound lineman who’s been visiting summer football workouts in Greensburg. More importantly, Mavericks Head Coach Clint Young told The Signal Monday night that Kirby Lewis told him earlier in the day he plans on attending classes here in August and being on the new Kiowa County team.
“Together with Lymon (Morehead, another lineman in the neighborhood of 300 pounds) this gives us a lot more size and solidifies things a lot for us,” Young said. This makes it a lot easier to draw things up and gives us more options. I’m excited to see what he (Lewis) can do for us. How many eight-man teams can say they have a pair of 300-pound guards?”
Meanwhile, another senior, speedster Darin McVay also told Young he definitely plans on being a member of the football squad this year. McVay, who just missed making state in the 100 meters, has run a sub 11-second sprint this past spring, meaning Young has yet another offensive weapon to put to use. And offense is likely the only side of the ball McVay is likely to see.
“Playing outside and wide is what he’s interested in and that’s where his speed can help us, so I’m interested in keeping him happy and having him work hard for us, so that’s how I see him being used,” Young said. “You put a 10.9 something guy on the edge and the defense has to put a speed guy on him. If they don’t, they get burned.”
Young also continues to be impressed with the potential of junior quarterback Ross Binford who’s gone till Thursday at a quarterback combine in Kansas City, where he’ll be evaluated in a number of ways.
“They film you, test you out and see what skill level they think you have,” Young said. “It’s a way of getting your name out there and getting you some exposure beyond the high school level.”
Asked if such an event is a step toward getting invited to various colleges’ junior days next winter or even a college camp next summer, Young said, “That, plus you get an idea as a player what areas you need to work on to advance as you go through high school.”
Young refers to this as a “special week,” coming as it does on the heels of last week when evening sessions were canceled due to basketball camp being held.
“We didn’t see them much last week so this Tuesday and Thursday we’ll put some people in new positions and I think they’ll like where we put them,” Young said. “Thursday’s session especially should be worth seeing because just about everyone should be there and we’ll probably run 20 to 25 plays from scrimmage.” Anyone interested in getting a sneak peek at how the Mavericks might look on the field this fall should be at the playing field around 7:15 Thursday evening.
While Young is glad he has the 600 plus pounds of beef of Morehead and Lewis up front, he said people shouldn’t assume the Mavericks will be the kind of power team the Rangers were the past two seasons. “Where we get things done is when we spread the field offensively,” he said. “When you’ve got someone like Ross that throws a ball like he does and can run, and then you’ve got other athletes like Cody and several other guys you can throw at the defense you’re crazy if you don’t become more of a finesse or skill team. That’s the kind of players we have this year so that’s the kind of team we’re going to become.”
So without the likes of Stensland, Charlton and Sirois, don’t look for any inverted wishbone this fall, though a double-tight formation will likely be in the playbook.
While weight lifting Monday morning was the lowest turnout this summer—13 in all—Young said he wasn’t surprised or disappointed after the wet weather of the weekend.
“Some kids had trouble getting in here at 6 a.m. this morning with the roads and what not, and we’ve had some days where we’ve had twice that many. So for voluntary workouts I’m happy with the turnout we’ve had so far.”
Young has been not only pleased, but mildly surprised at the perfect attendance thus far of his two assistants, Steve Heft and Robin Rose. Acknowledging in May that one or the other would likely not be at every summer session because of work commitments, Young said he “wasn’t counting on each being here every day.” Asked for an explanation, he guessed, “I’d say they’re all excited about what’s coming together with this team and don’t want to miss out on anything from one day to the next.”
As for whether bringing Rose on board as a coach has been the plus he expected, Young said, “While I’m glad Robin’s with us I think that even if we hadn’t hired anyone from Haviland we’d still be where we are at this point, just because of the kids wanting to make this work,” he said. But am I gad we have Robin as part of out staff? Absolutely. I enjoy Robin. He has a lot to offer and I’m really glad we brought him over here. He adds a lot to what we can do as a staff.”
Entry of June 8…
Greensburg, KS —Kiowa County High School’s (it’s going to take a while to get used to writing that) summer football sessions got underway last week, June 1 to be exact, and according to head coach Clint Young, things are off to a good start.
With Tuesday and Thursday evenings set aside for drills around 7 p.m., weight lifting runs from 6-7:45 a.m. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.
After talking with his team the first evening about expectations and team goals, Young went with those tabbed for or interested in the skill positions (quarterback, running back and receiver) onto the field to start familiarizing those there with the offensive terminology to be used this fall. That night and Thursday he said at least 15 showed up with a “good mix of kids from around the county.” He also said at least 20 have shown up so far for each of the weight session—“Pretty good,” he said, “for being so spread out, plus a lot of these kids are working for their folks or someone else this summer.”
Chemistry starting to jell…
Building team camaraderie being a major concern of Young’s, the coach said the chemistry is starting to come together. “The kids are responding to me and the other coaches really well,” he said. “They’re starting to ask me questions and joke around with me a little.”
Young also said he’s changed up the workouts from the past so that even the Greensburg kids who’ve worked with him previously are finding a few surprises. He mentioned several of the Haviland players commenting on the strenuous nature of the routine. “Some have been saying they’ve never had a workout like that before,” he said, “and that they’ve never been so tired. But it’s not in a complaining way. I think everyone’s excited about doing something new.”
Some of the new elements Young incorporates come from players he’s sent on to play at the next level. He cited Grant Sirois, who’s already started working out at Hutch Juco. “Grant called me the other day with a drill he thought I’d like,” Young said. “It sounded interesting so we’ll try it next week.”
Getting a feel for the offense…
Saying he’s already started implementing the two quarterback offense he’d envisioned last spring, Young says players are starting to see for themselves what he’d drawn up for them before on paper. He refers to quarterbacks Ross Binford and Cody Headrick as “two good athletes who work well together. So it’s not just a matter of having two quarterbacks on the field at the same time, but two excellent athletes surrounded by more good athletes. The kids are starting to see how nasty this offense can be for a defense to deal with. Now they can see the possibilities now that they’re taking reps.”
Young also mentioned Haviland’s John Musquez proving to be a good candidate to anchor a tight end spot on the offense.
“The kid’s got size, he can move and he’s got good hands on the short routes,” Young said. “And once he gets his hands wrapped around that ball he’s like a bowling ball to bring down.”
While the two-quarterback offense will be potent, it won’t be the Mavericks’ only offensive look, Young hinting he’s also in the market for a fullback for a power game.
Newcomers…
Though he didn’t want to mention his name for fear he’d get it wrong, Young couldn’t help but mention a 6’3” 300-pound senior from Southwestern Heights who’s been attending workouts but is yet to decide whether he’ll attend here or return to Heights for his last year.
“He’s fit in with the kids here well and we’re doing all we can to make him feel welcome,” Young said. “Obviously he’d be a great addition. With Lymon (Morehead) we’d have a pair of 300-pounders so when we face a power team like Pretty Prairie we’ll have 600 pounds to put in the A gap. He’s here for the summer. I think his dad is moving to Haviland, so it’d be great if he hung around here for his senior year.”
Young said he’s also heard of a “couple of kids who are supposed to be moving here but I haven’t met yet.” He’s also liked what he’s seen in such incoming freshmen as Trever Powell, John Terhune and Evan Jacks. “They’ve all been here at least once and I don’t think Jacks has missed yet,” he said. “Good athletes, good kids, and we’ve got them for four years.”
So far, so good…
Though he says he’s not fooling himself into thinking this will automatically translate into a “Cinderella season,” Young likes what he’s seen so far.
“So far, I haven’t seen a bad attitude from anyone,” he said. “Turnout’s been good and effort has been good.”
With basketball camp running in the evenings this week, Young decided to cancel the Tuesday and Thursday evening workouts. “I know some kids want to play basketball and I don’t want to wear them out with four hours a day on those two days,” he said. “But they’re still showing up for weights, and they’re working hard for the time they’re here. That’s all you can ask of them.”
