“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.
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“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.
