Fall Fever

Behold, it is August, and practice will be here in a matter of mere days! Someone once told me that once you’re an adult time flies faster than you can ever imagine when you’re a kid. Well, they also say that time flies when you’re having fun. I think the flying of the time is disproportionate with the amount of fun I’m having, because my life should be a completely wild party with the way this summer has gone by.

In these rough economic times I feel privileged that our school still has sports to tell you the truth. Things are tough in this environment, and I’m thankful that we’ll still see the maroon and white on the field in a few weeks. Things will be different – it’s my understanding that there will be no JV team this year – it appears that this is more due to other teams dropping their JV teams than our own numbers issues. I’m very curious to see what the future will bring, because I have some kids in elementary and middle school, and I know their class sizes are very small…..where not many years ago we had a BEDS enrollment of over 300 (that’s basically 3 classes worth of kids), I think we’ll probably see sub-180 at some point. Other schools with this kind of enrollment do have football, but it’s tougher. I think for football there are things to help it stay alive and things that put it at risk…..I’ve gotta believe it’s probably the most expensive sport to run, but on the good side I certainly can’t think of a sport around Delhi that’s enjoyed more historical success, especially in the past 10-15 years. I also have to believe it is the most popular support in terms of fan attendance.

I’ve had very limited talk with people in the know this year, and that’s actually fun in a way – I like to make my own predictions of how things will play out and then see how right I was. I do hear that some personnel are at risk – a couple kids that may not play…..while I also hear that there are a couple new kids (whom I think are somewhat significant in that I think they may very well be starters) who weren’t on the team last year that may play. I guess we’ll know shortly. For now, I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear anything and just talk about the kids returning from last year’s roster, and then we’ll see what we have afterwards.

There are 9 kids from last year’s roster that did not graduate, which is certainly on the low side. Having no JV team should certainly help the numbers situation, and I do see some depth at some positions.

I think the strongest area I can see right now is the running game, with Telian and Ellis combined with some good quality linemen. Scobie and Snyder are returning starters, while Cody LaFever was projected as a starter before getting injured and missing the entire season. I had wondered once if it may be a good idea to make a one year move of Ingram to the line. I see some pretty good depth at RB with the 2 mentioned above and some good JV kids, so I could see Ingram really making the line 1^st rate. My gut is saying that I don’t think that will happen though, not sure why. I do know of a couple good quality linemen from the JV that should help out.

If we can throw the ball I think our offense will be highly dangerous. That will likely rest on the arm of Ben Denison, who was the JV starter and actually started at varsity OLB for the IVFINAL. I really don’t have a good feel for his capabilities there, though I’m confident in his general athletic ability. Hymers provides a good quality, good sized, and athletic option at WR. I’m not sure who the TE will be (can’t recall the JV starter’s name…..or, another option for Ingram?). If this part of the game comes around by late October, then watch out.

Defensively, we have 7 kids returning who started at some point or another, in addition to LaFever, who again was a projected defensive starter before getting hurt. We’re obviously devastated by the loss of Fletcher and Sackett at ILB, as those 2 were just monsters. My guess for that at this point would be Snyder and either Telian or Ingram. Telian began the year there, but made the move to the defensive line. I think Scobie and LaFever give us a couple good linemen. Eli Wright returns at OLB, and Ellis will give us a good quality cover corner. We’ll need to get another corner trained, and fill in some holes here and there, but I think there’s some pretty reasonable quality around (again, assuming everyone shows up). As I said before, Denison started one game on defense, but if he’s the starting QB I don’t expect him to be a defensive starter, though he could provide us with some depth.

So, I think turnout is key here. If we have everyone possible (all the roster kids back plus the others I heard about), and IF we stay healthy, we should be in pretty good shape, and I don’t think anyone on our schedule is safe. If we go on the opposite extreme, losing some kids and not getting the new ones, the strength of our schedule will determine how things go. We had 5 games decided by a TD or less last year in a year when we were IVFINALISTS – if the quality is that good again it could be a long year without a good turnout. Who shows up will likely come out somewhere in the middle is my guess, and, not having a good feel for where the competition is at, this year just looks very curious in my mind…..really tough to predict where we’ll be come end of October.

I do know this, though, I will be tickled pink to be watching our Bulldogs banging around for another fall….