Coach’s Corner

WP Head Football Coach Jeff Bartlow Believes Last Season's Freshmen Will Step Up On The Field This Fall

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AITSBURG --

The 2011 run in football last fall was a great run and one the communities of Waitsburg and Prescott, as well as Jubilee Christian, will remember for a long time to come.

In fact, the last three years are really remarkable going, 35-3, over that span. Numerous school records, both team and individual, were broken. And, when you graduate 12 seniors in 2010 and then eight more in 2011 and win that many games (26-1 over those two years and a state championship in 2011) some may wonder when the run will be over.

We lost a number of great weapons this past year, es- pecially when you lose the quarterback, Zach Bartlow, who has started every game, all 38 of those games, since his sophomore year.

Losing your QB is always the biggest loss for a team, especially when you add up all that we accomplished on of- fense. So, we lost a lot of talent.

But what many don't know, even the basic fan may not know, is that we had an outstanding freshman class last year that contribut- ed to our championship run.

And, with 15 juniors on last year's team, we are not con- ceding that this run will end.

We expect it to continue. In addition to the 14-0 record was the 5-1 junior varsity season that we had. It is a bright future!

I have been coaching football here in Waitsburg since the fall of 1999 and of all my freshman classes; this one really stands out. I have had 13 freshman classes over that span and looking back at them and comparing my entire freshmen groups, this class, along with one other class, stands out as the strong est. The other fresh- man class was the one that entered high school in the fall of 2006. Some of those athletes, if you cannot remember, were Jace Zuger, Zach Alexenko, Marco Wikman, Ben Kiefel, Kevin Raver, Lucan Gerke, Josh Smith, Chance Mc- Daniel and James Lehr. Many of them started, too. Jace, Zach, Lucan, James and Josh started at different times all year long in the fall of 2006. Freshmen who end up starting are an indicator of how strong that class was. It was an outstanding class. The freshmen players also finished strong and as seniors won the league and finishing up, 9-2. As it turns out, they had a very strong support below them as that was the beginning of our 35-3 run.

Like the s eason of 2006, this last year in 2011 we started freshmen as well. The three freshmen who started this past year contributed on a 14-0 team. The 2006 squad that started all those freshmen was 3-6, so a big differ- ence. Starting as a freshman on what ends up as a state championship team is quite an accomplishment and impressive to the folks who appreciate that sort of thing. These three guys earned a spot on a very good team. They came in and competed and won spots and that is hard to do as freshman.

Chance Leroue started both on offense (OG) and defense (DE). We just could not keep him off the field. He dominated in practice and won his spot on the field on both sides of the ball. He will be a dominating player in years to come. He just needs to stay healthy.

Danny Stansel from Prescott started at linebacker all of last year. He had dou- ble-digit tackles in a number of games and looks to return in that same capacity.

Devin Acevedo started at wide receiver and has an ar- gument for the best hands on the team. He had more than 30 catches on the season. He has soft hands and caught the eyes of the coaches in spring ball as an eighth grader. Unfortunately in the spring of 2012, he was lost for the season with a dislocated and broken ankle. We will really miss him.

The rest of the freshmen contributed, but were sound junior varsity players on a very strong JV team. Those freshmen include Owen Lanning (QB/DB), Talen Larsen (WR/DB), Tyler Sha- fer (WR/DB), Alex Breland (WR/DB), Nick Lindsey (OL/DL). DeSales transfer , Michael Grant (RB/LB), will add to that strong class.

It is a strong class and I expect the other guys that now are one year older to step up and contribute this year on both the varsity and JV level. This is a great class and one of my favorites. They are a bunch of great kids, too.

A number of them compete in all three sports and I also look at that as a positive and an example of how strong they really are. It is exciting to know that

I have them around for three more years!

To help he football team buy new end-zone clocks, purchase a WP football schedule magnet from any coach, any player or at Waitsburg Grocery.