Coach’s CornerDE),

WAITSBURG

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The key to any big season is defense. You may have heard that of­fense wins over the crowd, but defense wins champi­onships. Regardless of the sport, championships are won with great individual and team efforts on defense.

And, that was the case this past year. I have team statistics for all my 13 sea­sons, starting in 1999, and this past season we stopped the run very well, giving up only 108 yards per game. Only the 2009 run defense that gave up 100.3 yards was better. Our total team defense (215.8 ypg) was also second overall. We also gave up an average of 13.5 points per game (third best total since 1999). Of the 189 points we gave up in 2011, we gave up only 60 points in quarters 1-3 and 129 points in the fourth, indicating just how strong our defense was in the first three quarters. I was extremely pleased with our run defense and have been for three years. It has been a huge part of our recent success.

The key to this year's suc­cess is to continue with these kinds of numbers on defense. We have to win the turnover margin and that means we have to create turnovers with pressure, timely stunts and blitzes and solid tackling. We have to create fumbles and interceptions and we have the guys who can do that. That is pressure from our front four or five to frustrate our op­ponents and to force the op­posing QB into making poor choices. More than anything, we need to again stop the run first and that seems to be the key to our success. We have not been a great pass defen­sive team in this three year run (2009-2011), but we have stopped the run and that was key. We have enough guys that played significant roles on defense last year to make that happen.

Key Losses

Eshom Estes (All State

Greg Stearns (All League DT), Cadman Dono­van (DT) , Justin Zuger (All League OLB), Dustin Wood­erchak (All State Corner) and Zach Bartlow (FS) and Jose Barajas (PK).

Defensive Line

We lost three of four start­ers to graduation and lost our top substitute Jacob Cantuna as he decided not to return to Jubilee for his senior season. Defensive end Chance Ler­oue returns for his sophomore season. He started all year as a freshman at defensive end and we expect a great season from him. Replacing Eshom Estes at the other defensive end spot is Dalton LaRue. Dalton has good speed and can also play linebacker and has been impressive in spring camp and this fall. Trenton Kit­selman (5-10, 137) and Ste­ven Grimes ( 5- 8, 163) are two other guys who can play defen­sive end and will see some back up time. Replacing our two defen­sive tackles will be senior Ben Shafer (6-4, 223) and senior Tucker Alleman (6-1, 192). Both played in reserve roles last year as juniors and played a lot of minutes as reserves. Rotating in the defensive line this year will be juniors Nate Bartlow (6-0, 205) and Nick Pearson (5-11, 231). Keith "Biggie" Lake (6-2, 345) will also see time on defense and in short yard­age situations.

Linebackers

We retain three of the four starters at linebacker and what we have coming back are quality kids. This should be the strength of our team. We only lose Justin Zuger, but with him go seven inter­ceptions. Zuger was a huge surprise and a blessing to our defense in 2011. But back is sophomore and Prescott product Danny Stansell (5-5, 192). Danny averaged almost nine tackles per game in 2011 and was second on our team in total tackles. He will run our huddle on defense and communicate with me on what we will be running. He is a student of the game and watches a lot of film and un­derstands the concepts. He is an all-league candidate. Billy Brown (5-10, 179) returns at Sam Backer and has some great ability to contribute from sideline to sideline. He has great speed and utilizes it well. Then, opposite of Zuger last year was outside linebacker Brendon Donovan (5-10, 164). Brendon had some great games and had a really impressive playoff run, especially our champion­ship game in Tacoma. He is also an all- league candi­date. Senior Keanu Pang (5-6, 171) has been impres­sive in fall camp and can play DL or linebacker. He is physi­cal and can play. At this point he will start, taking the place of Zuger at OLB. Roy Ebong and Luke Alexenko may also see time at OLB.

Defensive Backs

We lost two of the three starters in our cover three defensive scheme and that is an area of concern in 2012. We lost two-year starter Dustin Wooderchak at cor­ner and Zach Bartlow at free safety. Bartlow was a four-year starter and with his graduation goes 16 ca­reer interceptions, three for touchdowns. Those are two big losses. But, returning is Dalton Estes, whose two interceptions in the Tacoma Dome highlighted our defen­sive effort. Dalton will move from corner to free safety. He played strong safety in the spring and can do both. He is very physical and will play a huge role in our success. He will help Danny in calling the defense and communicating with me regarding coverages. We will be with two new corners and these spots ap­pear to be won after 10 days of fall camp. At this point, Alex Dill and Roy Ebong, both seniors, appear to be the starters. Luke Alexenko, Kevin Glover and James Thompkins will all contrib­ute and see action at corner and may even end up start­ing at times. In certain cov­erages you can expect to see Sterling Eastman. Sterling started at corner at times in 2011, but will be concen­trating on the offensive side of the football, at least early in the season.

Special Teams

The big loss on special teams is kicker Jose Barajas and gone are his school re­cord 59 extra points and his 3,479 yards on 78 kickoffs. With our long season of 14 games and all the points we scored, we will be hard pressed to replace that and in my mind is probably the best and most accu­rate kicker (81 percent on PAT attempts) that has ever played football at Waitsburg or Prescott.

Replacing him will be Dalton Estes. He kicked as a sophomore and did a very good job and he will handle all kicking duties in 2012. He will handle the punting responsibilities as well, as he did in 2011. Punt returns was handled by Bartlow last year and this year we see Dalton do­ing that in replacing him. He has great hands. This spot is still not for certain as a number of guys could contribute. Kickoff return duties will be handled by a few different guys, but at this point James Thompkins and Billy Brown appear to be the guys. They both are the two fastest kids on the team (4.75 and 4.80, respectively) and have that breakaway speed that you want to have.

A special thank you goes out to all of those in our community who patronized the recent WP football car wash. We appreciate your support!