WP Ready To Defend State Title

WAITSBURG

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Waitsburg-Prescott lost six award-win­ning seniors from its undefeat­ed and state championship- winning 2011 football squad.

With the loss of so much skill, experience, and size on the lines, at quarterback, and at key defensive positions, it is perfectly reasonable to as­sume 2012 will be a rebuilding year for the Cardinals.

But your assumption would be wrong according to WP head coach Jeff Bartlow.

"We had a big junior class that played significant roles last year in the championship run we had," said Bartlow a week and a half into fall practices. "We have enough talent coming back that we do feel we can defend our league title and we do believe we can get back in that championship game."

Lost from last year's squad are all-state player of the year, quarterback/safety Zach Bartlow, all-state offensive tackles and all-conference D-linemen Eshom Estes and Cadman Donovan, all-state cornerback Dustin Wooder­chak, all-conference defensive tackle Greg Stearns, and all- conference outside linebacker Justin Zuger.

However, the Cardinals re­turn state championship game most valuable player and all-state wide receiver Dalton Estes and all-conference run­ning back Billy Brown. Add in a host of quality un­derclassmen from last year's squad and WP can hardly be considered depleted.

" Each year's differ­ent. You lose seniors. You get fresh­men," said Bartlow. "In any offense you have to have a threat in different positions. You always have a triangle with a threat out of the backfield, a threat on the edge, and a threat at quarterback. We have two of those three weapons back with Billy in the backfield and at receiver with Dalton. The one part of the triangle we did lose was the quarterback, and that is always the biggest miss espe­Sterling cially if he's as good as Zach was, frankly. So Sterling (Eastman) is in there. He's got an arm similar strength-wise to Zach. It's not quite as strong, but it is accurate. He's not the runner Zach is, so we have to change ( our offense for) that.

Bartlow said he ex­pects Eastman to throw the ball first and ac­curately and make the defense adjust to the passing game and then let Billy run.

WP will run a spread of­fense again this year with four wide receivers and one run­ning back much of the time.

Joining senior Dalton Estes on the outside is junior Chad Pearson, sophomores Chance Leroue and Luke Alexenko, and Jubilee Youth Ranch's Kevin Glover, Roy Ebong and James Thompkins.

Leroue will see time at both wide receiver and tight end depending on the offensive package.

The receiving corps has been hit hard by injury, with projected starter sophomore Devin Acevedo out for the season with injury, and senior Alex Dill unable to catch after a summer motorcycle accident put his thumb out-of- commission.

Joining Brown in the back­field for two-back sets and to spell him occasionally will be senior Dalton Estes and sophomore Daniel Stansell from Prescott.

The 2012 offensive line is much smaller with the absence of Donovan and Eshom Estes. Replacing the two at tackle are junior Dalton LaRue and senior Tucker Alleman.

"You lose Eshom at 250 pounds and put in Dalton at 158," said Bartlow. "A hun­dred pounds difference, but (LaRue's) a very good athlete. He is by far the fastest linemen I've ever had. I'm not worried about some of the stuff he'll be able to do. But when you take that kind of size out (Estes and Donovan) and you've got to have just one yard, you're going to have a little trouble."

Rounding out the line are returning starters junior cen­ter Nick Pearson, senior left guard Ben Schaeffer, and new starter, junior right guard Nate Bartlow.

On the defensive side, the Cardinals must replace an all-conference front four of Stearns, Eshom Estes and Donovan. Only sophomore Chance Leroue returns at de­fensive end.

The Cards linebacking corps is nearly intact with Brown and Stansell anchoring the middle and senior Brendan Donovan at one of the two out­( side spots. Only Justin Zuger was lost to graduation.

"Zuger had seven intercep- tions last year, could really smell the football and had an outstanding year," said Bartlow. "But Brown and Stansell's championship game was just outstanding. And Brendan Donovan's championship game was terrific too."

Ebong and Alexenko are prime candidates to see time at Zuger's spot. They will also see time at strong safety and corner back respectively.

"But the guy who's really showing up and playing great at the position is this new guy from Jubilee, Keanu Pang," said Bartow. "He came to us as a guy who's played some football- some defense and he's going to start at outside linebacker. He's that guy from Jubilee that every year you wonder 'who're we going to get?'"

Dalton Estes moves this year from cornerback to free safety filling Zach Bartlow's old spot.

Starting jobs for the two corners is a competition between Alexenko, Thompkins, Ebong and Dill. Eastman and Chad Pearson will back-up the position as well. Twenty-eight Waitsburg students turned out for football this year, along with three from Prescott, and 13 from Jubilee. A couple of the Jubilee students including Eastman will attend Prescott High School this year but live at the Jubilee Ranch. Bartlow says he is impressed with his league opponents especially DeSales and Tri-Cities Prep who both return their starting quarterbacks, and in the case of the TCP Jaguars, have tremendous depth and starting experience.

(Tri-Cities Prep) had a fresh- man class and a sophomore class that did all the playing last year and they didn't win a game in league, he said.

The quarterback is the coach's son. They've got about 45 players out and 40 of them were at the Tri-cities football camp this summer.

W-P's non-conference slate includes the top tier of Oregon's Blue Moun- tain League, with last year's champ Weston-McEwen, and the champion of the previous 13 years, Heppner.

Heppner is the Cardinals opening night foe. Kick-off is set for 7 p.m., Aug. 31 in Waitsburg.

WP Football Roster

2,12, Sterling Eastman, 5'11", 160 ,QB/DB

3,10, Owen Lanning, 5'11",143,QB/DB

Jan-00,9, Brandon Penner, 5'8",123,WR/DB

7,10, Talen Larsen, 5'5", 123, Slot/DB

8,11, Chad Pearson, 5'10", 171, WR/DB

10,12, Riley Stevens, 6'0", 171, WR/LB

12,10, Devin Acevedo, 5'9", 193, Slot/LB

13,12, Dalton Estes, 5'9", 161, WR/DB/K

14,9, Jason Carter, 5'9", 138, WR/DB

15,12, Keanu Pang, 5'6", 171, RB/LB

20,12, Matt Hoilman, 5'11", 137, LB

21,9, Benji Perez, 5'9", 147, WR/DB

22/50,10, Danny Stansell, 5'5", 192, RB/LB

24,12, Alex Dill, 5'7", 136, Slot/DB

27,10, Tyler Shafer, 6'0", 153, WR/DB

28,12, James Thompkins, 5'7", 140, RB/DB

29,9, Kobie Brown, 5'8", 137, Slot/DB

32,10, Jada Alfred, 5'6", 129, WR/DB

33,10, Mike Grant, 5'10", 173, WR/DB

37,10, Luke Alexenko, 5'7", 143, Slot/DB

41,12, Billy Brown, 5'10", 179, RB/LB

44/59,10, Chance Leroue, 6'1", 191, RB/LB/OL

51,11, Trenton Kitselman, 5'10", 137, OL/DL

52,12, Jesse Rawson, 5'10", 147, OL/LB

53,12, Steven Grimes, 5'8", 163,OL/DE

54,9, Zion Branson, 5'9", 195, OL/DL

55,11, Nate Bartlow, 6'0", 205, OL/DL

56,12, Ben Shafer, 6'4", 223, OL/DL

57,12, Tucker Alleman, 6'1", 192, OL/DL

58,9, Austin Lockard, 5'10", 180, OL/LB

60,9 Levi Hatfeild 5'8", 228, OL/LB

61,11 Dalton LaRue, 5'10", 159, OL/DE

63,12, Keith "Biggy" Lake, 6'2", 345, OL/DL

66,9, Mark Montgomery, 6'2", 165, OL/DL

70,11, Nick Pearson, 5'11", 231, OL/DL

71,9, Christian Ortiz, 5'6", 154, OL/DL

72,12, Brendon Donovan, 5'10", 164, OL/DL

74,9, Tristen Newman, 5'11", 272, OL/DL

77,10, Nick Lindsey, 6'0", 255, OL/DL

78,11, Corey Brownlee, 5'9", 182, OL/DL

80,12, Kevin Glover 5'7", 136, Slot/DB

81,9, Daniel Perez, 5'9", 135, WR/DB

88,12, Roy Ebong, 5'7", 137, Slot/DB

Coaches: Jeff Bartlow (head coach), TroyLarsen, Allen Wilson, Mark Hauck