For the week of August 27 - September 2, 2003

Carey reloads
on the gridiron

Eight-man 2003 grid
campaign opens Friday

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By JEFF CORDES
Express Staff Writer

Experience was Carey School’s strong suit last fall in the Gem State prep eight-man football wars, but the Panthers will be reloading in 2003.

Third-year head coach Lane Kirkland (15-4) and his trusted veteran defensive coordinator Lee Cook have welcomed a group of 18 players—and only five are juniors and seniors.

It’s quite a different starting point from 2002, when nine seniors carried the Panthers to eight consecutive wins, second place in the Sawtooth Conference and a state playoff berth.

Carey won 15 of its 19 games over the past two campaigns, outscoring opponents 38-17 and losing only to 2002 state champion Castleford twice, to Camas County once and to Notus 30-22 in the State 1A eight-man football quarterfinals last Nov. 9.

Gone from that outstanding group are the core of Shawn Hennefer, Destry Simpson, Robbie Ellsworth, John Saili, Stephen Jurgensmeier, Seth Adamson, Joseph Patterson, Sean Cenarrusa and Kole Peck.

So coach Kirkland is starting from scratch with four seniors from last year’s Carey team—Blake Surerus, Ty Simmons, Randy Lundergreen and Bryson Ellsworth.

"Everybody else is brand new, "said Kirkland.

Her added, "We’re banking on a lot of the sophomores to fill starting positions. Fortunately the kids are extremely coachable and they’ve been concentrating on doing things right. Lee and I are real excited about this group.

"The kids know they’ve got to pick up where last year’s seniors left off. It’s a heavy burden, but they’ve all been working hard in the weight room this summer."

With the new personnel, Carey will probably "be a little more conservative" on offense, Kirkland said.

"We’ll throw short passes and use a lot of deceit and do the best we can. On defense, we can’t let anyone go long," he said.

Surerus, at 6-2, 200 pounds, anchors the offensive line at center and also plays on the defensive line. Simmons, at 6-1, is an end on both sides of the ball. Lundergreen plays running back/safety. Bryson Ellsworth is one of the fastest kids at 5-10, 200 pounds. He’ll play fullback/linebacker.

New to the team is senior MaKay Nielson, a 6-2, 180-pound lineman. Another lineman, Juan Alvarez, is the only junior on the Panther squad.

The sophomores include quarterback/safety Tyler Cook, lineman Luke Harmon, 6-1 offensive/defensive end Tadd Green, running back/linebackers Bryan Hill and Brian Adamson, lineman Ben Nielson and running back Nathan Foster, a transfer from Boise.

Carey’s eight-game 2003 campaign opens Friday, Aug. 29 with a conference game against Clark County at Dubois at 4 p.m.

Then the Panthers have a week off to prepare for one of their biggest games of the season, a road clash against Camas County at Fairfield Sept. 12 at 3:30 p.m.

Homecoming takes place on Carey’s first home date, Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. against North Gem at Derrick Parke Memorial Field.

"All the games should be real competitive this year," said Kirkland. "The schools in our conference seem to be smaller, and the schedule we’ve set up has established some equality."

Certainly the landscape has changed in the Sawtooth Conference since last year, owing to the demise of 1A 11-man football in Idaho and the shift of four schools from 11-man to the eight-man grid ranks.

In fact, the former Sawtooth Conference has split into two eight-team leagues—the Sawtooth Conference featuring Carey and smaller schools from the northern tier, and the Magic Valley Conference featuring mostly larger schools from the Twin Falls area.

Kirkland expects Camas County to be the favored team in the eight-team Sawtooth, which includes Carey, North Gem of Bancroft, Sho-Ban of Fort Hall, Rockland, Dietrich, Clark County and Richfield.

Coach Randy Jewett’s Camas County Mushers went 6-3 last fall and averaged 38.6 ppg. Kirkland said, "Camas County will make up for the loss of its runner Jesse Lemons with a lot of experience and returning players on its line."

The Rockland Bulldogs, a state playoff team last fall at 7-3, lost its quarterback Cameron Nelson but return plenty of experience including running back Richard May. Kirkland said, "The May kid will score 35touchdowns, but I don’t know if he can carry the ball the whole game."

In the Magic Valley Conference there are eight teams—state champion Castleford, Hagerman, Hansen, Mackay, Murtaugh, Oakley, Raft River of Malta and Shoshone.

At the end of the season, the winning teams in the Sawtooth and Magic Valley conferences based on regular-season records will square off for the area championship, while the second-place teams will clash—with the loser ousted from the State 1A playoffs.

 

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