2021 HERALD High School Football Preview
ELMONT Front lines a key for youthful Spartans By TONY BELLISSIMO
Nathaniel, Rashaun Stephens and Taj Young. “It’s just a real good group,” Hegi said. “We have big and quick and hard-nosed kids to lmont was relegated to catch the ball.” the role of spoiler late last The plan is for junior Reyvaun season and played hard until Powell to take over the offensive the final whistle, finishing with keys at quarterback. He saw action a 3-3 record thanks to an upset over playoff-hopeful Valley Stream in a handful of games at the JV Central in the Conference II finale. level last season and has a lot to learn. “He’s a dual threat and fast, The Spartans, who fell one win but he needs work,” Hegi said. short of the playoffs and suffered “He showed some signs in 7-on-7s a pair of one-score defeats, will need to overcome inexperience at during the summer.” In the backfield, the status many positions to get back to the of senior Tyler Myers will be an postseason. Head coach Jay Hegi said he has no idea what to expect important factor. He’s been banged up two seasons in a row. “If he from a roster with only eight stays healthy, he’ll be one of the varsity returnees. “We’re pretty young and facing top five backs in the conference,” a very competitive schedule,” Hegi Hegi said of Myers, who can also handle punting and kicking duties. said. “We have a deep group of receivers and a solid running game “He’s the type of runner who can barrel through defenders.” Senior if our best guy stays healthy, but we also have a bunch of new line- Kymani McDonald might be a bit undersized but makes up for it men. Hopefully we find a way to be consistent enough to make the with talent and toughness. He’s in line for some carries and brings playoffs.” a wrestler’s mentality and toughSeeded sixth in the 14-team ness to the huddle. conference, Elmont returns to The offensive line features a Valley Stream Central to kick off pair of strong two-way starters, the season against the Eagles, whom they beat 22-20 on April 17 Hegi said. Senior Thomas Renauld and junior Precious Ekeh do a lot thanks to three touchdowns from of the dirty work in the trenches then-junior Evan Colwell. and will play tackle and guard, reColwell, the Spartans’ most talented receiver, showed the abil- spectively, on the same side. Both ity to play quarterback in the finale are also run-stuffing defensive tackles. The Spartans could get and could fill a need there. “We’ll be innovative with him,” Hegi said. a major boost from senior Kavan “He’s a tremendous athlete who’s Henry, who missed last season going to play outside linebacker or but would be another two-way starter on the line. One project is corner on defense. He’s not going junior Sabyan Schmitz, who is a to come off the field.” candidate for center but has no Wideout is Elmont’s deepest experience there. position, Hegi noted, and there’s Elmont’s defense, which didn’t also 6-foot-5 sophomore tight end Osagie Ekhator. Senior Kimani allow more than 28 points in any Lewis, who didn’t play last season, game and held three opponents turned heads during summer drills to fewer than 10 points, has no and brings plenty of speed and soft shortage of options in the secondhands to a receiver corps that also ary with many of the wideouts includes juniors Eric Burkett, Justus possessing the ability to shutdown
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14 — September 9, 2021
their counterparts. Senior Zachary Walton can be tough in manto-man. Myers, McDonald and Young spearhead the linebacker corps. “We’ll learn a lot in the first three weeks,” Hegi explained.
Evan Colwell
TYLER MYERS
PRECIOUS EKEH
Schedule
11 18 25 2 9 15 23 30 THOMAS RENAULD
HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEW
September @ V.S. Central 2:00 p.m. Sewanhaka 3:00 p.m. @ Long Beach 2:00 p.m. October Carey 3:00 p.m. @ Herricks 1:30 p.m. @ MacArthur 7:00 p.m. Roslyn 1:00 p.m. Garden City 2:00 p.m. Photos by Brian Ballweg
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