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THE 2016 FALL PREP SPORTS PREVIEW FOOTBALL
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CROSS COUNTRY
Friday, August 26, 2016
Panthers look to make everything simple Strong senior class leads to high hopes for Panthers ■
By KALEB CARTER
CNA sports reporter kacarter@crestonnews.com
There’s no need to make things complicated for the Creston/Orient-Macksburg Panthers in the 2016 season. The Panthers have fielded a formula that has yielded success in a particularly strong district, which this year will be Class 3A District 7. A big offensive line, a large and decorated senior class, a talented group of skill players and a program on solid footing believes it has every reason to compete to make a trip to the UNIDome this fall. “I think our strengths are up front. I think we are getting better every day up front,” Creston/O-M cohead coach Brian Morrison said. “I think our kids understand that our success depends upon our front end on defense stopping the run and running the football on offense, and if we can do those two things, we’re going to win a lot of football games. The Panthers are coming off a 6-5 season that included a 3-3 record in district and featured a momentous win over Harlan in the playoffs by a score of 34-11, avenging a 59-21 loss just three weeks prior. The season came to an end at the hands of Pella,
who defeated the Panthers 52-27 and went on to win a second consecutive state title. In the Panthers’ district are two Des Moines Register state-ranked teams in Harlan (3) and Glenwood (6). Carroll is just barely on the outside looking in in that respect. District play figures to be just as hard this season. “It’s always a competitive district,” Morrison said. “I think it’s one of the better districts in the state. T h e r e ’ s Morrison going to be four teams vying for two spots.” Expectations remain high. “It goes back seven years,” Morrison said. “These guys know this because some of them have brothers, a lot of them have brothers who played six years ago when we made the playoffs. We beat Harlan and did things that hadn’t been done here ever or in a long time. Our kids understand the expectations.” This year, the coaching staff came out of team camp in early August particularly happy with the squad’s effort, the team’s attitude and everyone’s attention to detail. “The kids’ effort has been fantastic,” co-head coach Ryan McKim said. “We’ve had great senior leadership, have had great competition among positions.” Competition has driven the Panthers to better themselves heading into the first game of the season tonight (Friday) against Boone. And keeping things simple remains a priority. “It’s not complicated. Our kids understand the system, we’re trying to simplify the system even further for the kids,” Morrison said. Seniors Creston/O-M is 74 strong on its roster this year, with
21 seniors. “We haven’t had more of a decorated class as far as what they’ve been able to help accomplish, whether it be when they were sophomores with the juniors and seniors or when they were juniors with the seniors. They’re a good group. They’ve stuck together,” Morrison said. Seniors will start all over the field on both sides of the ball and special teams. The success this senior class has had in big games could pay huge dividends down the stretch of the season. “They’ve been playing together for a long time,” Morrison said. “It’s pretty special when you get a group that has numbers in the 20s that continue to play as seniors because some of those kids aren’t going to start, but to stay out, play for each other and with each other is pretty impressive no doubt.” Offense Brody Frain (6-5, 190) will take snaps mostly out of the shotgun for the Panthers and Kylan Smallwood (6-3, 195) will act as a backup. Both will be interchangeable depending on particular formations that McKim decides to employ for the offense. Those two will find themselves handing the balls to seniors Chase Shiltz (5-10, 190) and Clarinda transfer Zach Carlson (5-10, 175), who will find himself in multiple roles on the offense. Shiltz returns after rewriting the record books with 2,542 yards and 35 touchdowns as a junior. Shiltz will also take snaps at quarterback in short-yardage and red zone situations. Shiltz is a model of consistency, rushing for 3,792 yards and 59 touchdowns over the last two years. Last year, he never carried the ball fewer than 20 times in a game and never rushed for less than 100 yards in a contest. He racked up more than 1,000 yards on the
ground in just the last three games of the season alone and several times was fed the ball 40plus times in a game. Shiltz He even rushed for 308 yards in the Pella game as he played with a broken hand in the playoff-win over Harlan. If the load need be lessened off of Shiltz’s shoulders this season, there’s plenty of athletes waiting for carries behind him. Carlson ran for 581 yards and six touchdowns and averaged 7.1 yards per carry with Clarinda last year. The junior duo of Kolby Tomas (5-11, 200) and Mitchel Swank (5-7, 165) will be fed the ball, too, after the duo combined for 691 yards on 125 carries last season. Seniors Jackson Mikkelsen (5-10, 215) and Michael Stults (6-0, 200) will work out of the backfield helping to take on lead and kickout blocks as the squad’s fullbacks. Mikkelsen did some notable damage in the passing game a year ago, as he tied for the team-lead with three touchdown receptions. He totaled 233 yards on 18 receptions. Seth Maitlen occupied the fullback spot and some tight end a year ago, but leaves perhaps the biggest hole on offense in terms of last season’s graduating seniors. Colton Bolinger (6-5, 240), has put on weight and will see some time in packages with tight ends as a pass-catcher. He will see plenty of time in rotations as a tackle on the offensive line. He caught five balls for 61 yards and two touchdowns a year ago. Coach Morrison is more confident with the group of wide receivers the offense will be working with in 2016. Chris Foster, a senior last year, led the team in
receiving yards and leaves a play-making role up for contention. Smallwood will take plenty of reps in a wideout role, as will senior Gavin Woods (5-11, 170), junior Cole Higgins (5-11, 150), junior Evan Jacobson (5-8, 150), senior Cody Crawford (5-11, 175) and Carlson, who will split out and see some substantial action at wide receiver. Among traditional receivers, Jacobson led this returning group with nine receptions. Woods and Smallwood combined for 10 receptions. “You have some kids with some hands and good speed, they’ll do some good things. They’re athletes,” Morrison said. “Last year we were missing some of that and I think we have that. Teams are going to load the box on us and try to stop the run and if we can beat them oneon-one, we have a shot to win some of those games.” Not lost on ardent supporters or future foes is the strength and size of the Panther offensive line. Creston/O-M will field one of the larger, more experienced, and deep offensive lines in the area, if not the overall best. Trevor Downing (6-5, 285) and Tucker Flynn (6-8, 320) will work primarily as the start- McKim ing tackles. Downing was a second-team all-state performer at right tackle and unanimous first-team all-district selection. As previously mentioned, Bolinger will work some as a tackle, as well. The Panthers are deep in guards and will be able to rotate there frequently to keep players fresh. Seniors Kadon Hulett (64, 240) and Cody Tanner (6-2, 290) are the projected starters after having done so at the guard position
positions last year as well. Tanner will be the backup at center to Keaton Eslinger (5-9, 210). Senior Kaden Wilson (6-3, 235) and junior Blake Sevier (6-3, 270) will also see reps at the guard spots. The rotations on the line will be frequent, but this is a team that through repetitions, has become comfortable with assignments at multiple spots on the line and should be around 9 to 10 deep throughout the year. “We’ve got good d e p t h at all of the positions,” McKim said. “We have guys Hulett go down at all the positions there’s no question that the next man in will be ready.” Defense Coach Casey Tanner, who leads an energetic group of defensive lineman, sees a lot of versatility in the group he spends the most time with. He estimated around 12 lineman could play both sides of the ball. “The competition brings the success out of them and competing against each other sets them up for success,” Tanner said. “They’re like a family of brothers,” he added. Sevier and Tanner will work to plug up the middle as nose tackles. Hulett, Downing, Bolinger and Peterson will put in work as ends. Hulett piled up four sacks, 44.5 total tackles, and 11 solo tackles for loss. Others will work in over time. “We’re really a platoon type of team up front,” Morrison said. Maitlen’s absence leaves a Please see PANTHERS, page 4C
READER’S GUIDE The 2016 High School Fall Sports Guide provides an outlook of all our area schools’ athletic teams. Inside the cover are team photos, season schedules and team capsules, plus previews of each area football team. The index of teams is as follows:
Creston pages 1-3
Orient-Macksburg page 4
Mount Ayr
Nodaway Valley
page 5
pages 8
Southwest Valley
Lenox
pages 6-7
page 9
East Union
page 10
Murray
page 11
A supplement to
Diagonal
page 12