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8/21/08 Young Pirates have strength in line
By MIKE MONAHAN, Staff Writer
mmonahan@jg-tc.com
TOLEDO -- Eleven players are gone from last year’s Cumberland Pirate football team, one that reached the playoffs for the third time in four years. A whopping 92.4 percent of the offense is gone from last season, including first team all-Little Illini Conference tight end Kye Butler, who is now at Indiana State.
“They look at this as an opportunity,” said Cumberland coach Todd Butler, a 1987 Cumberland graduate, who is in his 9th year with a 35-41 record. “They all want that starting spot. We had some question marks and we have answered them. Whether or not this translates into wins we will have to wait and see.”
One of the question marks was who is to be the starting quarterback. The answer is junior Cole Miller, who is taking the spot of Kenny Flood, an honorable mention all-conference quarterback, who completed 95 passes for 1,159 yards and 11 touchdowns.
“Cole Miller has really done a nice job of running the team,” said Butler, whose team finished 5-5 last year. “He has taken control of the team and is doing a really nice job and is showing good leadership.” Behind every good ground game is a good line and the Pirates appear to be strong in the line where they return four of the five starters, including first team tackle Payton Baker.
“The line is strength with Jim Kruse, Shawn Wellbaum (senior), John Breese (one of 12 returning lettermen and a senior) and Baker,” said Butler. “The fifth is Seth Repp (a sophomore letterman). He shows good leadership skills and is probably going to play center for us. Our line looks really good.”
Stepping into the backfield where Jake Peters had 1,131 yards on 221 carries are Silas Gabel, Josh Rodebaugh and Adam Markwell. All three carried the ball last year with Rodebaugh leading the way with 14 carries for 68 yards and Gabel having 10 carries for 57 yards.
“Silas Gabel has looked absolutely outstanding early in the season,” said Butler. “Markwell is also looking good.”
The team lost 91.6 percent of its receptions as Gabel had nine for 196 yards. Butler and Cody Ashworth (senior) who moved to Mattoon led the team with 31 and 25 receptions respectively.
Senior Zach Bolin, a six-foot-eight tight end, who has played previously, but not the last two years as he played on the golf team, is one of the players stepping as a receiver. Sophomore Dalton Bauguss is another receiver
“Bolin is an athletic receiver with good hands,” said Butler.
The returning lettermen are seniors Baker, Breese and Rodubaugh along with juniors Gabel, Kruse and Markwell. Bauguss, Repp and Clay Wilson are the sophomore lettermen.
On the defensive side 46.7 percent of the players who made tackles return, including Markwell, an honorable mention linebacker. The Pirates lost first team all-conference linebacker Brett Miller. Markwell was third on the team in tackles last year with 98, while Gabel was fourth with 85 and Baker fifth with 78 and Breese was sixth with 58.
“Most of the starters on offense will also play defense,” said Butler. “Clay Wilson and Repp are linebackers and the strength of the defense is the outside linebackers of Markwell and Gabel. Bolin is a defensive end, while Isaac Christopher (senior) has taken over for a kid that had a good summer, but had an injury in Alex Markwell (sophomore) Rodebaugh and Bauguss are in the backfield.”
A total of 42 players are on the roster, including 15 freshmen, some of which are expected to see action at the varsity level. Eight seniors, six juniors and 13 sophomores make up the rest of the squad.
Three players are fighting for punter in Miller, Wilson and sophomore Jeremy Bowman.
“We have a good surprise at kicker,” said Butler. “Brendon Ritchie has looked good. He won’t do the kickoffs, but he will do the extra points.”
“I am very pleased with the effort of the practices,” said Butler. “The early practices have been great. We are working on trying to get our defense shored up. Our goal is to have consistent improvement, effort and continue to learn. We had most of the playbook in before the season started. So, we are just going over it. I feel like we can be competitive. Casey is probably going to be the best in the area and we will have to play a perfect game against them and if we do that who knows what happens. I feel like we can compete with the rest of the schedule even though we have a bunch of sophomores out there. We are a pretty solid ball club.”
With a playoff tradition started at Cumberland the players are hoping to continue that.
“These kids have all seen week 10 and the playoffs is definitely one of their goals,” said Butler. “They want to be there. With 40 kids we have to stay healthy.”
Butler is assisted by Kevin Maynard, who has been his assistant for all eight years. Bill Ault is another familiar assistant and Kenny Keyser returns for his third year. Lucas Watkins, a 1998 Cumberland grad joins the group as does 1998 Oakland graduate and former all-stater Roy Clapp. Former Newton running back Alex Koebele joins the staff as does last year’s lineman Andrew McClain and Daniel Huffman.
The Pirates are to open the season Aug. 29 when they play host to Red Hill in a LIC contest.
Contact Mike Monahan at mmonahan@jg-tc.com or 238-6854. |
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