Dragons, Tigers picked 1-2 in SEK

PITTSBURG -- If the opinions of the head coaches of Southeast Kansas League football teams mean anything, Pittsburg will repeat as champion this season followed by Fort Scott High School in second place.

Pre-season polls for the SEK as well as the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League (CNC) were released Thursday afternoon at a luncheon sponsored by KSEK-The Ticket 1340 AM at Watco Industries here.

Pittsburg, 6-0 in the SEK and 9-2 overall last season, received 63 points in balloting, picking up seven of nine first-place votes and eight votes in the top three. Fort Scott, which tied for second with Columbus at 6-1 and was also 9-2 overall, gathered 57 points as it had two first-place votes and eight in the top three. Coaches could not vote for their own teams.

Chanute was picked third with 47 points and six top-three votes followed by Columbus with 45 points and five top-three votes. Coffeyville was tabbed fifth with 33 points followed by Labette County's 31, Independence's 22, Iola's 16 and Parsons at the rear with 12.

The luncheon was held Thursday, which is earlier than usual, because school begins for most of these schools next week. A coaches' conference in Topeka, also held Thursday, also caused a conflict as the coaches from Iola, Independence and Columbus were unable to show.

The Tigers lost 21 seniors from last year's team but 19 more are ready to step into place.

"These seniors have really taken on the role of leadership," Fort Scott head coach Don Epps told the assembled media. "We don't ask juniors to lead in our football program. We wait and because we want them to lead when they are seniors. And when they are seniors, they're going to do their very best to take over (that role)."

Epps says that 88 athletes attended football camp a couple of weeks ago, a number matched or exceeded by few others in the league.

With school beginning earlier this year, the Tigers won't be able to have two-a-day practices early on as they've had in the past -- every school in the league finds itself in that predicament.

"Practice starts Monday, the 18th," Epps said. "If there's going to be (excessive) heat, we might go some in the mornings but that hasn't been determined yet.

"We had a great camp and because of that, we're not going to be too far behind. We only have been getting one or two days of two-a-days the last couple of years, anyway. There's not going to be very much different."

Fort Scott opens its season at Nevada on Sept. 5. However, this will not be Nevada's first game. Missouri now has two teams advance from its districts into the playoffs just as Kansas does. Since Missouri has 10 regular-season games and also wants to end its playoffs on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it has to begin its season a week earlier than Kansas. Nevada opens at Bolivar, Mo., on Aug. 29, the night that Fort Scott will hold its Red and White Scrimmage.

"Game one is always the 'jitter game'," Epps said. "You want to get the jitters out. There will be some mistakes. No matter how good of a team you are, that's what happens. Nevada's going to get those out a week early, so we have to be that much more ready to play them. And we want to play them. It's going to be great game. These two towns need to play again. We're looking forward to playing them. We're going to have to have our 'A' game and start out crisp."

All the coaches said that the SEK will be tough from top to bottom as the top programs remain strong and programs such as Coffeyville, LCHS and Independence improve.

"Independence (the Tigers' Sept. 12 opponent on the road) might be the most improved team in the league right now," Epps said. "They have athletes and a good junior quarterback and a nice line. If we don't get ready to play Indy, they're going to beat us. Then we come back and play Pittsburg and that will be our first home game. That will be a neat atmosphere. Every week is going to be tough and there are no nights off."

Pittsburg head coach Merle Clark expressed surprise at being picked to finish on top considering that he has only two full-time starters back on offense and no clear-cut candidate at tailback.

"We have three or four guys we're looking at," Clark said after the conference was over. "But at our camp, no one stepped up and said, 'I'm going to be the tailback.' And as I said, when you run the I (formation), that's not a good thing."

The Dragons may have been tabbed based on five returning defensive starters and senior quarterback Zach White, who threw 14 touchdowns against just three interceptions last season.

Chanute, fourth at 5-3, 6-4 last year, was picked to move up one spot this season. The Blue Comets' high-scoring offense produced the SEK's top scorers in 2005 and 2006 and, certainly, head coach Don Simmons wouldn't mind seeing another one of his players atop that list this season.

"We think we have some weapons and we should be productive on offense," Simmons said.

Simmons also pointed out that the four teams Chanute lost to -- Pittsburg, Fort Scott, Columbus and Louisburg -- all reached at least the second round of the Class 4A Playoffs (Louisburg finished as State runner-up).

Columbus, 6-1, 10-2, has another new head coach as Dan Grundy takes over for Sean Price, who left to take over at McDonald County, Mo. Grundy came over from Carthage, Mo., as Price did and Clark, for one, doesn't expect any changes offensively as the Titans return many of their players.

"They were at Pittsburg State's camp," Clark said. "They ran a lot of the same things: One back and jets (reverses)."

Coffeyville, seventh at 2-6, 3-6 in 2007, didn't have a strong season last year but many of the coaches seem to think that the Golden Tornado has the kind of talent that could make them a sleeper this year. Head coach Rich Geisen wasn't able to attend the meeting as he was on a family vacation, but assistant Kent Newby spoke on his behalf.

"We have our defensive line coming back intact," Newby said. "And we think that will be the strength of our defense."

The Nado have 13 returning starters and 28 lettermen.

Labette County, 4-4, 5-5, has the league's longest-tenured head coach in Craig Hartman, who took the helm in 1994. He doesn't expect to have a lot of kids out this year, however, as there are only four returning starters (one of whom starts both ways) and only eight seniors.

"We will have a very small number of kids," Hartman said. "This will create a great challenge for us."

Independence was 1-6, 2-8 last season as it finally broke 38-game losing streak in September and grabbed a playoff spot on tie-breakers. Head coach Carl Boldra, who was not present, goes into his fourth season with the Bulldogs. Coaches from Iola which finished sixth at 2-5, 3-6, were not present, either.

Parsons was last in the SEK in 2007 at 1-7, 1-8, under Leon Miller, who moved on to Girard. Dustin Perkins, who is just 28 years old, takes over. He said there were 45 players at summer camp.

"Everything's going to be brand new," Perkins said. "We're concentrating on doing things right and playing hard."

CNC POLL -- Pittsburg Colgan was voted the top team in the CNC with seven first-place votes. Girard, picked second, received the other two. The order after that was Riverton, Galena, Frontenac, Southeast-Cherokee, Baxter Springs, Erie and Northeast-Arma.

As far as local interest in the CNC goes, Uniontown and Pleasanton are in the same Class 2-1A district with Colgan and Northeast. Pleasanton will also face Baxter Springs in its season opener on Sept. 5.

NOTES -- Fort Scott has added Nevada and Columbus to the schedule while dropping Kansas City-Wyandotte and Coffeyville. The Tigers will face Nevada for the first time since 1999. Columbus will be on the regular-season docket for the first time since 1995 (but there have been two playoff meetings in the last three years).

This will also be the first season since 1984 in which the Tigers don't play Coffeyville. In 1983 and 1984, the schools were in opposite divisions of SEK's then two-division setup and were not required to face each other. Aside from that, the last time the schools did not meet was during World War II (1942-44)....