Pittsburg, Columbus co-favorites in SEK

PITTSBURG -- The annual Southeast Kansas Pre-Season Football Media Conference was held Thursday with ties voted by league coaches for both the Southeast Kansas League and Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League.

Fort Scott High was picked to finish in a tie for sixth with Labette County in the SEK poll while Pittsburg and Columbus were picked in a tie for first. The Purple Dragons won their second consecutive league crown last season while Columbus finished second. The Tigers finished seventh with a 2-5 league mark and a 3-6 overall record and missed the playoffs for the first time since 1998.

Pittsburg (5-0, 6-3) and Columbus (7-1, 9-2) both received 66 points in the tabulation but Pittsburg had five first-place votes to Columbus' three. Columbus, however, had eight top-three votes while Pittsburg had only seven. As coaches couldn't vote for their own teams, it means one coach doesn't think the Purple Dragons will finish higher than fourth but every coach thinks Columbus will finish no lower than third.

Coffeyville received the other first-place vote and six top-three votes and was picked third with 57 points. Chanute, with four top-three votes, was fourth with 50 points. Iola picked up two top-three votes and was slotted fifth with 43 points. Fort Scott and LCHS each received 34 points. Independence was picked eighth with 29 points and Parsons, which has won one of its last 18 games, was tabbed last with 17 points.

If Fort Scott wants to disprove the coaches' vote, it will need a push from its underclassmen, according to head coach Don Epps.

"Going into last year, we had a lot of complacency," Epps told the assembled media. "We had a senior-dominated team and we didn't get a lot of push from our underclassmen."

After the SEK portion of the meeting, Epps clarified his meaning.

"Our kids understand the work ethic they have to have," he said. "We need everyone involved in our program. We can't depend on a few people. And everybody realizes that.

"The competition makes everything a lot better. We have a lot of kids at each position. There's no position that I would call safe. It's going to be fought for. And the kids responded to that on the way they worked this summer."

Pittsburg head coach Merle Clark, who has a 71-33 record in his 10 seasons, reported that he has four returning starters on offense and defense but didn't say much else about his team other than, "We're going to see what a new quarterback can do."

Second-year Columbus head coach Dan Grundy returns nine players on each side of the ball including lineman Tank Burns and quarterback Damian Tinnin.

"We only lost two seniors who had a lot of playing time," Grundy said. "We're very senior-loaded this season. Trust me, I'll be back up here next year saying that I only have one offensive and one defensive starter."

Coffeyville head coach Rich Geisen, who begins his 10th season in charge of the Golden Tornado (3-4, 6-5), will be looking for a lot of new players. But he's set at quarterback as Ethan Cordray returns after throwing and passing for over 1,000 yards last season.

Don Simmons of Chanute said that there aren't a lot of players coming back for the Blue Comets (6-2, 7-3). He had 22 seniors last season, 18 of whom started.

"We have some really good, young kids who are going to have to step up," Simmons said. "With that many spots open, there's a lot of competition."

One of the returning players is Matt Bollig, an All-SEK wingback who caught passes for 600 yards and four touchdowns and rushed for another 400 and six scores.

Iola (4-2, 7-3) had a winning season and made the playoffs. The former accomplishment hadn't been done by a Mustang team since 1996 (5-4); the latter since 1984.

The Mustangs graduated their quarterback and their top two receivers. But they have middle linebacker Kyler Thompson returning and kicker Connor Frazell was said to be one the of the top 25 at his position in the nation.

"(Thompson) has dropped about 20 pounds and, all of a sudden, he can run," head coach Rick Horton said.

Labette County's Craig Hartman is the league's longest-tenured coach, going into his 16th season. The Grizzlies (1-7, 2-8) might be in a position to surprise some people as they didn't lose very many starters.

"This year, we are in a little better situation," Hartman, the league's winningest active coach (76 wins) said. "We lost only three on offense and two on defense. I know we are in a very competitive league and we don't take anything for granted."

Seniors Josh Hambleton and Brannon Green, both linebackers on defense, are among the returning players for LCHS.

Independence (3-4, 5-5) was an up-and-down team last season. The Bulldogs won their first three games, lost their next four, then picked up two wins to get into the playoffs.

Considering that Indy had a league-record 38-game losing streak from 2003-2007 and had won only two of its last 46 games going into last season, 5-5 was a great accomplishment. The question for head coach Carl Boldra is whether is team can continue to make strides after losing 13 seniors and seeing a lackluster turnout for summer conditioning.

"They were playing baseball or basketball or maybe they were playing tiddly winks," Boldra said. "I don't know what they played but they didn't play football."

Parsons head coach Dustin Perkins was unable to attend the conference. The Vikings (0-6, 0-9) go into this season on an 11-game losing streak.

Defending champion Riverton and Pittsburg Colgan each received the same number of points, first-place votes and top-three votes as they were voted in a tie for the No. 1 spot in the CNC. Each team had 67 points, four first-place votes and eight top-three votes.

Galena was picked third with 60 points, one first-place vote and seven top-three's. Girard gets the fourth position with 50 points and four top-three's. Frontenac is fifth with 37 points with Baxter Springs and Southeast tied for sixth with 34 points. Erie is eighth with 29 points and Northeast -- which will switch to the Three Rivers League in 2010 -- last with 17 points.

Colgan and Northeast are in the same Class 2-1A district with area teams Uniontown and Pleasanton. In addition, Pleasanton opens the season with a Thursday-night home game against Baxter Springs on Sept. 3 while Uniontown faces Frontenac on the road on Sept. 25.

A look at the CNC teams which will play Uniontown and/or Pleasanton reveals:

* Northeast returns 16 players, 10 of which are seniors. However, the Vikings also have experience with their underclassmen. Six players who are now sophomores also played extensively last season.

* Baxter Springs head coach Brett Hartley said he didn't expect any seniors to go out for his team this season. But five of his juniors were starters as freshmen, so "They have senior-type experience."

* Frontenac has an experienced backfield. Quarterback Joe Saia started as a sophomore as did running back Zack Palumbo. Both are juniors now with senior tailback Tanner Mendicki also returning.

* Colgan is, well, Colgan. However, Panther head coach Chuck Smith admitted some positions are not settled.

"I have a lot of question marks," Smith said. "I have two quarterbacks fighting for the position. One of them has to miss the first four days of practice. (But) we have a good senior class and a good nucleus of kids."

The first day of practice in Kansas is Monday. The first games of the season in the area will be the Thursday, Sept. 3 games between Baxter Springs and Pleasanton and Colgan and Girard. All other area teams kickoff on Sept. 4, with Fort Scott hosting Nevada in its season opener.