High schools hit the gridiron

By Andy Amey
The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE August 04, 2008 11:07 pm

— There were no reports of worms being gathered, but on Monday the early birds — in Vigo County, that would be Terre Haute South and Terre Haute North — may have had the advantage on the first day of high school football practices in Indiana.
The Braves and Patriots had their first official workouts in the relative cool of the morning — “The first practice was nice and cool,” coach Chris Barrett of North joked after it was over — while West Vigo, which traditionally meets in the afternoon and evenings for coach Jeff Cobb, ran into a steamy beginning before temperatures moderated for an early-evening session.
“We’ve been pretty lucky, weather-wise,” Cobb said Monday as the Vikings hit the weight room prior to their evening meal (prediction: the watermelon didn’t last long). “But we had a reality check today. We adjusted some of what we did [because of the heat].”
Not a lot of adjustments were necessary. By mandate, teams are limited to a pair of 90-minute sessions on the first two days before donning pads on Wednesday. By that time the days are predicted to be a little more fall-like, although today’s practices are expected to provide another endurance test.
By the weekend, all three Vigo County teams will be ready for at least some kind of scrimmage activity: the Vikings with a 10 a.m. workout open to the public for the admission charge of soap or a towel; the Braves with what coach Mark Raetz called “full team activity” from approximately 10 to 11:30 a.m.; and the Patriots with their annual soap game at 6 p.m. Preseason scrimmages are Aug. 15 — Northview at South and North at Decatur Central at 7 p.m., West Vigo at North Montgomery at 7:30.
West Vigo has the smallest squad among the three schools, with approximately 60 players, but the Vikings have one thing the other two teams don’t: a returning starting quarterback in senior Landon Keith.
“Nothing can replace that varsity experience,” Cobb said of Keith, “and he’s worked hard in the offseason.”
Keith may still have a few things to learn, however; the Vikings have added Ernie Simpson to their staff as offensive coordinator, and Simpson — who’s spent the last several years at South Vermillion — may try to meld some of his spread principles to the Vikings’ wing-T.
North and South, on the other hand, have the same offenses but will have to replace a pair of all-Metropolitan Interscholastic Conference quarterbacks, John Garvin at North and the county’s Humphrey Award winner, Koby Kraemer, at South.
Bryn Schwartz and Mitchell Dagnon are competing for Kraemer’s old job, where Raetz has approximately 105 players to work with, while Chris O’Leary appears to be inheriting Garvin’s job with the Patriots. North has almost 130 players right now.
“They’ve been working hard all offseason,” Raetz said of his players. “This is the second season in this system, both offensively and defensively, so we hope we can improve on the field this year.”
O’Leary won’t be the most experienced member of North’s backfield, but he won’t be the youngest either. Ben King is still just a junior but has earned two letters at running back, and slotback Daniel Gabbard is a sophomore who also got some starts as a ninth-grader.
Another relative newcomer for the Patriots is coach Ethan Tyler, who takes over as defensive coordinator after Greg Barrett, the youngest of the coaching sons of the late Jay Barrett, took his first head coaching job at North Putnam.
“He’s going to do a great job,” Chris Barrett predicted of Tyler. “He worked with Greg real closely, and he brings a ton of knowledge and enthusiasm.”
South has 14 starters returning from a 2-8 team, while North and West Vigo have 13 starters each back from teams that were 3-8 and 4-6 respectively.