Wawasee Warriors Looking To Restock Roster
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
“We don’t have a single skill person back, We have three offensive linemen back, and we return three defensive starters,” said Warrior head coach Josh Ekovich. “So we’ve altered our approach a little bit and got some guys up to speed that haven’t dealt with this before.
“We’ll still be fairly complex, but we’ll be back-to-basics a little bit.”
While there are always 11 positions, Reinhard left some big shoes to fill. The battle for the now-open quarterback position is a two-man contest entering the season.
“Tyler Smith (junior) and Will Geer (sophomore) have had the most first-team reps so far this year,” Ekovich said. “They both have traits that compliment each other; Tyler is more of a physical guy who can run the ball well and he can throw if need be, and Will can throw a little better, but he doesn’t have the size or the confidence Tyler has right now.
“If we had to pick a starter right now, it’d probably be Tyler, but there’s still some practice time left.”
With graduation thinning the ranks on the defensive side of the ball as well, Ekovich said Wawasee will plug players in positions they may not have played before to make everything work.
“Defensively, we’ve had to do some position changes and move a few guys around a little bit. We used the summer as a chance to learn the basics so once we went to camp we were able to get a little more in depth.”
On special teams, senior Lucas Garza, who plays on the soccer team, is likely to handle both place kicking and punting duties. Ekovich said they wouldn’t run players out on special teams for the sole purpose of getting younger players some playing time, but with the specific intent of developing players for this and future seasons.
Among the changes Wawasee made was to encourage football players to go out for track, with the specific intent of improving team speed.
“One of the great things we’ve had is our defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach (Tyson Kaase) is also our sprinters coach, and at the end of last season he wanted as many kids as possible out for track. As a result (RE/LB) Zac McKee got a lot faster, Steven Possell got a lot faster at linebacker. Chandler Ritter, who played a lot of receiver on the JV team last year, he got a lot faster.
“The list goes on, but the kids are able to run more fluidly, and that’s because of track.”
Wawasee opens its season at home Friday against Griffith. The Warriors will open Northern Lakes Conference play Sept. 4 at Northridge.[[In-content Ad]]
“We don’t have a single skill person back, We have three offensive linemen back, and we return three defensive starters,” said Warrior head coach Josh Ekovich. “So we’ve altered our approach a little bit and got some guys up to speed that haven’t dealt with this before.
“We’ll still be fairly complex, but we’ll be back-to-basics a little bit.”
While there are always 11 positions, Reinhard left some big shoes to fill. The battle for the now-open quarterback position is a two-man contest entering the season.
“Tyler Smith (junior) and Will Geer (sophomore) have had the most first-team reps so far this year,” Ekovich said. “They both have traits that compliment each other; Tyler is more of a physical guy who can run the ball well and he can throw if need be, and Will can throw a little better, but he doesn’t have the size or the confidence Tyler has right now.
“If we had to pick a starter right now, it’d probably be Tyler, but there’s still some practice time left.”
With graduation thinning the ranks on the defensive side of the ball as well, Ekovich said Wawasee will plug players in positions they may not have played before to make everything work.
“Defensively, we’ve had to do some position changes and move a few guys around a little bit. We used the summer as a chance to learn the basics so once we went to camp we were able to get a little more in depth.”
On special teams, senior Lucas Garza, who plays on the soccer team, is likely to handle both place kicking and punting duties. Ekovich said they wouldn’t run players out on special teams for the sole purpose of getting younger players some playing time, but with the specific intent of developing players for this and future seasons.
Among the changes Wawasee made was to encourage football players to go out for track, with the specific intent of improving team speed.
“One of the great things we’ve had is our defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach (Tyson Kaase) is also our sprinters coach, and at the end of last season he wanted as many kids as possible out for track. As a result (RE/LB) Zac McKee got a lot faster, Steven Possell got a lot faster at linebacker. Chandler Ritter, who played a lot of receiver on the JV team last year, he got a lot faster.
“The list goes on, but the kids are able to run more fluidly, and that’s because of track.”
Wawasee opens its season at home Friday against Griffith. The Warriors will open Northern Lakes Conference play Sept. 4 at Northridge.[[In-content Ad]]
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