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ALTON – Tuesday night was a night for area football coaches to come together and talk about how their teams are looking on the eve of the new season.
Wade DeVries (Roxana), Mike Parmentier (Civic Memorial), Eric Dickerson (Alton), Garry Herron (East Alton-Wood River) and Darrell Angleton (Marquette Catholic) and their staffs got together with the Alton Knights of Columbus Quarterback Club for the club’s annual start-of-season banquet at the Alton K-C Hall to give some insights and thoughts on what their teams are looking like heading into the season that gets underway a week from Friday night.
DeVries is in his second season at Roxana “We’ve have our quarterback, running back and wide receiver,” DeVries said in his talk.
From the standpoint of what to expect this season from RHS, who finished 2-7 in 2018, Roxana opens the season with two tough teams in week one and two. They open with Carlinville then play Pana.
Parmentier, entering his fourth year with CM, finished 3-6 last season and open at home Friday against backyard rival Marquette Catholic. Parmentier said they return 9 seniors. "We are going to be playing a lot of sophomores this season". Parmentier said:
"We have to start off the first couple of weeks and play some good football (against Marquette and Wood River in the opening two weeks of the season) against some good teams.”
Herron begins his fifth year at the Oiler helm with three straight postseason appearances under their belts; EAWR went 6-4 last year before bowing out in the first round of the postseason to Carlinville; they’ll open up at Breese Central Friday night. “We lost a lot of size on offense, " Herron said.
Kenny Beachum will be back at quarterback and Brody Newberry will return at fullback. Newberry played only five games and had over 1,000 yards rushing before he was injured.
“We have 11 seniors, 13 juniors, 7 sophomores, and 22 freshmen, so that puts us at about 50 (players), which is the best we’ve had since I’ve been there; I think my first year, we started with about 36.
Angleton’s Explorers barely missed the postseason finishing 5-4. Jake Hewitt will be at quarterback, Cliff Chandler at running back and Davon Fields at No. 1 wide receiver as key players. Angleton said the Explorers “will miss Kaleb Ware.” He served as quarterback and a cornerback last season at Marquette.
Marquette plays CM on opening night and has Breese Mater Dei and Nokomis on it before wrapping up with South Fork in Week 9.
Alton got to the first round of last year’s IHSA Class 7A playoffs, finishing 5-5 and open against Moline on the road.
“It’s a great time of year,” Dickerson said. “You look around and every coach is smiling right now, having fun and talking to our assistants. We’re all looking forward to Friday.
“We had a great summer; we had kids showing up in the weight room, seven-on-seven; we went to a team camp this year, which was a great experience for us.
“We know it’s not going to be easy; everyone faces some tough opponents – every conference here is tough. I don’t think any of us have it easy – it takes a lot of work. The thing we spent this summer on was trying to get our kids not to hang their hats on what was accomplished last year; you’re a new group of seniors.
The next QB Club meeting will be held Sept. 24, honoring the Player of the Week recipients for the first part of the season.
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