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BETHALTO - The Civic Memorial High School football team is underway with preseason workouts in preparation for its opener on Aug. 27 against Marquette Catholic, and is using its spring 2021 season as a springboard into the regular fall season.
Many of the Eagle players have retained what they've learned from the spring season, as CM went 4-2, and things have gone well in the first few days of fall practice.
"It's been really good, having that spring practice be so late," said CM head coach Mike Parmentier, "because our kids really retained a lot from that, and in the summertime, we picked right up. Offense and defense, I thought, was pretty strong, and then coming into camp, with the official start of practice, it's been going pretty smooth. So, having 15, 16 seniors, and our quarterback's back, I think that always helps a team relax a little bit. So, our guys have worked real hard together, and like I said, that spring was actually really great. It was like a springboard to this fall."
The returning quarterback is junior Bryer Arview, and he's among the nine returning starters offensively for the Eagles, which also includes senior halfbacks Nick Brosseau and Miguel Gonzalez, senior wide receiver Braden Arview, junior wide receiver Jade Brawner and senior wide receiver Jordan McMurray. The defense also has a good number of starters back, and it's been a point of emphasis in the preseason workouts.
"Right now, offensively, we feel really good," Parmentier said. "We've got nine out of 11 starters back from last year, and defensively, we only have five out of 11. So, we've been really hitting the defense, trying to get some guys experience. And then, our special teams has also been something we're going to try to rest some guys and get some other guys out there. So we've really stressed special teams and defense this part of the week."
The schedule is a very good one indeed, with three local rivals to start the season. The Eagles are at Marquette to start, then travel to East Alton-Wood River in week two before CM's hope opener against Roxana, before starting their Mississippi Valley Conference slate in week four at Triad. The next four weeks are conference match-ups at Waterloo, then hosting Highland and Mascoutah before going to Jersey in week eight, and concludes the regular season at home against Taylorville.
"We're really excited about the schedule," Parmentier said. "We've got three area teams right off the bat, two of them on the road. We've got Marquette; their quarterback's back, they're going to be really good. Wood River and Roxana, second and third games. And so, the kids are really excited, they like this close-town rivalry stuff, and the crowds at those games are pretty good at those games as well. So we're really excited about the first three games, but then, we go to our conference schedule, we've got Triad in week four. So we're excited about it, and we're hoping our younger guys can step it up so we can get things going."
The first few days of preseason practice can be a hectic and stressful time for head coaches as they evaluate their teams and formulate plans for the upcoming season.
"As a head coach, this week is the worst nightmare," Parmentier said, "because you don't know what you've got. These guys have worked hard, I'm not saying that. But you just don't know, because you really haven't gone against anybody else, gone against our scout (team). We might get exposed in a couple of places, and then, week two, you're able to make that adjustment. But week one, I think as a football coach, it's really a tough one, because you're not real sure about your opponent, and there's some guys on your team that have got to step up, just worry about that. And so, hopefully, we take care of the football and play good defense and special teams and that'll be pretty good for us."
The Eagles have a very good number of upperclassmen on their roster, and it bodes well for the team in the 2021 campaign.
"I think this group is a very technic group," Parmentier said. "We've got about 15, 16 seniors, we've got about 16, 17 juniors, so I'm really happy with our upper level numbers. Our juniors have really stepped up, they've played a lot of defense against our number ones, and I think they've gotten a lot better. So we've got to learn to get more guys on the field, because in the spring, we were playing about 20 guys, and we need to get more than that on the field. So if we can get about 25, 30 guys on the field, I think we'll be fresh and ready to go in the fourth quarter."
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