Latest local news, weather and high school sports for Tri-State area

Gridiron Greetings and Happy Bowl Week, everybody. In lieu of a traditional Duerrisms column this week, I will be blogging practice notes and tidbits in advance of DO or DIE BOWL VIII on Friday. Brought to you as always by our friends at GAMEMASTERS, of course.

In that spirit, look for daily updates here from practice as we prepare you for the ultimate test of Tri State Football Bragging Rights. The regions best players in the Land of Lincoln go head long with Missouri and Iowa's finest at Flinn Stadium in Quincy. Start time is 7:00pm. Gates open at 5:30 with the Quincy High Booster Club providing cookout delights for your culinary pleasure. Tickets are eight dollars in advance at the KHQA Studios; ten dollars at the door. As a student discount of sorts, we reduce the price to $7 for those who show up sporting a local high school football jersey. And as always, our DOD Bowl alums get in free of charge, provided they wear their jerseys. I can assure you, it is a fantastic time for all involved and well worth the trip to Quincy to be entertained by some really great football and some gracious hospitality. Hope to see you there. And if you can't make it over, remember to tune on the web or the radio to our partners at KRES, WCAZ and KHMO for full coverage from guys who do an outstanding job calling high school football games.

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DAY TWO CAMP DIARY: EAST SQUAD

First Blush Impression: There is a lot of size at play here on the East Offensive Line. More than I perhaps realized. Between Thomas Walsh, Justin Hardy and Brad Wellman, East Offensive Line Coach Alex Ebbing has three guys 295 pounds or better to work with. He would have had a fourth but invitee Coltyn Pease has a prior wrestling commitment in Florida and won't be playing this week. On top of that, Bryan Hockman and Skyler Lambeth are both better than 250 pounds. Tyler Richmiller and Collin Sheehan, two of the very best blockers in all of Tri State Football, look almost small by comparison this week. The East Squad will have the chance to be very physical and imposing in the trenches. Which I guess means I can show my face at the next family reunion for doing Coach Ebbing "a solid" in building this roster.

Master of the Obvious: the two pockets of strength on the East Squad that seem to stand out are Defensive Line and Running Back. And nothing we saw today would suggest otherwise. The East were running two running back TB/FB combinations: Chris Jackson and Kyle Vandermaiden in one group and Garrett Kestner and Nick Rossi in the other. Those are impressive pairings. The two Defensive Line rotations in Brad Dixon's 3-5 look are even more impressive looking. The East has DeAngelo Dean, Austin Gooding, and TJ Klitz. Or roughly 25 QB sacks and 41 tackles for loss worth of production. The other group? John Love, Nick Reichert, and Spencer Kirksenschlager, who amassed 28 total QB sacks and 47 tackles for loss. There isn't a break in the mix there for the West Offensive Line.

Speaking of Gooding: The reigning Jacksonville Journal Courier Player of the Year somehow dislocated his finger in Inside Run drills today to the point it was pointing East and West, rather than North and South. Kid just put it back into place without any fanfare and kept plugging away.

You may have seen the highlights last week on OVERTIME from the West Central All Star Game at Sacred Heart Griffin of Pittsfield/Griggsville Perry Quarterback Seth Petty delivering the first ever TD pass on the Cyclones new field. The Saukee Senior, who was good last week, looks to still be in a heck of a groove throwing the football this week. Seth was throwing laser like spirals in passing drills today and looks to be in the best form I've ever seen him. I am told Seth is likely headed to Carthage College and may well go out for both football and track and field. After watching him this week, I'd think that's a pretty good idea. Petty did, however, nearly engender the demise of KHQA Player of the Year Chris Jackson, throwing an out-pattern towards a set of goalposts just East of the field that Jackson did not see. Chris pulled up just short of running headlong into the goalposts. Jackson had a good sense of humor about the near incident. Petty shot back at him....that's what you get for beating us (PGP) this year. Funny stuff.

Best Hit of the Day: Central-Southeastern's always "active" Jonah Coggeshall absolutely lit up unsuspecting Justin Volk in Seven on Seven Drills.

Best Moment of the Day: Bill Reed decided to end Practice Two with some Old School Fun: The Oklahoma Drill. Two Offensive Lineman and a Running Back versus Two Defensive Linemen and a Linebacker. The battle fought in a five yard patch of grass between to sets of pads. You either score or get slaughtered. And right out of the chute, Coach Reed calls for an All Quincy Battle. Blue Devils on Defense (DeAngelo Dean, Wes Ervin and Alex Kaufman) vs Raiders on Offense (Brad Wellman, Nick Reichert and Luke Hinkamper at Running Back) Seeing as how this is probably as close to a real live QHS vs QND Football contest as we may ever get in our lifetimes, it set a heck of a tone. Battle essentially end up with Kaufman putting a good hit on Hinkamper right at the line of scrimmage for a very minimal gain. We also got a Brown County vs Central-Southeastern Battle, an all Jacksonville Battle, then open warfare for anyone who wanted to step in. The best hits were delivered by Jonah Coggeshall, Kendall Summers and Justin Hardy of West Central, who essentially engulfed Chris Jackson on two different plays. Lots of great contact. Fun way to end practice.

Most impressive players? Dean, for one, who batted a ball out of Seth Petty's hands in inside run drill for a makeshift "scoop and score." As Petty said afterwards, how do you avoid a kid with arms that long? Dean is a monster. So too are the Defensive Tackles (Reichert and Gooding) Linebacker play was very strong all practice long. Reid Fulkerson had an interception. Kendall Summers drew rave reviews for his nastiness from the East Coaching staff. Rick Logsdon looked like a million bucks. The East's 3-5 scheme looks very stout. But the guys who really turned my head today where the Defensive Backs, in particular Nick Schippel out of Jacksonville and Aaron Wittler out of Unity/Payson. Schippel is probably the fastest player in this game (ran anchor leg of Jacksonville's state championship 4x100 meter relay team) and he can hit. Today was really the first time I got a chance to watch him in isolation and he has tremendously recovery speed. Wittler is, for lack of a better word, as "comfortable" looking in coverage as any one I've seen this year. He just doesn't get flustered and plays the jump ball with great confidence. Can skied to knock a Matt Gunterman pass away today that I thought he had no chance getting to. Aaron has a certain polish to his game.

Overall Impressions: Honestly, I am really pleased with the composition of both Football Teams. We've got two squads made up with great athletes (and maybe just as importantly: really high caliber character kids. Read: zero knucklehead factor.) Both coaching staffs have put in a ton and have a lot of good stuff in their arsenals. Jonah Coggeshall told me today the key for the East is forcing that really potent West Spread Offense to get uncomfortable; make all those gifted Wide Receivers "shorten their arms" with good contact. I tend to think this might be one of the better hitting games we've seen because these two teams are so mobile. On first glance, the key for the West to be successful is quick reads and fast deliveries by the Quarterbacks; taking advantage of throwing windows quickly because the East Edge Rushers are so quick. If the West Receivers get the ball in their hands with space to create, they will do serious damage. It's a stellar Receiver Corps. The key for the West Defense is to hold its ground against that big East Offensive Line. Tony DeGrave has some really terrific Linebackers in play and they are the key. If guys like Dalton McCarty and Kaleb Whalen and Kody Karr are able to run to contact and hit the East backs early, the West can take the starch out of this running game. If not, the East will use that size advantage to dominate the clock and run downhill all day. I honestly have no idea how this will play out. But I can tell you that if you are a football fan, you'd be a fool to miss it do so.