Wichita area football previews
July 3, 2008 @ 2:55 p.m. by Joannaby joanna
Each year we send football surveys to the coaches across the state. That’s usually around 370 that we print.
Those surveys are a huge help as we rank teams in all classes, write previews and try to contact coaches for stories later in the season. The schedules are especially important because not only do we plan to have every team’s schedule online at varsitykansas.com, we keep those schedules updated throughout the season for rankings.
We usually only get a third back in response, although I hope that will be more this year, especially since we do offer the option of coaches filling out the questionnaire online.
Some coaches are excellent about sending those surveys in — they’re usually our favorite coaches. Really. I mean it. We love those who participate. It doesn’t matter if it’s not our survey that they fill out. We just want them to send us the info (same goes for all sports, not just football).
If you can believe it, Campus coach Tom O’Connor sent his in during the spring. I saved it in my e-mail. Today I got my second survey — from Carroll coach Alan Schuckman. Now O’Connor used to coach at Carroll, so I think he’s trying to one-up his former boss. Consider it a success.
Schuckman’s Eagles only return nine starters, but that doesn’t concern me. I realize I’m no coach, but I’ve seen this team constantly churning out talented athletes, regardless of how many graduated the previous year.
The top three Eagles are Joe Brown (tight end, full back, runs a 4.6 40), Blake Bell (6-6, 210, 4.7 40) and Jake Cole (DL, 5-11, 215). Although there are plenty of other players who will be key, these three are vital.
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
I don’t know if it was the Eagle or if it was KWCH or something, but I heard a story on Sports Daily with Bruce Haertl and Bob Lutz that someone who worked for either the Eagle or KWCH came up to Randy Dreiling at a Hutch practice and was asking Dreiling how he’d predict the order of finish for the 6 teams in the AVCTL-1. His response was something similar to “give me that” and writing Hutch across the sheet and saying “there’s only 1 team that’s going to win this thing and it’s the Hutch Salthawks”.
Joanna, I’m sure you’ve had some colorful experiences with Coach Dreiling in your time with the Eagle too:)
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July 3rd, 2008 at 4:50 pm
Good luck getting them all back before deadline :)
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July 7th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Do an article about the great Northwest Defense? These boys are fast, strong and very talented… And they play as one team.
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July 7th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Im sure they will if they knock off the top D in the league year after year BC ! Until someone proves they can play Defense like BC its all talk.
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