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Monday, August 14, 2017
The St. Vincent football team did some good things last year, putting together a 6-4 record to make 2016 its winningest season since 2008.
But it's not 2016 anymore.
Now the Indians will have to prove that the high mark is also a building block because many of the players upon which last year was constructed are gone.
That senior class rose into the varsity picture just as coach Nathan Rowland walked through the door four years ago, and that relationship helped lift St. Vincent. But now the program is replacing 10 starters on offense and nine starters on defense, and in some ways, the cycle starts all over again.
St. Vincent football - Jacob McKinney(71), Austin Dauster(8), Tyler Wibbenmeyer(15) and Garrett Dobbelare(4)
LAURA SIMON
"It's just a complete overhaul," Rowland said. "We're just trying to figure out where kids can fit in our system.
"We're a very young team, and we're playing a lot of sophomores, kind of like when we first took over the program three years ago. We know that when you play a lot of sophomores, there's going to be growing pains throughout the season. We're just trying to take it one game at a time and one practice at a time right now and get these guys as prepared as we can be from the start of the season."
Even while it tasted victory at a greater rate, the end was not fulfilling. St. Vincent allowed self-inflicted damage to sink its ship, as the fourth-seeded Indians fell to fifth-seeded Portageville convincingly, 35-14, in the first round of the Class 1 District 1 playoffs.
That bitter pill has helped propel the returning group forward with a new generation of team leaders.
"They haven't rested one day since they got knocked out of the playoffs last year," Rowland said. "As soon as they got knocked out, they said, 'This is our team now,' and they just started running and lifting and just getting stronger and working hard. Any coach would like to work with a bunch of guys like that.
"After their successful seasons, we had a lot of guys who put in a lot of work in the weight room in the offseason to try to help keep that momentum going that those [seniors] started. It really helped in our offseason conditioning. As always at St. Vincent, a lot of the players on [last year's] team have come back throughout camp, just because they want to help the program."
Two players from last year's squad, Gabe Naeger and Layne Hlavek, are helping coach the team, as is former quarterback Joe Whistler.
The road ahead doesn't look like it will be easy, but those former players should have plenty to offer a very young and inexperienced team.
"They're a young and an eager bunch, and they're just ready to go out there and try to replicate the success they've had last year. That's their biggest strength -- that they're willing to learn and ready to work hard," Rowland said.
"Then, obviously, some of our weakness is our youth and the fact we're going to have 16-year-olds playing against 18-year-olds. That's not the best situation, but it is what it is when you're dealing with a Class 1 program."
St. Vincent football - Garrett Dobbelare
LAURA SIMON
Offense
There are voids to fill across the field, but a quick scan quickly comes to a stop under center, where St. Vincent will have to find a way to replace the athletic ability and leadership of the graduated Tyler Monier.
Entering the season, Rowland said there are four players vying for time at quarterback -- sophomore Garrett Dobbelare, junior Tyler Wibbenmeyer, junior Dylan Grim and freshman John Wibbenmeyer.
Rowland compared Dobbelare to Monier in terms of his focus both on and off the field.
Tyler Wibbenmeyer is one of the team's veteran leaders but doesn't have varsity experience at QB. Rather, he was one of the Indians' regular wide receivers in 2016 and a major presence in the defensive backfield.
Grim played quarterback for the junior varsity squad a year ago.
"We're letting those guys battle it out and figure out who we're going to go with on Week 1," Rowland said. "We'll probably know that Thursday night before the game."
The largest hole might be left by Riley Riehn, an all-region and two-time All-Southeast Missourian pick who compiled 2,100 all-purpose yards, most coming as a running back. His shiftiness and big-play ability were critical and will be difficult to replicate.
No returning players accounted for more than 50 yards on the ground, but Tyler Wibbenmeyer and Austin Dauster will both have a chance to pick up some of the load in the ground game.
Wibbenmeyer and Dauster both played receiving roles in the 2016 offense but will be in the running back rotation this time around alongside veteran Indians Matt Rellergert and Isaac Ernst.
The key to St. Vincent's offense, though, will be the versatility of those players and the team's ability to spread the field. All four of the aforementioned running back prospects will also see some time at receiver, as will Grim.
"We found out our first year that grinding it out just doesn't work really well," Rowland said. "We just don't have the type of athletes to try to grind out wins. So we're going to have to put the ball in the air and spread some teams out and try to use our speed.
"As what's been typical with St. Vincent, we're not going to have a very large offensive line, but we're hoping to have a very quick one that can pull and get to their positions and really set up some open space for our guys to showcase what they can do. Speed is what we're counting on this team to have."
That offensive line will have to replace four starters, as Hlavek, Luke Wibbenmeyer, Blake Hennemann and Ethan Pecaut all graduated.
The lone returning starter is senior Jake McKinney, who will be joined by Caleb Kertz and Nick DeRousse, both of whom saw playing time a year ago, and a rotation of new faces.
St. Vincent football - Jacob McKinney
LAURA SIMON
Defense/ST
The defense is nearly as gutted by graduation.
The team's top tackler each of the last two years, linebacker Tyler Unterreiner, is gone, as are a host of other players.
The good news is there is some talent back, especially at defensive back, where the loss of Riehn and Monier will need to be mitigated. The unit, though, should be the defense's strength.
Dauster, however, was an all-district defensive back and had 30 tackles, 20 passes defended and an interception in 2016. He's joined, again, by Tyler Wibbenmeyer -- St. Vincent's top returning tackler -- who was an all-conference DB with 60 tackles, two interceptions and a defensive touchdown, and the experienced Rellergert.
The linebacking corps will have to replace the likes of Unterreiner, Hlavek and Naeger. Now, McKinney will be a leader of a young front seven for the Indians defense. He had 30 tackles as a junior.
Pecaut, a physical presence on the defensive line, will be difficult to replace in the trenches.
St. Vincent should have a leg up (pun intended) on special teams, with Dauster a second team All-State selection at kicker a year ago.
