With unseasonable temperatures producing a hint of football weather, and a couple of new coaches marching the sidelines, four area Missouri Class 1 schools finally got to strap on the gear and hit someone other than a teammate at Friday’s Jasper Jamboree.
Coaches from Jasper, Sarcoxie, Diamond and Liberal watched as players took part in their first game-style action with opponents of the season at Jasper High School. The controlled scrimmages included officials and consisted of each team matching up against the other three, one at a time, for a series of offensive and defensive plays.
Jeff Kabance, now in his seventh year at Sarcoxie High School, had a similar reaction to this year’s scrimmage as the other three coaches.
“It’s was a jamboree,” Kabance said. “We had a lot of timing issues, but we can work on that now in practice so it doesn’t come up in games early in the season. We got to hit and tackle, with the kids playing hard, and learn what we need to work on.”
It was Josh Dirks’ first look at the Eagles in a game environment.
Dirks, who is beginning his first season at Jasper High School, was encouraged with his team’s play in the jamboree.
“I’m pleased,” Dirks said. “Our offense and our defense were pretty impressive tonight. Offensively, we moved the ball and no one got too far on our defense.”
Dirks, a 2004 graduate of Pittsburg State University, where he played as an offensive lineman for the Gorillas, said he is making an effort to bring that Gorilla ethos with him to Jasper.
“We’ve been working on the playing physical football since day one,” Dirks said. “We played a physical brand of football at Pitt and I’m trying to give these guys the same mentality, a mentality as to how you are supposed to play the game of football.”
On the offensive side of the ball, the Eagles, at times, showed flashes of becoming a quality passing team. Quarterback Matt Newman completed several passes to wide receiver Jeff Piepenbrink, including one against Liberal that resulted in Jasper’s only touchdown (There were only four touchdowns all evening, one by each team). Receiver Josh Bruton was also effective for the Eagles.
“We had a few plays on offense that worked for us,” Dirks said of the passing game. “We would have liked to see a few more of our plays be more effective, though.”
Dirks wasn’t the only first-year coach at the Jasper Jamboree trying to instill a physical brand of football for his team.
Diamond’s Aaron Davied moved up this year from defensive coordinator to head coach, and like Dirk, is working on the physical aspect of the game.
“I was a defensive player in college,” Davied said, “and I’m teaching the kids what I learned. We hit every day. We have full contact tackling drills every day. Diamond hasn’t hit hard in the past and that’s something I’m trying to change. We had some big hits tonight.”
Davied’s Wildcats turned in the strongest defensive performance Friday night, and he was happy to talk about his team when all was said and done.
“I’m very excited about how hard we played,” he said. “We made good contact and we hit hard. We made some mistakes early and have some things to work on. But as a whole I am very pleased with the performance we put out there.”
