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By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
The last time we saw the Monett Cubs it was with a Class 3 state championship trophy being hoisted, hugged and kissed by a 14-1 football team.
Seven months later, the Cubs are still champions, but a senior-heavy offense in 2016 has left head coach Derrek Uhl with a number wide-open offseason competitions (especially at skill positions) this summer. But hey, competitions are fun!
In all, Monett graduated nine All-Big 8 nominees—with five being first-team all-staters—on the offensive side, including first-team selections Michael Branch (RB), Brian Parra-Navarro (WR), Alex Turner (TE), Kurran Bartkoski (OT) and Cameron Cody (K), second-team selections Ian Meyer (QB), Browdy Crawford (WR) and Mason Swearingen (APB), and honorable mention Aiden Brown (OT). The skill position players alone there leave a 6,667-yard wide hole to fill (passing, rushing, receiving yards).
The Cubs find more clarity on defense heading into 2017, where they return the majority of starters but do lose all-state linebacker/Class 3 Coaches Defensive Player of the Year Onis Howard and his 160 tackles, four sacks and five forced fumbles.
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“Really we’re just trying to improve, and I think we have gotten better,” Uhl said at the Parkview 7-on-7 earlier this June. “We’re pretty young. We have a lot of kids who need to step up and find a role, but I feel good. We’re competing.
“Offensively, we’ve had our moments, and defensively, I’ve felt we’ve played fairly decent.”
There doesn’t seem to be much clarity on pinning down who will step into key offensive roles for Monett come Week 1, but that’s simply a result of Uhl and the Cubs being early in the offseason process.
As of now, Cubs coaches have a three-way competition going at quarterback between sophomore Carter Brink (5’8”, 145 lbs.), senior Jedd Anderson (5’10”, 165 lbs.), and junior Dale Slater (5’10”, 145 lbs.). Brink took the majority of the snaps I saw at Parkview, but that doesn’t necessarily mean anything as far as pinpointing an early No. 1.
Of that group, Anderson has the most varsity experience, just not at quarterback. You’ll recognize Anderson’s name from his corner play last season, picking off six passes, breaking up five more and recording 33 tackles. He also spent some time at wide receiver.
“That’ll be fun to see how it shakes out,” Uhl said of finding Meyer’s replacement. “We’re gonna stay with what we we’re doing. Of course I’d love if they could play like Ian, but I’m also realistic that they’re going to have to get better. Offensively, we’ve been running the same [system] since junior high, so the kids know [it]. It’s just a matter of growing up.”
Uhl pointed to junior Patrick Valentine (5’9”, 180 lbs.) and junior William Murphy (5’10”, 160 pounds) as potential names to look for at running back in place of Branch, who is suiting up for SBU this season. Only Murphy touched the ball out of the backfield in 2016, averaging 3.8 yards per carry. Valentine started at outside linebacker, recording 83 tackles and 3.5 sacks.
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Tyler Allcock—pretty much exclusively an OLB in 2016—is expected to play two-ways this year and see time at tight end. “We’ll split him out and treat him a lot like we did Alex (Turner),” Uhl said of the 6-foot-4, 215-pound senior.
The strength of the Cubs’ offense will exist on the offensive line, where they return starters Coy Butterworth, Adam Long and Kellar McCully. That group will double as the strength of Monett’s defense front, which was excellent against the run in 2016. (Especially Butterworth, who finished with 11.5 sacks on his way to an all-state selection at defensive end).
“We have a good core group of seniors who have played quite a bit. And then I think we’re going to need to have some younger guys step up. We have more sophomores than we’ve had ever. That’s where the guys are going to have to really get better fast,” Uhl said.
Monett’s high number of sophomores is a trend this offseason across the board. (A positive side effect that comes with winning a state championship is that suddenly everyone wants in while the getting’s good).
“Our numbers are going to be the best they’ve ever been in the 10 years I’ve been at Monett,” Uhl said. “But with that you get a lot of new faces. Some kids have come in who’ve never been in the program before. Which is good, but then there’s a lot of growing pains. And they’ve got to grow up pretty quick.”
