By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
In the last four seasons, the Webb City football team has gone 53-4 with two state championships and four appearances in the state semifinals.
But you’d probably have to go further than that to find a Cardinals team with as much turnover to deal with as this year’s group.
Webb City graduated six players who earned Class 5 All-State honors last fall and 11 who earned All-Conference honors in the COC, including running back Devrin Weathers, the Central Ozark Conference Offensive Player of the Year, and defensive back Treghan Parker, the COC Defensive Player of the Year. They helped the Cardinals to an 11-2 record last season, which ended with a 24-21 loss to Platte County in the semifinals.
“We have more pieces to figure out than we’ve had in quite a while it seems like,” head coach John Roderique said. “Maybe back in ’16 – that ’15 bunch was really good – we might be somewhat similar. Who knows where we’ll be. We’ve got so many days in the weeks and so many days you can practice. We should be a team that vastly improves from beginning to end. We do that pretty well in most seasons, we just have a lot less depth than what we normally have.”
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Devrin Weathers will take his talents to Kansas State. He rushed for 1,782 yards and 28 touchdowns as a senior, averaging 9.7 yards per carry, and he finished his Webb City career with 4,155 rushing yards and 66 total touchdowns. Offensive lineman Grant Goltra, a first team All-State pick, is headed to Pittsburg State. Tight end Gary Clinton, a third team All-State player, is headed to Missouri State. Receiver Jacob Shonk is headed to Upper Iowa, and outside linebacker Jaystin Smith is headed to Missouri Southern.
The Cardinals also graduated both quarterbacks from last season, including Cole Gayman, who threw for 875 yards and seven scores and rushed for 542 yards and eight touchdowns. Parker, Eli Goddard (second team All-State) and Shane Noel (second team All-Conference) are all gone from the defensive secondary. Third team All-State offensive lineman Zetthew Meister graduated, as did second team All-Conference defensive end Matt McDaniel and second team All-Conference kicker Cameron Clark.
Add it all up and the Cardinals must replace two of their top three rushers, two of their top three receivers and their top four tacklers.
“Obviously with the guys we had we felt really good about that,” Roderique said. “We didn’t play our best game at the end of the season, probably didn’t play as well as we could have. I would consider it a great year. Unfortunately around here if you’re not hoisting the trophy at the end of the year some people don’t think it’s as good of a year. It was a great year.”
The list of offensive returners is highlighted by senior center Buddy Belcher, who will be a three-year starter and was a second team All-Conference player in addition to receiving All-District and All-Area honors. Senior Braeden Jackson returns at guard, senior Dupree Jackson (836 yards, 12 TD) returns at running back, senior Cade Wilson (305 yards, 6 TD) returns at running back after playing just six games due to injury, and seniors Josh Howard and Eric Fitch are returning part-time players at receiver. Additionally, senior Cohl Vaden led the team with 294 receiving yards and five touchdowns last year and he could shift to quarterback this fall.
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“You just throw him in somewhere and he’s going to play,” Roderique said. “He’s really, really smart, a real athletic-minded kid. He’s a real headsy kid. He just understands sports and he understands football. He could play some quarterback, he could play some receiver, some corner. We’ve really used him in a lot of ways the last couple years.”
Roderique said the team has some decent speed at the skill positions and a lot of talented underclassmen but they are lacking in experience.
“Defensively is where it’s quite a bit thinner,” he said. “We just don’t have very many guys back over on that side of the ball.”
Senior Christian Kinney played some at tackle and had 27 tackles. Senior Brody German also played some at tackle and had 21 tackles. Senior Brentan Wilson is the team’s leading returning tackler; he made 60 stops and two tackles for a loss while starting at outside linebacker and safety. Junior Lucas Ott (56 tackles, 3 TFL) played linebacker and senior Cooper Crouch (56 tackles, 1 INT) moved from tight end to linebacker.
“There’s several guys that will be new starters,” Roderique said. “Eric Fitch played a little bit of corner. (Junior) Kaylor Darnell did a good job in the secondary as a youngster. (Senior) Gavin Stowell will hopefully fill in somewhere in the secondary. We’re going to be better up front. We really struggled up front defensively last year and when you struggle there you’re going to struggle all over the field defensively. I think we feel a little bit better about where we’re at on the defensive line.”
Roderique said fundamentals will be a key early on and blocking and tackling have been big focuses early on.
The team has also added a pair of experienced coaches to its staff in Ryan McFarland and Scott Bailey. McFarland, a former Webb City player and assistant, comes back after serving five years as the head coach at Seneca. He also coached at Riverton and Frontenac. He’ll coach quarterbacks and serve as Webb City’s offensive coordinator. Bailey led Lamar for 14 seasons and won seven state championships. He also coached a year at Jefferson City and will coach Webb City’s defensive line.
“Those guys have never coached together but they’ve known each other for a long time and actually coached against each other at different schools,” Roderique said. “We’re really excited to have those guys on staff. They have a great wealth of knowledge and they’re relentless workers.”
Webb City travel to Joplin for a jamboree on Aug. 20 and will open the regular season at home against Joplin as the Cardinals try to snap a rare two-game losing streak against the Eagles.
