By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
For years now Lockwood has been one of the smallest schools – if not the smallest – playing 11-man football in Missouri. It hasn’t affected the Tigers competitively, though, as the school has gone more than a decade without a losing season and has averaged eight wins in the last 10 years.
But with the Tigers graduating a class of 12 senior football players after last season, and adding a freshman class of three, Lockwood has made the move to 8-man football for the foreseeable future. While last year’s roster consisted of about 30 players, the team has just 18 to 20 out this year.
“You’re putting a lot of kids out there that maybe aren’t physically ready and you worry about injuries,” head coach Clay Lasater said. “Things can snowball on you. There’s not a lot of schools our size that don’t even have football to begin with. It just felt like it was the best decision for our program moving forward based off the size of our school and the number of kids coming out.”
Lasater has had his hands full this summer making the transition. He’s made tweaks to the system while trying to preserve as much as he can but admits he’s still “green.”
“I’m sure there are still things I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe we think we might be able to do something and we may find out when we get into game situations that the game is just different enough that we may have to make more drastic changes as we go.”
It’s a transition made even more difficult by the fact that Lockwood returns very little from last year’s 9-2 squad that lost in the district championship. The Tigers lost six players who earned first team honors in the Southwest Conference, including quarterback Max Schnelle, the Co-Offensive Player of the Year, and linebacker Lane Dunlap, the Defensive Player of the Year. Offensive and defensive lineman Spencer Neal is also on that list, as are wide receiver Blaine Garver, offensive and defensive lineman Quinten Raymond and kicker John Baugh. Five others also received All-Conference honors.
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Schnelle passed for 1,466 yards and 16 touchdowns while averaging 17.7 yards per completion.
Senior Kane Cooper, a 6-foot-3 wide receiver, is the team’s only returning starter on offense and he’ll shift to tight end this year.
“He’s a big target, a big, tall kid with long arms,” Lasater said. “He’s a pretty physical kid so I’m hoping we can utilize him as a blocker and a receiver.”
Seniors Clayton Robertson and Blaine Berlekamp will probably play at the guard spots, junior Blake Cossins will probably be the center, sophomore Hank Eggerman will probably play at receiver and sophomore Henry Schnelle should play quarterback with junior Elijah Kerr and senior Landon Stump as the running backs behind him. Buster Spinks could also play fullback.
Lockwood returns four starters on defense. Cooper was a second team All-Conference punter and honorable mention receiver and he returns at defensive end along with Robertson, an All-District and second team All-Conference pick. Stump, another All-District and honorable mention All-Conference defender, played corner last year and will likely shift to safety. And Kerr, a second team All-Conference defensive back, returns at corner.
Newcomers include freshman Nik Thieman, junior Justin Aldridge and junior Cael McMillan at linebacker, along with Dalton Horton. Juniors Kaden Hillier and Kameron Burton could play on the defensive line. Eggerman could play at corner, junior Logan Wells could play defensive end and junior Kamon Cooper could also contribute.
Sophomore Rachel Baugh will likely replace her brother John Baugh at kicker after he was a first team All-Conference selection.
“We’re still feeling things out just because so few of them have any varsity experience,” Lasater said. “Some of them are pretty young, freshmen and sophomores. A couple of them are playing football for the first time. Just a lot of inexperience. It’s going to take a little bit longer to figure out how those puzzle pieces fit together.”
It’s also going to take a little while for the Tigers to figure out how they stack up against 8-man opponents, and Lasater said it’s hard to set a goal for wins and losses with so much uncertainty.
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“I guess my goal is that we as a group will hang together,” he said. “We’re going to see a lot of adversity as young kids get into varsity football. If we can hang together throughout the course of the year I do think we have some puzzle pieces we can put together. It’s going to take some time to get those to fit together correctly. Patience and those kids continuing to work through adversity is what I’m hoping for.”
The Tigers will play in a jamboree at Liberal with Greenfield and Jasper. Pierce City and Pleasant Hope couldn’t find new opponents so Lockwood will play those schools again this year, but in 8-man games. Pierce City opens the season at Lockwood. Greenfield is the third opponent from last year still on the schedule but the Wildcats have also moved to 8-man.
