Some gems still remain for I-70 football teams

Looking at the all-conference teams from 2011, the ma-jority of the first-team selections have moved on due to graduation. But there are still some good players remaining.

However, almost all of them are concentrated on one team, the Wellington Tigers.

Of the 13 selections that were to the offense, eight of them were seniors, including four from Concordia. Only two of the seniors was from Wellington.

The Tigers have the core of their skill-position talent re-turning to try to make another run at a state title.

Back for Quenton Bain-bridge are quarterback Jacob Beckemeyer, wide receivers Brandon Niendick and Chris-tian Bryant and Brett Schaberg along the offensive line.

The Tigers must find re-placements for the losses of Nathan Arndt at fullback and Ben Niendick on the offensive line.

Their chief rival the past few years has been Concordia, which was decimated by graduation. A high percentage of their scoring and offensive production has graduated, in-cluding the like of Collin Werths and Luke Kapala in the slots of John Cox's offense, along with offensive linemen Jamie Thieman and Josh Kock.

The other seniors on the of-fensive first team were Crest Ridge wide receiver Jordan Erisman and Sweet Springs of-fensive lineman Colby Dohr-man.

The only other player on the offense to be returning is Lone Jack kicker Landon Schroeder.

On the defensive side of the ball, even more first-teamers have graduated.

The entire line was made up of seniors, including Dan Mil-ler, Kock and Thieman of the Orioles and Arndt and Dillon Gower of Wellington.

Schaberg returns from the linebacking corps. But gone are the Tigers' Dalton Loh-sandt, Concordia's Josh Bush-man and the Mules' Dalton Shahan.

Two of the three defensive backs are back. Gone is Werths, but Wellington has both Niendick and Bryant re-turning.

Santa Fe's lone first-team selection last year was Cody Schmidt at punter, and he, too, is lost to graduation.

Eleven of the second-team offensive players were seniors. The only players returning to that mix are Concordia's Hay-den Brown on the line and the Tigers' Brandon Niendick at kicker.

Ten of the second-team de-fensive selections have moved on to other aspirations. That leaves three eligible to return, including Lone Jack defensive lineman Bronco Green and Santa Fe defensive back Matt Bodenhamer, both of whom will be seniors this season. The other player returning is Saint Paul defensive back Gerhard von zur Muehlen, who is en-tering his junior season.

The honorable-mention lists were constructed of more underclassmen, including nine (two who were sophomores and seven who were juniors) on the offense and five (four who are juniors and one who was a sophomore) on defense.

Coaches and fans will get to see their teams in action Friday across the state as scrimmages are held. There could be as many as four teams competing at any scrimmage.

Saint Paul hosts Concordia, Santa Fe and Sweet Springs in a scrimmage at 6:30 p.m.

Each team's offense will run 12 plays against each team's defense on a rotating basis. There will be two scrimmages going on at the same time, each utilizing less than half of the field.

If there is a scrimmage with only three teams, then each team's offense and defense will be on the field for 18 plays against the other team's offenses and defenses.

Not only are most of the players going to be new, but Tom Gramates at Concordia and Jason Fenstermaker at Lone Jack are new head coaches.

Much more will be known about each of the teams after Friday.