With just 17 players on his roster, Fox knows that a few injuries might force him to play freshmen out of position or shut down the season completely.
The same thing recently happened to Grandview. Lacking numbers to begin with, the Eagles couldn’t finish out their 2016 schedule after injuries depleted them. Grandview played a junior varsity schedule in 2017 and finished 0-10 last season when it re-entered varsity play.
“Our numbers aren’t as good as they were last year,” said Fox, who enters his second season as the Hornets’ head coach. “We raised the expectations and some kids in the school didn’t feel like they could rise up to those to maintain a healthy season and they declined to come out. Our kids being in the best shape possible is our main concern.”
Not only is Crystal City facing a numbers crunch, but Glasstown’s football team isn’t sure if it will get to play even one home game at J.J. Commerford Stadium because it was flooded for two months this summer.
The Hornets play their first game of the season against Chaffee on Aug. 31 at Festus’ Tiger Stadium. The rest of their home games have been split between Festus, Jefferson and Herculaneum.
Just how many players does Fox need to take the field against the likes of Valle Catholic and Jefferson?
“That’s a good question. If we have four injuries, we’re going to have to take a 115-pound wide receiver and move him to the offensive line,” Fox said. “You’re going to have a lot of kids playing out of position. We play a lot of Class 2 (Crystal City is Class 1) schools with 30 or 40 kids. If we had 25 kids, I’d feel a lot better.
“Our kids have worked hard in the offseason and they’re accountable. And I’ll take a team like that I can count on rather than having a bunch of numbers.”
The Hornets are practicing on the school’s baseball field and lack equipment like blocking sleds because the flooding ruined it all. Fox said he must balance how much conditioning the small group can take without breaking or defecting.
“I’ve learned how to be a creative coach,” he said. “Some bigger schools with a full roster of kids, you can go a full scout team on offense and defense. Right now, we have to do it half at a time, then flip-flop sides. We’re only getting six or seven guys going at a time.”
Most Class 1 schools use players on both sides of the ball. Many Class 2 schools have the luxury of giving their starters breaks on either offense or defense.
“We’re going to do the best we can to get our kids off the field so they can collect their breath,” Fox said. “When I got hired, we had an issue with people getting hurt and getting concussions. So, we instituted a weight room program so they could stay healthy in the offseason.”
Griffin Morris was a talented player who was the quarterback until he was injured in the third week of last season. He returned for Crystal City’s only win of the season against Grandview, but not at QB. Morris’s injury opened the door for Chase Coleman to get experience under center, but Coleman, a junior, will be a running back this fall.
Senior Blake Eisenbeis will start the season under center, and also will start at free safety.
Joining Coleman in the backfield are seniors Evan Litton and Sam Smith and freshman Gavin Grass.
“We ask them to do a lot of things because they have to,” Fox said of his backfield.
Sophomore Calloway Dashner returns at wide receiver. Dashner is tall and has good hands.
“I expect him to lead the way in our receiving corps,” Fox said.
Smith, senior Ian Holdinghausen, junior Jason Moyer and freshman Cyle Schaumburg will also line up wide.
“If we can throw the ball, we’ll do it. I’d rather not run the ball 80 or 90 percent of the time,” Fox said.
The linemen have been getting a lot of conditioning the first week of practice. Senior Reilly Stephens and juniors Carter Krieg and Ian Raftery are top candidates to start on both sides of the line. The rest of the unit is still to be decided.
“I may have to move an outside linebacker to inside linebacker because I don’t have depth to give a kid a breather,” Fox said. “(Raftery) has come a long way since last year. He’s got the size and ability, he’s just unsure of himself. Some plays we see it and some we don’t. He needs to be more consistent. He looks the part. I need him to be the part.
“There are some kids who are back who got a lot of playing time, but we haven’t found our identity yet. We have one kid who’s a leader. We have kids who are accountable. They’re still trying to figure out who they are.”
Barring a majestic turnaround, and the unlikelihood of not sustaining any injuries, Crystal City will most likely be seeded eighth in its Class 1 district again. Last year, the Hornets traveled to Hayti as the No. 8 seed and lost 86-0.
Fox said he’s beginning to think No. 8 seeds against No. 1 seeds isn’t such a good idea.
“It had been a long time since I had to play as the eighth seed,” he said. “I don’t know if those games need to be played after that experience. I’m grateful our kids came off the field healthy. We tried all week long, but they needed to be better for that game. They had the feeling they weren’t going to win right off the bat. The year before, we had kids get hurt and they didn’t come back out for football.
“Football is a tough sport. Every kid’s not tough enough to play it. You can get there. If we start to win games, we’ll get more kids out. Our backs are against the wall. I want our kids to fight.”