The I-55 Conference could be whole again in 2018.
Grandview football head coach Dave Dallas said on Sunday that the Eagles will return to varsity action next fall. The Eagles sat out the 2017 varsity campaign but the junior varsity has made significant strides in rebuilding the program.
“After the first two or three games, our numbers held up well,” Dallas said of his program that numbers 33 players, freshmen through seniors. “Everybody’s stayed with it.”
That wasn’t the case last season under then first-year coach Alex DeMatteis. Through player defections and injuries, Grandview was unable to complete its 2016 schedule, forfeiting its last few weeks. Last winter, the Grandview R-2 Board of Education decided to allow the football program to lick its wounds and build its numbers by eschewing varsity football.
The teams in the I-55 Conference – Crystal City, Herculaneum, Jefferson, St. Pius X, St. Vincent and Valle – had to scramble to schedule a nonconference opponent in place of the Eagles. Some coaches who face the same sort of numbers crunch most years grumbled the Eagles should have sucked it up and played anyway.
When I got to St. Pius X on Friday, the Lancers were cruising to a 48-0 win over winless Crystal City. I counted 19 players dressed for the Hornets and I thought their hapless situation wasn’t doing their players any good. I wondered if they could be next to sit out a varsity season.
Everything head coach Terry Crump has told me points to Crystal City fielding a varsity team next year. But with a field that floods every time the Mississippi leaves its banks and dwindling participation, could an agreement with Herculaneum to merge the two football programs be a way everyone benefits?
That would be hard for anyone connected with the Crystal City football program to swallow. Surprisingly, after I covered the Hornets in a 28-0 loss to the Blackcats earlier this month, Crump downplayed the rivalry between the schools. Everyone else I’ve talked to said the two schools are fierce rivals, especially on the gridiron.
Grandview has a JV record of 5-2 and beat Jefferson 41-16 in its most recent game. That’s a good sign because the Blue Jays are surging in numbers lately as head coach Alex Rouggly builds a team that can compete someday with conference bully Valle.
“(Jefferson) has been bit by the injury bug too and are playing a lot of freshmen at the JV level,” Dallas said. “But winning like we did was big for us.
“If we stay on course we can be at the top of the conference. We’re still developing and we need to get bigger and faster. Our football IQ has gone up immensely. It takes awhile to get to the Valle level.”
Just because the Eagles aren’t competing at the varsity level, they haven’t avoided the dreaded injury bug.
One of the team’s best players, junior Eli Moore, was lost for the season after tearing an ACL in the first half against Bayless on Sept. 14. Then against the Blue Jays, freshman quarterback Jakob Brand broke his collarbone and was lost for the year.
“Jakob was coming on strong and seeing the field real well and catching on to what he needs to do as a quarterback,” Dallas lamented.
Brand’s injury thrust sophomore Ayden Bergner into the starting role. Bergner replaced Brand with the Eagles leading the Blue Jays 28-0.
“Jakob’s further along and Ayden has had a good week of practice this week,” Dallas said. “We went back to basics.”
Junior Bryan Martinez was perhaps Grandview’s best player last year, and nothing’s changed, Dallas said, as Martinez has played superbly, especially as a slot receiver and kick and punt returner. Dallas said Martinez is itching to get back to playing on Friday nights.
“He’s pretty special as a returner and we get the ball in his hands with our jet sweep as often as we can,” Dallas said.
Dallas, who had been the head coach at North County before taking on the rebuilding chore with Grandview, said the support from the school and parents have helped the program heal.
“I’m very pleased with where we’re at,” he said. “The kids and community have bought into what we’re doing. We’re having success learning offense and defense and are working hard in practice. We had some injuries but the other kids have stepped in and played a role. We’re developing for the future.
“I’m real proud of our kids and our school and how they’ve embraced what we’ve done. There was a healing process that we have a callus from. But it was the right thing to do and I know a lot of people disagreed with that. I don’t think we would have developed the way we have without a year off.”
Jason West, communications director for the Missouri State High School Activities Association, said all Grandview has to do to rejoin the varsity ranks is add football to its list of sports teams that it will submit for next school year.