SportsAugust 18, 2016
Hungry senior class leads the way for Scott City football team in 2016
Eighth-year coach Jim May makes no bones about what he's been stressing to his team, which has seen promising starts the last two seasons ultimately fade into a futile quest for the program's first winning season since 2007. "Physical," May said of his team's approach. ...
Eighth-year coach Jim May makes no bones about what he's been stressing to his team, which has seen promising starts the last two seasons ultimately fade into a futile quest for the program's first winning season since 2007.
"Physical," May said of his team's approach. "That's what we're working on this year. We're trying to become a more physical team than we've been in the past, and they're working really hard. And they're starting to get it. I'm pretty excited about that, but whenever we walk off the field, win or lose, we want to be the most physical team every Friday night. That's our goal."
The Rams won their first two games last season, and held a 3-2 record at the halfway pole before going 0-5 down the stretch while losing starting quarterback Ty WIlthong to injury for a second straight season. Wilthong, among nine seniors, is back, along with four-year standout Braden Cox for a Rams team that is dropping down to Class 1 status.
Offense
A healthy Wilthong has meant healthy starts for the Rams the past two years. He went down with a season-ending ankle injury in Week 2 of a promising sophomore season, then hurt his right ankle in Week 7 of his junior year.
"They say he ought to be good now. They're both fixed," May said about the 6-foot-3, 200-pound senior.
May has been scrambling to Plan B the past two years, which has involved moving the versatile Cox solely behind center to direct the offense. May's preference going into last year was to split Cox and Wilthong at quarterback, part of a plan to force defenses to account for the pair in a multitude of scenarios, including as running backs or receivers.
May is taking a more committed approach this year.
"Ty will be our quarterback as long as he's healthy," May said. "Braden will be at running back as long as Ty stays healthy. And even if Ty goes down this year, we may try to go a different way, but hopefully that's not going to happen. Ty does a pretty good job for us. He can run the offense. He knows everyone's job and has a good idea of what he's doing. Hopefully we can get him to stay healthier."
With Cox at running back, the Rams hope to take a physical route between the tackles.
"Last year we couldn't run the ball in between the tackles, so we're focusing on that," May said. "That doesn't mean we're going to lose the other parts of our game, but we've got to get better at that part of it because if you're not able to run inside, you're not going to be able to run outside either."
The line graduated its cornerstone in Levi Davidson, the program's top lineman the last three seasons, but was young overall last season.
Senior guard Brittan Jones returns to the line, as does junior Dakota Talley, who will move from tackle to center. The Rams have added 300-pound senior Ryan Wilfong, who transferred in, and junior Jaden Stoffregen, who May describes as "tall and lanky but physical," should see more playing time. A deep incoming class of 18 freshmen includes size that could help up front, including Noah Johnson, Noah Braun and Marcus Schroeder.
Sam Elders, who played on the line as a freshman out of need, will likely return to running back, a position that includes senior Caden Hillemann, who can also be used as a flanker.
"I think we're going to run more," Wilthong said. "We're going to try and run it down teams' throats and see if they can stop it."
The receiving corps has lost depth but returns senior Jaden Kaiser and can be supplemented by the group at running back as well as sophomore Eli Berry and incoming freshman Joe Panagos.
Defense/ST
The Rams allowed 36.3 points per game overall last season, including 49.2 per game in their 0-5 finish.
"We're working on stopping the run a lot more," said Hillemann, a three-year starter at linebacker and the top returning tackler. "We've been working on our tackling a lot because we had a lot of missed tackles last year."
Kaiser, who returned two of his three interceptions for touchdowns last year, also returns at linebacker, while Cox returns at safety to anchor the secondary, which also includes Berry, Talley and Panagos as potential candidates.
The defensive line will be missing the likes of Davidson and Trent Pobst, and May is looking for others to step up in their place. Some of the holes to be filled could be plugged by freshmen.
"They were really good in seventh and eighth grade," May said. "They've got linemen, skill players in that group, and some of them may have to help us this year, which is kind of scary. But if they're good enough to play, they're good enough to play."
Final analysis
Small schools by nature lack depth, and injuries can easily derail plans. No longer Class 2 in football, Scott City is officially among the smaller schools in the state.
While it will be one of the larger Class 1 schools, Scott City now will have to contend with perennial state power Valle Catholic in district play.
"They're all tough," May said. "A lot of people tell us, 'You're in a district with Valle now.' I'm like, 'Being in a district with Malden and Caruthersville isn't peaches and sunshine either.' We ain't worried about that right now. We're worried about Week 1, and then we'll worry about Week 2."
The Rams have many of their skill players among a motivated senior class.
Kaiser said he wants to win at least eight games and be a part of the school's first winning team in nine years.
"I want to go out of this school being known as having a good record," Kaiser said. "... I want to say we won, we did this, we did that. We set goals and achieved."
---
2016 Scott City Rams Roster
No. Name Year Ht. Wt.
1 Eli Berry 10 5-7 120
4 Caden Hillemann 12 5-7 151
6 Dylan Hackler 10 5-7 120
7 Ty Wilthong 12 6-3 213
10 Landon O’Brien 9 5-9 156
11 Spencer Stratman 9 5-6 138
12 Joe Panagos 9 6-0 143
13 Koby Hink 9 6-1 160
14 Chance McKinley 11 5-9 138
15 Ethan Greer 9 5-10 143
17 Kolbe Drury 10 5-8 161
18 Greg Schwausch 10 5-8 150
19 River Runyon 9 5-11 132
20 Jaden Kaiser 12 5-11 180
22 Cody Rhyne 10 5-7 138
24 Sam Elders 10 5-10 195
25 Kobe Hann 9 5-7 138
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!
26 William Klingeman 10 5-11 161
27 Nick Kirby 10 5-2 100
28 Matt Bradford 10 5-8 159
33 Braden Cox 12 6-3 218
34 Jimmy May 9 5-2 110
44 Ramsey Evans 9 5-10 177
51 Trenton Keller 9 5-7 173
52 Tony Seabaugh 9 5-9 145
54 Brittan Jones 12 5-8 215
56 Marcus Schroeder 9 5-11 237
60 Cody Nichols 9 5-6 157
63 Jaden Stoffregen 11 6-0 150
64 Dakota Talley 11 5-7 181
65 Noah Braun 9 5-9 212
66 Cole Ellinger 9 5-5 165
67 Aidan Thompson 9 5-9 140
68 Nick Miller 9 5-9 194
70 Trevor Whitfield 11 6-0 345
72 Josh Schmitt 9 5-8 180
75 Matt Scheper 10 6-1 264
76 Noah Johnson 9 5-8 218
77 Tommy Vendin 12 5-9 292
78 Will Warren 12 6-5 339
79 Ryan Wilfawn 12 5-11 308
88 Sam Jordan 10 5-9 145
---
Head coach
Jim May, 8th year (23-47)
Assistant coaches
Steve Hemby, Steven O’Brien, Corey Rogers
---
2016 schedule
Date Opponent Time
8.19 GRANDVIEW 7 p.m.
8.26 @St. Vincent 7 p.m.
9.2 @East Prairie 7 p.m.
9.9 CHARLESTON 7 p.m.
9.16 CHAFFEE 7 p.m.
9.23 @Portageville 7 p.m.
9.30 HAYTI 7 p.m.
10.7 KELLY 7 p.m.
10.15 @Perryville 1 p.m.
---
2015 at a glance
Record: 3-7
Playoff result: Lost to Hayti 56-14 in Class 2 District 1 first round
Points for: 22.9 ppg
Points against: 36.3 ppg
---
Key returners
OFFENSE
Passing: Ty Wilthong (60-117, 600 yds., 6 TD, 5 Int.)
Rushing: Braden Cox (182 att., 1,038 yds., 14 TD)
Receiving: Braden Cox (16 rec., 226 yds., 2 TD)
DEFENSE
Tackles: Caden Hillemann (93)
Sacks: Hillemann (4)
Interceptions: Jaden Kaiser (3)
Story Tags
Connect with the Southeast Missourian Newsroom:
For corrections to this story or other insights for the editor, click here. To submit a letter to the editor, click here. To learn about the Southeast Missourian’s AI Policy, click here.
Advertisement
Receive Daily Headlines FREESign up today!
