Southeast, area high schools in same boat

Marcus Harris was groomed to be a quarterback.

The other guys who will line up behind centers for the rest of the area's teams we're not so sure about.

Two are converted running backs, two are converted receivers and one was an offensive lineman last year.

But the six area high schools all had to identify a new signal-caller for this fall after graduations and a transfer created vacancies across the board.

In high school football, turnover isn't surprising, and coaches expect it. Conservative, run-oriented offenses are pretty common.

Who are these guys? Among the new faces vying for quarterback roles this fall are, from left: front: Chase Johnson of Central, Josh Perreault of Perryville, Craig Arnzen of Scott City; second row: Aaron Horrell of Chaffee, Marcus Harris of Jackson, Raymond Woldtvedt of Central; back: Andrew Williams of Central, Andrew Hendrix of Chaffee and Caleb Estes of Scott City. (AARON EISENHAUER ~aeisenhauer@semissourian.com)

At the Division I-AA level, Southeast Missouri State may have a harder time working around its lack of experience in the quarterback position.

None of the four players who began the fall hoping to earn the snaps had thrown a pass at this level of college ball before.

Junior Houston Lillard, a junior college transfer, was on campus but injured last year. Fellow junior Victor Anderson played on the junior college level last year.

They will have their first chance to show what they can do on the big stage tonight when Southeast opens the season at Cincinnati.

Waiting in the wings are redshirt freshman Steve Callanan and true freshman Jared Van Slyke.

St. Vincent junior Justin L'Hote, center, looks like the front-runner to be the quarterback at St. Vincent after moving in from wide receiver. He is backed up at the position by junior Darin Yamnitz, left, and junior Kyle Rollet. (AARON EISENHAUER ~aeisenhauer@semissourian.com)

Southeast last year did make the conversion of a receiver to quarterback, giving Anthony Scaife one start.

But that's much more common in high school, which is why area coaches seem pretty confident about their passing games.

Former offensive lineman Caleb Estes has good receivers and running backs to work with at Scott City. And he already has a good working relationship with the guys in the trenches.

St. Vincent moved leading receiver Justin L'Hote to the backfield, and Central converted speedy receiver and track standout Chase Johnson.

Perryville, already with a top running back in Kris Cottner, moved Josh Perreault to quarterback in a new offensive scheme.

Chaffee, also with a couple of returning running backs from its breakthrough 3-7 campaign, is doing the same with Andrew Hendrix.

That leaves Harris, who was the quarterback for Jackson's undefeated junior varsity team last year that passed more times than the varsity. He spent part of his summer training at Peyton Manning's camp.

In this crowd of quarterbacks, he stands out.