The 2017 high school football season starts this Friday. To get ready, we sent Ethan Koch around the city to interview coaches and catch practice. For day 4, we travel north of Highway 24 to see how the Seaman Vikings will build off last year’s playoff run.
After three straight losing seasons and five in the last six years, the Seaman Vikings made sweeping changes.
In January of 2016, the school hired former Scott City football and basketball coach Glenn O’Neil to get the team back on track. After winning six championships for the Beavers, he quickly restored the Viking program, going 8-3, 6-2 in conference play, and making the state quarterfinals last season.
“Early on our first step was to get to .500 and then once we guaranteed that the next thing was taking care of the frosting on the cake with as many wins as we can and adding on to that with a couple playoff victories,” said O’Neil, who won his 100th game as a football coach against rival Hayden last September.
Now, in year two, O’Neil and the Vikings will look to the next step forward, not only in the Centennial League, but in the difficult 5A landscape.
O’Neil said this team knows his system and can hit the ground running quicker than last year. However, they lose many key contributors from a year ago.
“The biggest thing for us is that we are probably way ahead scheme wise but as far as experience wise and depth wise we are probably just a little bit below where we were last year at the same time,” O’Neil said. “But that’s kind of the shape of everyone that…has a good group of seniors. You just throw in that next bunch and see how they develop.”
Last season, Seaman was second in the Centennial League in total offense and points per game. Dalton Cowan led the city in all-purpose yards on his way to All-City and All-Centennial League honors. Nick Steiner and Kevin Moranz led the team in receiving with 1300 yards combined. Those players, along with kick returner Traice Hartter and wide receiver Simeon Sykes, have graduated.
“The biggest thing that changes is the number of skill kids that are coming back,” O’Neil said. “Had a lot of seniors last year that played for Coach Pierce for their first three years and when I stepped in they were fully mature and had a lot of varsity experience under their belt.”
O’Neil said he will look to play more juniors earlier in the season. One of those juniors is Kobe Jones, who will take over at quarterback. According to O’Neil, the former running back has made strides this off season and has the ability to make big plays for the offense.
“His biggest deal is not his talent,” O’Neil said about his new quarterback. “His biggest deal is lack of experience because at this time last year he was a running back. He has a nice strong arm. He’s pretty quick as far as his athletic ability, so he brings a lot to the table. What he does not bring to the table his that varsity experience, but the equalizer for him is, scheme wise, he’s ahead of where Dalton was at this point last year. So hopefully we can play catch up real quick.”
Jones possesses a big arm and the ability to make plays with his feet. Now his coach believes all he needs is to develop the consistency it takes to win games on Friday nights.
“He can throw 65 yards, make a Division I throw on one play and then come back and his guess might not be as good with his next throws. That’s gonna come with a little time and a little patience.”
Despite losing some key targets, Jones will have good receivers to throw to this season. Senior Janson Garman had 5 catches for 98 yards and two touchdowns last season, along with 19 carries for 140 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
“[Janson’s a] big target, one our most athletic guys,” O’Neil said.
Dalton Temmen returns as the team’s most experience running back. He had 160 yards and three touchdowns on 23 carries last year.
Defensively, Seaman loses much of their core, including Steiner, Jalen Steelman, Mike Latendresse, and Matt Schlossman. However, they do return linebacker Sam Payne. As a sophomore, Payne had 83 tackles last year, second on the team. Coach O’Neil believes he is a perfect fit for this defense.
“Part of it is instinct and the other part is he is grasping what the scheme is asking him to do. Playing on the inside linebacker as soon as he checks his primary gap he’s free to make plays over the rest of the field. [He’s a] pretty good athlete as far as the quickness. He’s not going to get out there and win very many 40 yard dashes but as far as football speed he played really well last year.”
Payne leads a defense that gave up 20.9 points per game last year, 17.7 in the first nine games of the season. He will be joined by Temmen at inside linebacker, junior defensive back Jake Spence, and senior defensive end Mitchell Miller.
After last season’s playoff run, expectations have risen for this program. For this team, however, they don’t like to focus on outside noise.
“The biggest expectation is that we don’t talk about it,” O’Neil said. “What we talk about is practice by practice, getting on the field and becoming a little more knowledgeable, and with that knowledge playing a little bit faster, and after you start playing faster playing physical. That process starts in the weight room last December after we got knocked out [of playoffs].”
Stats from the Topeka Capital-Journal and MaxPreps.com.
