Jersey begins second season with Carter at helm, looks to make big strides forward
BY AARON OTTIS
SPORTS EDITOR
JERSEYVILLE -- The Jersey Community High School Panthers will kick off the 2008 football season on Friday night against the visiting Jacksonville Crimsons.

This will be the second season under head coach Gary Carter, who took over the program last season after a long stint at East Alton-Wood River High School. Last year, the Panthers went 1-8 overall. They scored the least amount of points in the Mississippi Valley Conference, and allowed the most points.

It was clear that Jersey was dealing with growing pains. After all, the team was learning a new offense and defense, and Carter was learning a new conference and talent pool.

This season will mark the first year that Carter has had a full training cycle, including an extensive offseason weight training program, a 7-on-7 passing league and a team camp that many of the boys attended.

On paper anyways, it seems a safe bet that the Panthers will improve upon their one-win season of last year.

“We tried to get the kids in the weight room by holding the helmet decals over their heads,” Carter said. “That was the motivation to come out and work hard during the offseason. We lifted three days a week, with the weight room open in the morning and evening. I was there at 6:30 in the morning and Coach Herron opened it in the evening, so if the kids had jobs during the summer they had no excuse.”

The weight program was well attended, though there were a few stragglers. Carter says that dedication and determined work ethic is what makes the difference between success and failure.

“If we have 60 kids on the team, it is going to take having all 60 kids in the weight room working hard. You have to do that just to be competitive – not to get ahead, but just to be competitive,” Carter explained. “The other two days during the week we are doing speed and agility training at the stadium. We are doing something five days a week to get better.”

With the extra emphasis on passing this summer, Carter looks to see improvement in the throwing game this season. The passing league and tournaments have made Jersey better at throwing the ball, he said, and the air attack will play a larger role in the Panthers offensive scheme.

“Our passing game will be one of our strengths this season, I would imagine,” Carter said. “ We may to have to throw the ball just to be competitive. We still have some guys that need to step up, and after Friday night’s scrimmage, we may move some people around a little bit. We need to get the ball in the hands of our best athletes and let them make plays.”

Starting quarterback Luke Barthelmess, a junior who saw plenty of action behind center last season after Tony Sanderson went down with a broken arm, will look to senior wide receiver Nick Woelfel and senior tight end Sam Pohlman as his top options downfield. Pohlman made the all-conference at TE last season.

Mick Wilderman will be the starting fullback. Wilderman split time with Will Clark last season, and his experience with the offense should pay off.

“We are going to have to be pretty good on our offensive line to be competitive this year,” Carter said. That line will be anchored by center Garrett Tepen. Senior Bryan Weiner has worked his way into a starting position on both sides of the ball, and senior Sam Cronin will get time on both offense and defense.

“ I would love to throw the ball, but first you have to give the guy time to throw the ball,” Carter said. “The bad thing about (not giving the quarterback a solid pocket) is that he gets rushed, has a guy in his face, throws an incomplete pass, throws an interception, we take a ten yard loss instead of a three yard gain running the ball. A lot of people don’t understand that. We are going to do some things to keep us competitive this year. It’s not just Barthelmess and the receivers, it is being able to protect our guy long enough to make a good pass. Not all of that responsibility falls on the offensive line, because the running backs have to help protect as well, but Friday night we had some situations where we were running a three-step drop and the ball should be gone in 1.5 seconds. It pretty much was, Bartlemess is taking three steps, but he has a guy in his face. Guys were missing their assignments on the line and in the backfield. Protection is the number one thing we have to concentrate on to have a successful passing game.”

Carter went on to say that he felt like the team had a better general understanding of offensive assignments, but was disappointed at certain aspects of game play he witnessed in Friday’s scrimmage.

“That is why we are going to make some moves. I feel like some kids that should know their assignments showed that they don’t,” Carter said. “We have some other kids that I thought were going to step and show that they were ready, and they did not. It might be two or three games before we have everyone in the right positions.”

The Panthers have two new teams on the schedule this season. Jersey will travel to Rochester in Week Three and head to Morton in Week Nine. MVC play begins in Week Four, with Jersey heading to Civic Memorial.