Fron the Capital Journal:
Such a household name for anyone
who follows Kansas high school football.
The Bulldawg senior quarterback is
coming off of back-to-back huge seasons and already is off to a big start in
2015. In fact on Friday night against Rock Creek, Horak enjoyed the greatest
statistical game of his career, rushing for a whopping 359 yards and five
touchdowns on a mere 13 carries, while also completing 9 of 10 passes for 100
yards and two touchdowns.
A game like that will make a name
for a player. But Horak would just as soon it make a name for some of his
teammates who typically toil in anonymity: his offensive line.
“They’re doing an amazing job of
making good things happen for us,” Horak said. “When you have an offense as
explosive as ours, they don’t get near the credit that they deserve. They sure
make things easy for me.”
So who are “They?” Well, here you
go.
At left tackle is Kole Davoren. At
left guard Gabe Marney. At center Zach Jensen. At right guard Tyler Sage. And
at right tackle Jackson Reeves.
Four of the five are seniors with
Reeves the lone junior. Four of the five are returning starters, again Reeves
the only newcomer to the group.
Rossville has gone 29-1 over the
last two-plus years, and these guys are a major reason why.
“I think everything starts with the
offensive line,” Rossville coach Derick Hammes said. “I think the playmakers
that we’ve had and the kids that are playing with us now all recognize that it
doesn’t get done without those guys.”
Not only is the unit senior-heavy,
but there’s plenty of experience in those seniors. Sage and Jensen are both
three-year starters, while Davoren and Marney are two-year starters. Marney was
the only member of the group to earn All-Mid-East League honors last year,
getting an honorable mention nod.
That experience has been
invaluable, Hammes said, as has been the influence of former Hayden standout
Dan Schneider as the team’s line coach.
“I think there’s a chemistry and
things offensive linemen have to do in terms of working together that make it
very important,” Hammes said. “The fact that we have four of these linemen back
from last year is big because they’ve seen and done a lot of things together.
“(Schneider) has done a great job
and to me he’s so valuable because he can take those guys and make them adjust
to do the things they need to do when they see it. That happens a lot for us as
people change their schemes and try to figure out a way to get the ball out of
(Horak’s) hands and stop our running game. What we see on film may not be what
we see on Friday nights.”
The days of Rossville’s undersized
lines also seem to be a thing of the past. Four of the five starters are 220
pounds or bigger, as are key senior reserves Eric Ebert and Chayne Hulbert,
whom Hammes said would start for most 3A programs but merely provide great
depth for the Bulldawgs.
Through three games, Rossville is
averaging 525 yards and 54 points per game.
“More of it than anything is
schematically for the past two years, we’ve been getting off the ball and
blocking the right people,” Hammes said. “They’re coached really well and they’re
smart kids, too. This group, what they’ve done in the weight room, they really
had to work to get there. The last couple of years, we’ve seen their strength
numbers go up and they’ve just been really good for us.”
