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Porcupines look to return to familiar playoff contention for 2010 season
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Springtown's Caden Cowan (12) enters his third year as the Porcupines' quarterback in the 2010 season, hoping to lead Pojo back to postseason play. HEIDI STOUT/DEMOCRAT PHOTO
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SPRINGTOWN — It was a sub-par year for the Springtown Porcupine football team. Used to making the playoffs, even if it happened by squeezing through a very tight space, the Porcupines fell a little short this time around.
“We are very disappointed because our goals was to make the playoffs. Looking back on the season, we had a small senior class and we played a lot of young kids, especially on defense,” said Springtown head coach Brad Turner. “Every team that I’ve had, you kind of put everything on the seniors because its’ their team and you kind of go as they go.
“When you start with 14 compared to 25-30, you’re kind of at a disadvantage. But we had good leadership out of those guys. I felt like they did a good job of leading and whatnot. We were just playing with a short stick in some areas.”
As a whole, the Porcupines will lose 15 players to graduation in the likes of — Dalton Gentry, Mickey Pesqueda, Montana Marsh, Clayton Cooper, Dakota Bartee, Shane Brown, Xavier Sanchez, Roger Kubrak, Aaron Hobbs, Justin Loraus, Glen Bradley, Eric Salas, Cody Horton, Matt Rowe and Brandon Baker.
But with the loss of that group as well as a disappointing season, all signs point to a positive future.
“We’ll have 32 seniors next year, and that’s a good thing. This was the smallest senior class I’ve had since 1998, and we had a lot of young guys that got some good playing time,” Turner said.
Minus this year’s junior class, two freshman and six sophomores also saw time on the field, an added bonus to next year’s team.
“Defensively, we should be a lot better next year. I would be very disappointed if we weren’t a lot better just because we’re returning everybody,” Turner said. “Our biggest concern on that side of the ball will be filling the cornerback slots.”
A bright spot on the offensive side will be starting playcaller Caden Cowan.
“We’ve got a two-year starter coming back at quarterback, so you’ve got to hope that good things will happen there,” the Springtown coach said. “At running back, we lost Xavier but [Cameron] Dauenhauer got a lot of time and a lot of carries. He also played linebacker so he may end up going to the other side of the ball.”
With the perks of experienced youth, the Porcupines also face several concerns, including size and strength.
“We’ve got to get stronger. Up front on the offensive line especially, we weren’t very big,” Turner said. “We can get a little bigger adding some muscle mass and things, but we’ve got to get stronger.
“We got pushed around a little bit, and some of that had to do with us playing some young guys.”
Springtown will have time to sort everything out in the offseason, including plugging in athletes to positions.
“Every team has its own personality and its own strengths an weaknesses so as we start over now, we’ve got to identify what our skill players are good at and how we do things going into spring,” the head coach said.
As if those matters weren’t enough, the Porcupines will have to face something much bigger than personnel assignments.
On Feb. 1, the University of Interscholastic League will have its realignment, done every two years. This decides what districts teams will be in as well as what classification, depending on enrollment numbers.
As a current small 4A school, Springtown will be faced with the possibility of becoming a 3A school.
“Feb. 1 is a huge day for me in several ways,” Turner said. “No only will it decide if we’ll be a small 4A or a big 3A, but we find out what district we’ll be in and who we’ll be playing.
“It’s one of those things where you just have to wait and see.”
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WHS wrestlers place second in district meet, nine headed to regional tourney
