St. Paul Indians picked to win TRL 8-Man Division

ANDREW TOWNE

Sports editor

PITTSBURG The common theme around the SEK Football Coaches and Media Luncheon was excitement and that preseason polls dont mean a thing.

Just ask the Fort Scott Tigers.

They were picked to win the SEK League in 2016 but ended up third, and this year, the Tigers are once again favored to win the league. However, Fort Scott Head Coach Bob Campbell was quick to remind everyone that in the Pittsburg State Universitys Plaster Center about 2016.

Meanwhile, for the Chanute Blue Comets, they were picked third behind Fort Scott and Labette County High School.

Like Coach Campbell said, at the end of the day, its just words on a piece of paper, Chanute Coach Chris Shields said. Its not going to matter because you have to go out and play the game.

Independence, Coffeyville and Parsons rounded out the six-team SEK League.

The Comets return 10 players who started at least a game for the Blue Comets a year ago on offense alone, and the coaches around the league recognized the improvement and rewarded Chanute with the high pre-season ranking.

It is a testament to the kids we have coming back and the amount of work they put in, Shields said. We still have to go out and perform on Friday nights.

Shields credits the hard work the student-athletes put in over the summer, and has him extremely excited about the upcoming season.

We had a great summer. We were pleased with the percentage of turn out-wise. Our kids were pretty consistent over the course of the summer, Shields said. We asked a lot more of kids this summer. We hosted a 7-on-7 league at our place on Wednesday nights. We traveled to a couple tournaments and went to several team camps.

Shields hopes that pays off once the season kicks off at 7 pm on Sept. 1 in Iola.

Last year we were a bunch of freshmen and sophomores. This year we are going to be juniors and sophomores, he concluded. I know everyone says this, but Im extremely excited about the upcoming season. We cant wait for Monday to get here.

Practice starts around the league on Monday, Aug. 14 with Chanute hitting the field at 3:30 pm before moving to two-a-day practices on Tuesday.

St. Paul favorites in Three Rivers Leagues 8-man division

Despite the loss of five seniors off a team that finished 9-2 and reached the second round of the 8-Man Division I playoffs, the St. Paul Indians are right back as favorites to win the 8-man division of the Three Rivers League.

Pleasanton was second, and Chetopa was picked third. Colony-Crest, Marmaton Vally and the Altoona-Midway Jets rounded out the six-team division.

SEK League (First place votes)

1. Fort Scott (4) 24

2. Labette County (2) 19

3. Chanute 18

4. Independence 13

5. Coffeyville 10

6. Parsons 6

TRL 8-Man Division

1. St. Paul (4) 20

2. Pleasanton (1) 17

3. Chetopa 12

4. Colony-Crest 11

5. Marmaton Valley 10

6. Altoona-Midway 5

Continued here:

Comets tabbed third in SEK preseason poll - Chanute Tribune