Posted: May 10, 2014
Swedes Football Spring Game Outlook: By Paul Mogenson
By Paul K. Mogenson
The Salina Journal
LINDSBORG--After a dismal 2-9 season last fall, the frist of the Manny Matsakis regime, the Bethany Swedes have made great strides to improve for the 2014 season and tonight, at 7 p.m. Matsakis will put his current charges through their paces at Anderson Field.
Having worked with a squad of 66 men throughout the spring, sprinkled with several new and talented faces, Matsakis feels his club is nearly ready to go defensively and as is typical, with the offense coming along more slowly.
"I'd say when you look at our roster from 2013 to 2014, we have made the most significant improvement in our total defense and our skill positions on offense. That is the biggest marked improvement thus far."
The skill positions, not just on offense, but in the secondary as well, boast considerably more speed than before.
"I'm happy with our corners right now," Matsakis said. "Jarrot Bell, who's moved over to corner, is doing really well and Tim Hill (transfer from Garden City JC) at strong safety is a definite starter for us.
"Those are a couple of guys who have really stood out for us.
"If you say you want a team fully stocked at 100 percent, right now I think our defense is probably stocked at about 90 percent. Offensively, we're probably behind a little bit, we're probably about 70 percent stocked."
Last season the quarterback position became an issue in the first quarter of the first game when Justin Bane, a transfer from Baylor, suffered a major dislocation of his passing shoulder and had to undergo complete reconstructive surgery.
That left the Swedes with sophomore Bo Savage as the leading returner. But with Savage, just a year removed from playing eight man football at Central of Burden, and despite his tremendous improvement, Matsakis needed to find immediate maturity to plug into the crucial quarterback position.
"Had Bo played this way last fall, I believe we'd have won three or four more games. He was still adapting to the 11 man game. He's made great progress but he's still young. That's why we were able to bring in some upper classmen."
Enter Virgil Bridges.
Bridges comes from a California junior college and comes in at 6-1, 185. He seems perfectly suited to run the Triple Shoot Offense.
Both Bridges and Savage will be taking most of the reps in the Spring game tonight with two more quarterbacks on the roster, Wilson's Jordan Bess and Taylor Platt from Axtell also seeing action.
Bridges has missed a week due to an injury he suffered in a scrimmage on April 26 but also brings 4.4 40 speed to the table as well as a strong arm.
The offensive line had been hit the hardest by graduation, but with the arrival of Bryan Polio, a 6-0, 285 transfer, one hole has been plugged.
"The best offensive lineman we have right now is our center Bryan Polio. He has great foot-work, he's smart, plays the game great and has been the steadiest throughout the spring."
Matsakis also noted that of his recruits to arrive this fall will be 12 more offensive linemen, four of which are upper class transfers. "That will give us the competition we need."
Looking at the potential of his special teams, the punting game is not a worry for Matsakis.
"Our punter is excellent. Brett Crome (Marysville junior) will be the best punter in the league. Once he got healthy the second half of the year, you take his average (then), he was one of the top in the nation."
Coming out of spring camp Alex Brave is the lone place kicker but he'll have competition in the fall as the Swedes will have two more coming from the high school ranks and one from the juco wars.
Having an early fall scrimmage next August and a junior varsity game with Sterling before opening the season with Southwest Assemblies of God on September 6, will give Matsakis and his staff ample opportunity to gather insight as to what the Swedes will be capable of in 2014.