Warriors Looking To Wake The ‘Eko’s
SYRACUSE – The dawn of a new era of Wawasee football has begun in Syracuse, and his voice can be heard loud and clear.
The echoes of new head coach Josh Ekovich can literally be heard on campus during preseason practice from all sides. While his voice may carry, his point is being squarely made that his football team will be ready to go when Whitko comes calling on Aug. 23.
“Basically, its just different from a management side,” Ekovich said at Wawasee football media day. “The O line was my focus, now I have to start practices, make sure things run smooth.”
Ekovich, a former assistant under previous head coach Tom Wogomon, isn’t necessarily looking to scramble up the entire format. Ekovich does want to carry forward what Wogomon, who took the Northridge job last spring, was able to leave in a competitive Wawasee side that closed the 2012 season on a five-game winning streak before losing to Concord in the sectional final. That momentum, combined with a very solid group of skill position returners, could be the start to something good.
“This group has a lot of confidence in their abilities,” Ekovich said. “They are not cocky. They are playing with a chip on their shoulder. Wawasee is not a football powerhouse, so we have something to prove.”
At the forefront of the attention on offense are the junior pitch and catch combo of quarterback Gage Reinhard and receiver Clayton Cook. Reinhard threw for a total of 1,126 yards and tossed 10 touchdowns, nine of which went to Cook, who hauled in 33 of Reinhard’s passes for 624 yards. Senior Austin Lutz will likely be another key target for Reinhard in the passing game, although Lutz finished with just a dozen catches for 150 yards a season ago.
The running game took a big hit with the graduation of Derrick Sorensen, a durable back who posted 608 yards rushing. To fill the void, Ekovich is pointing to a running back by committee to start. Converted wide receiver Brandin McCullouch and senior classmate Braxton O’Haver, who is shifting to fullback for the first time, will join junior Dominik Sanderson for carries. Juniors Mylon Betts and Nic Wilson are the lone returning running backs, both only having 35 yards apiece of varsity coverage.
O’Haver at linebacker is the show piece of a defensive group that has kept Wawasee afloat the past couple seasons. All seven of the backs have at least one game of varsity experience, according to Ekovich, which should be the anchoring piece to the Warrior puzzle. Wilson and Kurtis Liston should step in as defensive backs, with Lutz and McCullouch returning as safeties. Ekovich named over a half dozen candidates to fill the defensive line, pointing to seniors Dusty Akers and Ronald Vardaman as potential breakthrough performers on the line.
“We have a lot of guys that we can move around, and we might have to see how everyone fits in the first couple weeks,” Ekovich said. “We’ll have to find out who will play where. All of our guys are on about the same level.”
Ekovich is adamant that his team is only worried about Whitko in week one, but boy, it would be hard not to worry about the next few weeks. Week two features a trip to Father Bly Field at Leighton Stadium to face South Bend St. Joseph’s, which has been to the 3A state finals twice in the past three years. After that, the newly minted ‘rivalry’ game against Wogomon’s Northridge Raiders in Middlebury, then the usual Northern Lakes Conference gauntlet of Concord, at NorthWood, Plymouth and at Warsaw in a row.
“We will have to take things game by game,” Ekovich said. “I don’t want our kids to be too overwhelmed. So we will just worry about Whitko. I’ll never worry about anyone but who is next on the schedule.”