Southern Boone embracing ‘competition’ at summer workouts
ASHLAND, Mo. (KMIZ)
After posting its first eight-win season since 2019, the Southern Boone Eagles are aiming to build on last year's success to soar to new heights in 2024. Mark Ross' team is beginning to put the finishing touches on summer workouts before turning the page to the first official practice of the fall sports season on Aug. 12.
"The summer feels like its flown by. The kids have been working hard, and doing everything that they need to do," Mark Ross, Southern Boone's head football coach, said. "We've got a lot of position battle type stuff going on, and our numbers have grown significantly. We've had a lot of fun this summer, and we wish it wasn't over and we had a little more time, but we are getting to that point where we're kind of wrapping everything up and getting ready for fall camp."
Following that 8-3 season, Southern Boone graduated 12 seniors, including some key leaders of the program like former starting quarterback Austin Evans and wide receiver Chase Morris. Ross said on Tuesday that he's starting to see glimpses of who is stepping up as this season's leaders and has noticed several players develop those leadership characteristics over the offseason. He also mentioned the determination of this year's senior and junior classes to become the next group of impact players for the program.
"We return four guys on both sides of the ball from last year, but our depth is so much better this year. We do feel like there's guys who are kind of locking themselves into certain positions, but we've got guys stepping right in behind them. We've got a group of seniors and juniors that are hungry to kind of fill in some of those roles, so it's created a lot more competition in practice and it's really kind of pushing those guys to get better at this time of the year, which is everything we're looking for," Ross said.
Since Evans graduated in May, there is an open competition at practice for the starting quarterback job. Ross highlighted three players who have been battling for that spot this summer and are emerging as potential candidates to lead the Southern Boone offense in Week 1.
"Mason Shearer broke his wrist last fall, so he's really kind of been out. He's finally back this week for the first time all summer long, and so, he's getting back into throwing and taking some team reps. But, Ryder Salter and Brayden Beckmann have done a tremendous job of really taking on that quarterback role this year, and I think it's great because Mason was kind of the heir apparent to Austin [Evans] leaving the program and I think those guys are going to be able to push Mason. It's going to be a battle between those three," Ross said.
Meanwhile, two position groups poised to be difference-makers for this year's team are the student-athletes in the trenches. Southern Boone has multiple starters back on both its offensive and defensive lines, and the team plans to lean on both those units this fall.
"For us, it's all going to start up front. On the defensive line, we've got two guys coming back that started most of the season. We've got a third that did some starts last year on the defensive line, and then, on the offensive line, we've got four returning starters coming back and some other guys that are kind of stepping in and continuing to push for position," Ross said. "For us, we're still looking to see a little more growth out of those guys, but it's really going to start up front for us and that's kind of the guys we're going to rely on this year."
The Eagles will begin their hunt for the program's first district title in six years when the season kicks off on Aug. 30. Southern Boone opens the new campaign at home against Odessa.
