Warriors shoot for another winning season
Lorton takes over as head coach
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| John Swistak Jr. photo The Granite City football team graduated a bunch of talent from last year's 6-4 squad, which provided the program's first winning season since 1991. The Warriors will be relying on four all-Southwestern Conference players "? Gary Dudek, Brad Morgan, Troy Fox and Kyle Jackson "? to lead the team. |
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After going 6-4 last fall, the Granite City Warriors finished with their first winning season since 1991.This fall, the Warriors will look to finish with another winning season. But they have to do it with a new head coach. J.D. Lorton, who coached at Riverton the last two years, takes over head coaching duties.
"To have success like they had last year, they have to prepare and they have to work," Lorton said. "The one thing I've noticed about the kids around here is they're not afraid of hard work and they've been doing it all summer. The other thing is besides preparing, they're also learning the game. They're doing things they haven't done before and are doing it in a different way than they've done before and they're positive about it and they're buying into it. They seem to be excited."
The Warriors had 10 players on the all-Southwestern Conference team last year, four of them are returning this season. They are seniors Gary Dudek, Brad Morgan, Troy Fox and Kyle Jackson.
The four players earned all-league honors on defense in the 2007 season. They helped the Warriors allow an average of 18.8 points per game with two shutouts. Before last season, Granite City hadn't had a shutout since 2001.
"Anybody who knows how we played defense last year, knows we've got some players," Lorton said.
Fox is also the Warriors' top returning player on offense. Last year, he finished with three touchdowns and earned second-team all-conference honors at wide receiver.
The Warriors also return Dudek (wide receiver) and seniors Ryan Lockridge (lineman) and Ryan Schooley (wide receiver) on offense.
Junior Lavonce James and senior Andy Tretter will be sharing quarterback duties. They'll replace Matt Kelly, who rushed for 396 yards on 119 carries, threw for 632 yards and scored six touchdowns last season.
"They're both working hard and they're going to be seeing some playing time," Lorton said.
Lorton said he was pleased with the turnout in the first week of practice. A total of 117 players, including 44 juniors and seniors, attended the first week of practice.
"In the first day, we came in a little sluggish," Lorton said. "We weren't focused in the first part of practice, but from the second practice on, they had a business-like attitude. They know we have to outwork our opponents, so they've been coming to practice that way ready to outwork people."
Last year, Granite City clinched a winning season by going 4-0 on the road during the regular season. This year, the Warriors will open their season at Marion on Friday. Marion beat Granite City 35-19 in the first week of the season, finished with a 10-3 record and qualified for the Class 5A playoffs in 2007.
"I know Marion has a good football program," Lorton said. "They can't go to the semifinals and not know what they're doing. We have to prepare ourselves and be ready for that one because they're a very good football team. I'm not taking anything away from these guys. We're a good football team. We have good kids and we've got kids who are working hard and buying in what we're doing."
The Warriors also will look to finish with another winning season in Southwestern Conference play. Granite City was 5-2 in league play last season and four of those wins came on the road.
"The Southwestern Conference is a tough league and we're not going to back down from anybody," Lorton said. "We're ready to play some football."
