2018 Looking Especially Challenging for Cardinals
(Shiner Gazette 2018 Fall Sports Preview)
Thursday, August 30, 2018
by Mark Lube, Sports Editor
St. Paul Cardinal Football | St. Paul Cardinal Sports
A slight majority of underclassmen and a tough non-district schedule will provide a challenge for Shiner St. Paul football.
The 2018 Shiner St. Paul Cardinals Football Team: Front row, from left, is Jackson Ulcak (manager), Carson McNabb (manager), Zane Barta (manager), Trent Brown (manager), Nate Boedeker (manager) and Jacob Wachsmuth (manager). Second row, from left, is Braden Clampit (filmer), Ethan Easterling, Cody Hollenbach, Jacob Spann, Caden Malinovsky, Noah Boedeker, Sam Benes, Grant Barta, Peyton Brown, Kai Giese and Gerard Nunez. Third row, from left, is Kade Leist, Zakery Johnson, Jared Pesek, Kellen Opela, Joseph Natal, Cade Davis, Matthew Malinovsky, Ted Machacek and Atley Pilat. Back row, from left, is coach Charlie Mieschen, Lance Giese, Ryan Geiger, Garrett Wauson, James Fikac, Patrick Green, Cole Brown, Dalton Jahn, Weston Geiger, Luke Darilek, Wes Barton, Jake Wachsmuth and Ron Johnson. Not pictured is Carson Reese and Jake Yackel (filmer). contributed photo
Several days prior to the start of practice, there was plenty of unknowns for the 2018 St. Paul football team.
“I think this year, there is a lot of unknowns at this point,” St. Paul head coach Jake Wachsmuth said Aug. 3, five days before the start of practice. “But there could be a lot of good things. I don’t know where all the pieces are. We are probably more sophomore-freshmen than junior-senior by a little bit. They have been excited the last couple of days. I cannot tell you where it is going to go. But I think we can be really, really good this season.”
Wachsmuth expects to have a lot of things figured out later on in the season.
“If we were to talk 10 weeks from now, it might be different as far as kids working themselves into positions,” he said.
The Cardinals carry seven seniors on the roster and five juniors, joined by 15 underclassmen. Six of the seniors —- Jared Pesek, Dalton Jahn, Joseph Natal, Cole Brown, Patrick Green and Garrett Wauson have been playing throughout high school while Kellen Opiela, a new student at St. Paul last year, came out for football for this year.
“They were all contributors last year either as a starter or rotating starters like a halfand- half player,” Wachsmuth said. “We may not have large numbers of players but they all will contribute.”
Wachsmuth said who plays at what position may not be completely worked out before the first regular-season game but added the coaches try not to make a lot of position changes.
One exception to the that trend is Brown who has lined up at corner, quarterback, nose guard, power guard, power end, linebacker and slot back during his time in junior high and high school.
“There are a couple more players that have done that,” he said.
Wacsmuth said the seniors will be good leaders for the team.
St. Paul’s offense will continue to work at running the ball a lot and using that to set up some passes. The defense will be led by a strong and talented line.
The Cardinals have a pretty stout schedule for 2018. They start with a game at Yorktown Friday, followed by Homecoming against Victoria St. Joseph Sept. 7. Next, comes two- roadtrip games as the Cardinals are at Austin Saints (Sept. 14) and Cypress Christian (Sept. 21).
St. Paul then will have three straight home games with Weimar (Sept. 28), Geneva Boerne (Oct. 5) and Austin Brentwood (Oct. 12).
“It is a tough schedule. A lot of really good teams,” Wacshmuth said. “Some of the teams we scheduled were teams from our district in the past. Some of the schools are bigger in size than us and we never back away from playing larger programs. That might be a little bit of a concern with a team that is a little younger.”
“The plan will be to work to where we finish, not where we start.”
St. Paul’s non-district part will be a bear.
According to Wachsmuth, Yorktown was a playoff team; St. Joseph is bigger than St. Paul; Cypress Christian won TAPPS DIII; Geneva Boerne was in St. Paul’s district and lost in the state semifinals to Cypress Christian; Brentwood is up and coming team; Weimar is a good public school.
“It is not an easy schedule,” Wachsmuth said.
The Cardinals have a revamped and smaller district with Temple Central Texas Christian, San Antonio St. Gerard and Hallettsville Sacred Heart.
District play for St. Paul starts Oct. 19 at Temple CTC; the Cardinals then have a bye the following week before hosting rival Sacred Heart on Nov. 2 and traveling to St. Gerard for a Thursday game on Nov. 8.
“With a late district start, hopefully we can have developed the younger guys and are healthy by that time. And are a mature team,” Wachsmuth said. “Whether we win all those nondistrict games or not is not a big deal. I think we will win some but it is more important we develop and get ready for the end of the season.”
Winning some of the non-district games will be a confidence boost for the team.
Being in a four-team district made the job of scheduling tough for the Cardinals.
Temple CTC was in St. Paul’s district a few years ago, and the Cardinals have seen a lot of St. Gerard and Sacred Heart in district lately.
“Temple CTC has been a good team lately. They gave Sacred Heart a good game in the playoffs last year,” Wachsmuth said. “Sacred Heart is always good and St. Gerard was much improved, and should be better as they have now had the same coach for several years now. Their situation in the past where they would have a new coach each year.”
Every season brings, challenges, surprises and opportunity.
“It is a new season. There is opportunity. I don’t know if we will meet every single goal but that is why you play,” Wachsmuth said. “If you knew what was coming tomorrow, it would not be fun.”
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Mark Lube is the sports editor for the Shiner Gazette. Contact him at 361-594-3346 or shinersports@sbcglobal.net |
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