The Meadowdale football team has some holes to fill, but the Mavericks also have plenty of returning players to build their team around.
The biggest change is at quarterback, which saw the graduation of two-year starter Matt McDonagh. Two players are vying for his position.
The frontrunner heading into next week’s team camp in Wenatchee is senior-to-be Danny McDonald, who was a starting defensive back last season and McDonagh’s backup. McDonald saw some varsity action at quarterback during his sophomore season.
“He runs the ball well,” Meadowdale coach Mark Stewart said. “He has a decent arm. He’s a good leader. He’s resourceful. He’ll do what he can do win. He has good legs.”
One of the goals of Stewart and his staff this spring and summer is to figure out what McDonald, who is 5-foot-11 and weighs about 175 pounds, does well.
“He’s more of a roll-out guy. We’ll get him out of the pocket,” Stewart said. “But we’re not going to stay away from drop back passing. We’ll be running him a little bit more than we did with Matt last year.”
Also figuring into the quarterback mix is junior-to-be Nathan Ball, who started for the junior varsity team. Ball has some of the same type of skills.
“He’s similar to McDonald,” Stewart said of Ball. “He’s a little shorter than him. He’s a little bit faster. He’s a good athlete. He throws a decent ball. He’s a playmaker.”
Whoever Stewart settles on will have one of the league’s top returning receivers in senior-to-be tight end Connor Hamlett. Stewart hopes to move the 6-7, 230-pound standout outside more.
“He’s fast. He goes up and catches the ball,” Stewart said. “We want to get him isolated.”
Hamlett, who also plays linebacker, didn’t see much time on defense last year but that should change in 2009.
The backfield returns in senior-to-be running back Sam Werner. Werner broke his foot in the third game of the season and did not play the rest of the year. He also ended up missing the entire basketball season.
“He’s back running around,” Stewart said. “He’s got speed and is an elusive back. He’s a great cutback runner, who is hard to hit. He has great speed.”
Senior-to-be Riley Neff-Warner is a two-year starter at safety and is such a good athlete that Stewart wants to find him a role on offense. He could end up in the backfield or play out in the slot.
Also back on defense are linebacker Robert Belt and linemen Kelvin Moore.
Last week, Meadowdale scrimmaged against Jackson in preparation for next week’s team camp. Even though the Mavericks were missing some of their key players, the scrimmage allowed the coaching staff to take some video of the players for the first time this spring/summer.
“We’re starting to talk to guys about things to improve on,” Stewart said. “It (video) is something they can look at.”
Stewart expects most of Meadowdale’s key players to be at the team camp, which will enable him and his staff to take a closer look at them. The Mavericks always face tough competition in Wenatchee.
“We’re looking to get some answers on questions about players, about who can do what,” Stewart said. “We’re looking to try and figure out what type of a team we are and where our leadership is going to come from.
“We’re looking to evaluate our players and our schemes and find out what we can do well and where we need to get better.”
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