Kickapoo football excited for opportunity to play on Friday

img_2360-22

By Chris Parker & Chad Plein

The only certainty for sports in the COVID-19 era is uncertainty.

Kickapoo football learned that lesson first hand this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, Kickapoo found out it wouldn’t be traveling to play Parkview this week due to COVID-19 exposures within the Vikings’ team. It was type of announcement that athletes, coaches and fans all over have been dreading all fall.

“I kind of got a little scared and little nervous; a little sickening feeling in my stomach that it might be getting closer to the end. If stuff like that keeps happening it is not going to be good, so I was so sad and a little bummed out,” Kickapoo senior Boone Shevey said.

Kickapoo was not going to try to replace the game due to travel restrictions imposed by Springfield Public Schools. SPS teams won’t be playing games outside of southwest Missouri or hosting teams from outside of the area this fall.

Fast forward 24 hours, and it was announced the highly anticipated matchup between defending Class 5 state champion Carthage and defending Class 4 state champion Webb City had been called off due to COVID-19 exposures within Carthage’s team.

Less than three hours later, Kickapoo and Webb City had agreed to play each other on Friday in Webb City.

It is a tall task for Kickapoo to prepare for the defending state champions on 52 hours’ notice, but the Chiefs jumped at a chance to suit up on Friday.

“We don’t know when this is going to shut down. We could be in the situation Carthage and Parkview is in next week where we don’t have a game for two weeks,” Thomas said. “Ultimately, it just came down to us playing a game and we got a good quality opponent. That’s going to be a great gauge for where we’re at program wise right now and there’s usually not any better than Webb City and Coach Roderique down there.”

The series between Kickapoo and Webb City is tied at 3-3 all-time according to veteran local broadcaster Don West. The two teams have not played since 2007, which was won by Webb City.

“It’s been a little crazy. We’ve got a bunch of coaches run around trying to get everything prepped and it’s been a little bit crazy. We’re going to do what we do, and we got a football game on Friday,” Thomas said. “Luckily we got some guys on staff that have played them before. We know what they do. You know they’re in that split back veer and that’s what they do and they’re really good at it.”

While the teams may not be familiar on the football field, there will be plenty of familiar faces on the other side for Shevey from his time on the baseball field.

“I’ve always wanted to play them (Webb City). I’ve got a couple buddies that play for them that I’ve played baseball with and we’re real close,” Shevey said. “They told me before Coach Thomas told me that we were playing them. They were excited too.”

Kickapoo is unbeaten at 3-0 on the season outscoring opponents 96-51. The Chiefs are the No. 2 scoring defense in the Ozark Conference Webb City is off to a 2-1 start outscoring opponents 134-69. The Cardinals are the No. 1 scoring offense in the Central Ozark Conference.

The Chiefs are off to their best start since 2016 when they won their first four games of the season and finished 9-2 overall.

Depth has been a key for the turnaround.

“I think our depth has been the most surprising part,” Thomas said. “We think we’ve had a bunch of guys ready to play, especially at running back. We’ve had a three man rotation there at running back. We’ve had some guys step up on the defensive side of the ball on at outside linebacker. We’ve played three really good opponents that we’re really happy with where we’re at right now. So like I said, we’ve got a good barometer here on Friday for where we’re at. Hopefully we take the next step on Friday against Webb City.”

Kickapoo kicks off at Webb City on Friday at 7 p.m.

Related Posts

Loading...