As hard as it may be to believe, the high school football season is quickly bearing down on the area.  Following this week’s Missouri State High School Activities Association’s mandated dead period, Coach Mike Thompson is looking forward to practice starting on August 9. 

With a 6-5 record in 2020, Fayette will look to replace several senior starters from last year in Thompson’s third year at the helm of the Falcon squad.

“ We started off last year pretty strong, winning a couple of games we had lost the year before, beating Carrollton after losing to them twice the year before and Scotland County. So we got off to the kind of start we had hoped to get off to,” said Thompson of the 2020 season. “Then we had a setback against Slater and had to deal with some injuries.” The Slater game started a three-game skid when Fayette lost to Slater, Westran, and Marceline. “After that, we won the games we expected to win but didn’t win the ones that were considered ‘toss-ups.’ 

In those toss-up games, Thompson said his defense played well, but the team made a lot of mistakes on offense that gave the other teams extra possessions and more chances to score.

“We outgained our opponents in almost every game last year, including the ones we lost,” Thompson said. “We lost those games because of mental and physical mistakes.”

Losing several senior leaders from last year’s squad, Thompson is looking to fill roles at linebacker, the defensive backfield, and a huge spot on the defensive line. In addition to those defensive spots, there will be seniors missing on the offensive line and in the receiving corps. These will all need to be filled by up-and-coming players on the roster.

“This year will be really interesting,” said Thompson. “Certainly Garren Vroman is a very good football player. He has an incredible work ethic and he does everything you want him to do.” 

“Vroman, now a senior, tore his ACL at the beginning of the summer and is not yet allowed to run. He can’t do hamstring types of exercises, but he’s working on his quads and other areas,” Thompson explained. “He works hard every day. We fully expect him to be back soon and to be a mainstay of our offense at the running back position. He just does things the right way.”

While Vroman will be a leader on the field, others may take on the role of vocal leader of the team. That role may fall to multiple seniors, notably Tyler Bartholomew, Avery Powell, and Chris Brown. Junior Chase Allen-Jackman has stepped up in leadership as well, along with junior quarterback Ben Wells.

“Chase and Ben will be looking to take on more of a leadership role as juniors than they have in the past,” said Thompson.

The offensive line has a lot of question marks at this point because it is not certain who will answer the call when practice starts next Monday.

“We expected to have pretty good numbers this year, but this summer we just haven’t had a lot of participation,” said Thompson. “When they haven’t been here during the summer we don’t know if they will be here when practice starts. We thought we were coming into this season bringing back four offensive linemen and a fifth one that we were pretty comfortable with, so we thought we knew where all the pieces were going to be. This summer we saw we were going to have to do something different.”

One of those differences will be senior Chris Brown moving from guard to center, while junior Haden Kelly will likely man one of the tackle positions. 

“Tyler Bartholomew, while only weighing in at about 140 pounds showed why he fills one of those leadership roles,” Thompson said. “He said ‘Hey, I’ll play offensive line, I don’t mind, I don’t need to be a running back.’ So he’s been working with the offensive line.”

Rounding out the group will be Malaki Graves, Wesley Minor, and some younger players who will be fighting for positions.

Ben Wells, now a junior, will be in the starting quarterback position. “We put a lot on Ben’s shoulders last year as a sophomore and asked a lot of him,” Thompson said. “He had never really thrown the ball a lot before and had never run the option before, but we asked him to learn to read a defense and choose whether to give the ball or keep the ball. We asked him to learn whether to keep it or throw it, then we asked him to throw it more. When you do that there is a real learning curve.

“With Ben, he looked like a seasoned pro against Carrollton and Scotland County, and then he had a couple of mistakes and we struggled and he started to battle with believing with himself and what we were asking him to do. We stayed with him, knowing what we had coming and what we saw in the future.”

Thompson said he observed Wells at a summer football camp held at Mizzou. “He looked to me like he had gained confidence in himself, seeing he was as good as everybody there. Ben threw the ball well there, and has thrown it well this summer.”

“Like any good quarterback, he is susceptible to trying to do too much, maybe just trying to force it where it can’t go. He’s still going to do that, but I think you will see real maturity from last year to this year. He’s just a really special talent.”

Thompson expects Garren Vroman to be the workhorse in the offensive backfield once he is healthy. The top players entering the NFL draft run the 40 in four seconds or less. Vroman recorded a time of 4.4 seconds. “He’s a great talent and has that incredible work ethic,” said Thompson.

Seniors Avery Powell and Cale Hudson will also get carries, along with classmate D.J. Moore, who Thompson nicknamed “the Hammer.” Moore will play the fullback role.

Caleb McComb is a junior transfer from Warrensburg who will fill in at fullback as long as the transfer paperwork is approved by MSHSAA.

Chase Allen-Jackman will be involved in both the running and passing game.

“There will be a lot of different guys involved, but Garren and Chase will be involved the most,” said Thompson. Senior tight end Logan Wiswall is coming back after his injury last year. “He’s got a great attitude, he’s smart, and is just a really good football player at tight end. He’ll provide a lot of really good leadership, as well,” said Thompson.

On the defensive side of the ball, the leading pass rusher and sack leader from last year, Chase Allen-Jackman, will return to play defensive end. “He will be a big challenge for anybody throwing the ball,” Thompson said. “He’s just stronger, faster, and better than he was a year ago, and he was awfully good a year ago.”

Senior Chris Brown will also join the defensive line, being asked to play both ways. 

Junior Haden Kelly will line up on the opposite end from Allen- Jackman. Juniors Wesley Minor and Malakai Graves will also see time on the defensive line. Thompson will be looking for the best combination to find who will fit in on the line. “Sometimes you find a guy that wants to play linebacker and they struggle a bit, but you put their hand in the dirt and put them on the line, all of a sudden they are ready,” said Thompson. “(Freshman) Micah Estes is one of those guys. We put his hand on the ground and now guys can’t block him. (Freshman) Jacob Wood also has a chance to play this year.”

The Falcons graduated all three of their 2020 starters in the defensive backfield. This year will see the need to replace all three.

“We moved Tyler Bartholomew up to outside linebacker last year from the backfield because we needed him,” said Thompson. “We also moved Avery Powell up. Powell will stay up, but we will move Tyler back to the secondary along with senior Cale Hudson. Senior Dalton Collins will also find time as a D-back. Wells and Vroman are good athletes who may see some time in the secondary also.”

Wiswall will serve as the long snapper and Batholomew as the punter. Returns will be handled by Allen-Jackman and Vroman, among others.

As for predictions, Thompson said depth would be a struggle, but you never know who will show up on Monday.

Fayette hosts the annual preseason football jamboree on CMU’s Davis Field on Friday, August 20, before officially kicking off the season at home against Carrollton on August 27.