FREEPORT — The Pretzels are giving stars Kevin Flack and Wes Gastel more room to operate.
“Freeport is a scary, scary team,” Hononegah coach Tim Sughroue said. “They have their whole backfield back. Wes Gastel is multifaceted; he can do anything.”
“They will be running the spread,” agreed Boylan coach Dan Appino, “and they will be dangerous.”
The Pretzels return 11 starters from a 4-5 team, seven on offense. Gastel was the NIC-10 offensive MVP as a junior for his breakaway skills as a running back/receiver/kick returner. Flack passed for 1,122 yards, the 21st most in conference history, and 11 TDs.
“Kevin Flack has a Division I arm,” Freeport coach Terry Werntz said. “His lack of height and maybe his speed might keep him from playing Division I, but he does have an arm. We will use that to our advantage.”
JOE TAMBORELLO |
GATEHOUSE NEWS SERVICE
NIC-10 co-MVP Wes Gastel carries the
ball during Freeport’s intrasquad
scrimmage on Aug. 22.
Ditto for Gastel’s speed. “He’s a very big-play guy,” Werntz said.
So much so that Gastel became a marked man last year. To give him more room, Werntz switched to the spread offense. And to run it well, he hired Craig Jenkins as offensive coordinator. Jenkins was the architect of the spread offense for Freeport Aquin’s 2005 Class 1A state champs. Aquin’s head coach that year, Jake Rankin, is the Pretzels’ line coach.
“I tried to get Craig right away when I took over two years ago, but he took a two-year hiatus,” Werntz said. “When Craig came about, Jake said, ‘Do you have room for me, too?’
“In the past, I had always been strictly defense,” said Werntz, Freeport’s longtime defensive coordinator before he moved up to head coach.
“The last two years, I had my voice in the offense as well. It took away a little from my defensive scheming. Now I can go back to strictly defense.”
Freeport can’t play power ball with the league’s best. “Our school district is getting smaller and everyone else is getting bigger,” Werntz said. “We can’t compete with them up front, so we’re going to spread things around.
“We can’t block at the line of scrimmage with power football. But if we can get on you in the open field, we can stalk block you. And we will be very quick.
“Not having the big, big linemen, the spread simplifies what your linemen have to learn. You don’t have guys pulling and sweeping. We’re getting a lot of reps at a very few things. We just have to get good at it.”
Assistant Sports Editor Matt Trowbridge can be reached at 815-987-1383 or mtrowbridge@rrstar.com
