Sports

In the line of sight

By Matthew Semisch

08/19/2014

Being a quarterback on a football team is exactly as glamorous as we’ve all grown up being made to think it is, but that glamor comes at a price.

Whoever gets that role is, almost by default, one of the stars of the show. The offense’s signal caller is the first person most people look to as a leader on the gridiron, and how it often works is that as the quarterback goes, so goes the team.

There’s a lot to the job description, though, and the criteria therein separate candidates with genuine QB material from the wannabe riff-raff. Each play starts and ends ever more quickly at the higher levels of the sport, and if you can’t scan the whole field in front of you while also making good snap decisions, then maybe the position isn’t for you.

Football season in North Dakota is only days old now - weeks for the bigger colleges - but already roles on teams are being decided. Bottineau High and Westhope-Newburg-Glenburn (W-N-G) have already named their starting quarterbacks, while Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) is in the prcoess of who will assume the No. 1 job there.

The Lumberjacks of DCB have seasoned options to choose from in terms of players with previous experience under center. As far as the high schools go, though, their new top signal callers are both making a big step up and are having to adjust in a hurry.

THE UNDERSTUDY

When the 2013 football season began for W-N-G, there was no question as to who would lead the Sioux’s offense. That job belonged to Hunter Braaten, and after leading his team to a second consecutive Dakota Bowl state title game appearance and finishing as an all-state selection, the then-senior quarterback went out with a deafening bang.

Life after Braaten, now a freshman wide receiver at Minnesota State-Moorhead, has necessitated a regime change. Because of that, Sioux head coach Tom Nesvold is counting on Reese Schell, a junior who played tight end for nine-man W-N-G last season while also serving as Braaten’s backup at quarterback.

Schell has been playing football since he was in the seventh grade, and he began playing under center as an eighth-grader. Since then, on the offensive side of the ball, he’s lined up on the end of the line as a tight end.

His junior season officially got underway last Wednesday with the Sioux’s first two team practices of the year. The transition from being somewhat seldomly used under center to being the starting quarterback, Schell said, is all coming together quickly.

“It’s an interesting situation going back to quarterback from where I was and having to make that big step up fast,” he said, “But I’m getting more comfortable with it every day. I could be a lot better with it than I am right now, and I know I’ll get a lot better than I am right now, but it’s all coming around pretty much how I had planned it to.”

What Schell has noticed already since making the move up to being the Sioux’s No. 1 quarterback is the speed of the game at the varsity level, and especially on passing plays. When he’s looking for an open receiver, he’s finding he needs to make the right decision in a very short amount of time.

Humans have an approximately 120-degree plane of binocular vision - use of both eyes in concert - and 190 in terms of what we can see out of just one eye or the other. That angle doesn’t always feel that wide, though, when you have onrushing defenders trying to put you on the floor.

“It’s crazy how much you can see out there, because in general your depth of vision allows you to see quite a bit,” Schell said, “But when the game gets faster, it becomes easy to fall into a tendency of seeing one player and hoping he’s open.

“All it means is you have to work and see as much of what’s in front of you as possible while still making that snap decision. You can’t afford to just zero in on one guy or two guys in the same colored jersey as you.”

That mindset of playing favorites is something that people fall into easily, although we typically do that in our own time. When you don’t have much of that to play with, Schell said, favoritism has to go out the window.

“You always want to pick out someone who you think can or is going to catch the ball,” he said, “And from that you’re watching in practice and in warmups who’s doing well, and that carries over in your head into games at least a little.

“Games are different than practices and warmups, so you have to be living in that moment and not just basing your decision-making on what you were seeing before.”

THE PROMOTION

Just like the Sioux, the Braves of Bottineau High have a new starting quarterback this season. Andrew Hill led BHS from under center last season, but with Hill graduated, the reins have been passed to a player who led Bottineau’s second team last year.

As a sophomore in 2013, Brody Moum served as the starting quarterback for the Braves’ junior varsity team after having played the position at one point in middle school. The BHS reserves ran the same schemes as the Braves’ varsity team, but the level of play wasn’t quite as high.

“It’s pretty much the same system in terms of what we’re running with the varsity team, but it’s a lot quicker now, and it has to be,” Moum said. “It’s more difficult out there now and I’ve got to do a better job of passing and everything I’m doing with the ball and just be better overall, but the quickness of the game makes that difficult.

“The key, I think, is going to be just getting better and getting my mechanics down and, even though everything’s moving faster out there now, if the tools are there then I can play as if the game’s been slowed down.”

The Braves will use a largely ground-based attack this season, with running back Ethan Kerslake expected to have a big senior campaign. When Moum does step back to pass, he knows he’ll have to act quickly.

“You’ve got to be able to quickly read where people are coming from and where they’re going to,” Moum said. “Behind the line, you may be moving one way and see someone coming at you and you need to decide what to do and get out of there.”

THE SEASONED VET

When it comes to experienced options among DCB’s quarterbacks, the Lumberjacks are spoiled for choice.

One such option is Krae Kelso, a redshirt freshman from Kansas City. Kelso starred as a high school quarterback for Platte County (Mo.) before joining the college football ranks.

He started out at Highland Community College (Kan.) but was beaten to the No. 1 quarterback job there by a freshman from Georgia. He’s since transferred to DCB, where he hopes to take the reins of the Lumberjacks’ offense.

Kelso has played tackle football since the first grade and caught the quarterback bug around the same point in his development that Schell and Moum did. As an older player, though, he has experience that his counterparts at BHS and W-N-G can’t yet claim.

His biggest piece of advice for them? Be prepared.

“It’s about how prepared you are for the other team and their defense,” Kelso said. “If they’re trying to trick you and trip you up, it’s easy to get tunnel vision if you aren’t prepared for what they’re throwing at you.

“A lot of it is what you see pre-snap, and that changes a little post-snap once everyone’s in motion, but you come to know what areas are going to be open and what you’re going to be able to look for.”

That ability to make the right decisions quickly gets honed over time. With practice and some luck, that skill could find all three quarterbacks playing football on weekends in the years ahead.

Notes: Kelso, Moum and Schell all took us onto the field with them this week. Check out our video of it at bsrbottineau.wordpress.com.