Voss making the most of situation

Connor Voss probably wasn't supposed to be one of the best stories of the 2010 high school football season.

The six-foot senior running back at Sandwich was going to get some carries for the Indians in their double-wing offensive attack, but fullback Tim Schmitt and speedy wingback Sam Hill were supposed to garner the headlines.

But "supposed to" and "football" don't always go together.

Hill wound up tearing a knee in the offseason and Schmitt was hurt early in Week 2. Suddenly, Voss found himself as the Indians workhorse and helped carry the team to a 6-0 record and Interstate Eight Large Conference title. Now, Schmitt is back and Sandwich is a much better team going forward than it was in Week 1.

The Indians aren't the only successful program in The Beacon-News coverage area to reach onto the bench and find more than adequate replacements for injured starters.

Waubonsie Valley is 5-1 and is playing Neuqua Valley on Friday with a Upstate Eight Valley title on the line in large part because Matt Schapen (279 yards, 3 TDs, 0 INT) has been able to direct the offense while starter Tom Kolzow recovers from a concussion.

The Warriors were also able to find receivers to step up early in the season to replace injured tight end Mark Szott, who is a Division I commit. "That's why you need numbers in football," Warriors coach Paul Murphy said. "When you're an 8A school, you've got a bigger enrollment so you have, hopefully, a little more depth. Some years our depth hasn't provided us the play we needed but fortunately this year it has. The kids have really done a nice job of stepping in. We've had multiple guys out at different times during the year and guys have stepped in and done a nice job replacing them."

In Maple Park, the undefeated Kaneland Knights are experiencing similar issues. They were without two key players in last week's win over DeKalb, so the Knights coaching staff used the week to develop some depth.

"Taylor Andrews and Kyle Davidson didn't play, so we were really like we've got to get some people ready," Kaneland coach Tom Fedderly said. "When we get into the playoffs, we could play some teams that two-platoon and we just want to get ready depth-wise if something should happen to us."

Kaneland travels to Yorkville Friday before finishing up the season with back-to-back home games with Sycamore and Morris. They are all contests that will not only determine the Knights' playoff seeding but the Northern Illinois Big 12 East title. Look for the Knights to be trotting out some new jersey numbers in key situations, however.

"What we've really been concentrating on lately is the depth of our team and we really don't want to have that many players go both ways," Fedderly said. "I think we've got a team that a lot of kids can play and a lot of kids can do different things for us."

Another way to keep your team deep is to keep it healthy, this is also a concern at this point in the season for teams looking at long playoff runs. So how does one do that?

"The main things you weigh are practice time to keep their legs fresh, keep the mind fresh," said Marmion coach Dan Thorpe, whose Cadets are 6-0 and have several key players going both ways. "(You) stress the fundamentals, have more intensity in practice but in a shorter period (and) don't take kids to the ground. That's the key."

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