By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Editor's note: TopSports.news has finished its tour of preseason football practice at all 10 Shawnee County high schools and will be posting preview stories over the coming days leading into the opening games of the 2023 season Sept. 1.
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There's a lot of talk about Highland Park football these days ... for all the right reasons.
After snapping an eight-year, 65-game losing streak in its 2022 season-opener on the way to a breakout 6-3 campaign, there's a lot of excitement surrouning Jemaine Monroe's Scots entering this fall.
Jermaine Monroe and Highland Park football will be looking for another big year this fall. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
"I think more and more you're hearing more buzz in the hallways and the classrooms, kids talking about fooball and waiting for fooball season to start,'' Monroe said. "We're getting a lot of buzz on campus, along with other sports, but football has been getting a lot of buzz.''
Monroe has also seen a big jump in participation numbers after Hi Park struggled in that department for many years.
"The numbers are growing and there's more and more players that are interested in playing football,'' Monroe said. "Eisenhower and Chase (middle schools) sent us a lot of freshmen. I think we have 28 freshmen and we're sitting at right over 70 for total players.''
Highland Park graduated a talented senior class, including Meadowlark Conference offensive player of the year Tre Richardson and defensive player of the year Mackey James, but Monroe said that group's influence will continue to be felt.
"I tip my hat to those guys who are not here anymore because those guys put a lot of time in with our younger guys, like doing extra workouts with them and treating them with respect,'' he said. "These younger guys looked up to them and they want to fill those shoes.
"That senior class was an amazing class. That was a solid class that really cares about the future and I think we've already got some guys that can step into those shoes and can be successful.''
And although Highland Park enjoyed a great deal of success a year ago, the Scots enter this fall with plenty of motivation after ending the year with a loss to Emporia in their playoff opener.
"We just want to build off off last year,'' Monroe said. "We want to build off of what we started last year and actually it even stated in that 0-9 (2021) season.We stated getting a little bit better and more competitive''
Top returning players for Highland Park include senior Jerry Kyles (5-foot-8, 175-pound running back), juniors Jamon Wilson (5-10, 170 running back/defensive back), Adrian Burney (6-2, 220 offensive/defensive lineman), Elijah Thomas (6-3, 270 offensive/defensive lineman), David Ochoa-Perez (offensive lineman) and Corrie McNair (5-8, 160 wide receiver/defensive back) and sophomore Tremaine Savage (6-0, 160 wide receiver/defensive back).
Wilson rushed for 393 yards and had 116 receiving yards on 10 catches last season while scoring five touchdowns and five 2-point conversions.
Juniors Craig Sipple, Jacorey Robinson and Ricky Crawford could all challenge for playing time at quarterback for the Scots, with Sipple the frontrunner in preseason.
Highland Park opens its season Sept. 1 with a road game against league foe Kansas City-Wyandotte. The Scots will play all of their home games at Hummer Sports Park and will play their home-opener against KC-Schlagle on Sept. 8.
Highland Park
2023 football schedule
(Home games at Hummer Sports Park)
September -- 1 at KC-Wyandotte, 8 KC-Schlagle, 15 at KC-Summer Academy, 22 at KC-Harmon, 29 at Lincoln Prep.
October -- 5 Atchison, 12 KC-Northeast, Mo., 20 KC-Washington, 27 Playoffs.
Next up: Rossville.
