By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Editor's note: TopSports.news will post preview stories for all 10 Shawnee County high school football programs over the coming days, leading into the opening games of the 2025 season on Sept. 4 and 5.
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The Highland Park football program that suffered through an eight-year, 65-game losing streak just a few years back doesn't exist anymore.
Jermaine Monroe's Highland Park football team will be aiming for its fourth straight winning season this fall after snapping an eight-year losing streak in 2022. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
After Jermaine Monroe's Scots finally tasted victory in 2022 on the way to a breakout 6-3 campaign, Highland Park has followed that up with 7-3 and 6-3 campaigns the past two seasons and is setting its sights on continuing its impressive turnaround this fall.
"I think we're a program now and I think people in the city look forward to us competing and being successful,'' Monroe said. "I think we are in a situation where guys step on the field expecting to win and they're stepping on the field expecting to compete.
"And one thing, especially with this group, I've never seen these guys quit and that's one thing that I can respect.''
Highland Park begins the 2025 season with a wealth of experience, including eight players who received All-Meadowlark Conference recognition a year ago.
Senior wide receiver/defensive back Tremaine Savage (5-foot-11, 170 pounds) earned first-team All-Meadowlark Conference honors for the second straight season in 2024 while junior offensive/defensive lineman Tayseaun Rouser (6-3, 250) and senior offensive/defensive lineman Andres Ochoa-Perez (5-10, 260) were also first-team all-conference picks.
Junior running back G'Honi Montgomery (5-10, 180) was a second-team All-Meadowlark pick a year ago while senior quarterback Dontrail Fox (6-3, 175), junior wide receiver/defensive back JoJo Kingcannon (5-10, 180), senior running back/defensive back Genesis Cooper (5-9, 185) and senior defensive end Philiciono Rice (6-1, 190) all received all-conference honorable mention.
Other top returning players include senior offensive/defensive lineman Josh Weeks (6-5, 350) and junior running back/linebacker Rayshon Pollard (5-10, 185).
Montgomery rushed for 737 yards on 91 attempts last season while Fox completed 61 of 125 passes for 1,175 yards and Kingcannon caught 13 passes for 326 yards.
Defensively, Savage registered 18 pass breakups and four interceptions last fall while Rice had 39 tackles and five sacks and Weeks had 25 tackles and six sacks.
"This is the group of leaders that I've been dreaming of,'' Monroe said. "When it comes to my seniors and my juniors, we've been having leadership meetings since January so they could promote core values and goals and these guys had a plan.
"We have a group that's been all in since the beginning and we kept the coaching staff together. We stayed intact and we even got tighter with each other and you realize that what we're doing is building a system. Now we have the older guys, the juniors and seniors, who know how things are run and help the younger ones.''
Highland Park opens its season Sept. 5 on the road at Meadowlark Conference foe Kansas City-Wyandotte before the Scots play their home opener on Sept. 12 at Hummer Sports Park against conference foe KC-Sumner Academy.
Highland Park
2025 football schedule
(Home games at Hummer Sports Park)
September -- 5 at KC-Wyandotte, 12 KC-Summer Academy, 19 KC-Schlagle, 26 at KC-Harmon.
October -- 3 Wichita East, 9 Atchison, 17 at KC-East, Mo., 24 at KC-Washington.
Next up: Rossville.
