By RICK PETERSON
TopSports.news
Editor's note: TopSports.news has finished its tour of preseason football practices at all 10 Shawnee County high schools and will post preview stories over the coming days leading into the opening games of the 2022 season Sept. 1-3.
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You don't graduate nearly 30 seniors and not feel it, a fact no one knows better than 20-year Shawnee Heights head football coach Jason Swift.
But while the T-Birds aren't loaded with a ton of experience, Swift is counting on the veterans the T-Birds do have, as well the momentum gained from a strong second half of the 2021 season, to make Heights a competitive team on Friday nights.
Shawnee Heights head football coach Jason Swift, who is starting his 20th year at the school, is counting on a small but experienced group of seniors to lead the T-Birds to success this fall. [File photo/TSN]
"Losing 27 seniors and bringing in 10 seniors it looks like (we're short of experience) on paper, but a lot of our 10 seniors had roles with us on Friday night and several of them have two years of starting experience,'' said Swift, whose T-Birds are coming off a 5-5 season.
"We have several senior starters coming back and then we started seven sophomores last year, so even though we lost 27 seniors I think we have some experience. I just don't have a great deal of experience.''
And Swift doesn't want to downplay the fact that Heights has holes to fill this fall.
"We're returning five or six starters on both sides of the ball so we're middle of the road, but we lost a lot of awfully good football players,'' he said. "With 10 seniors I would say a majority of our starters will be juniors.''
Among Heights' graduation losses were running back Jarin Sanders, who rushed for 1,142 yards and 12 touchdowns, and quarterback Callan Carver, who passed for 1,162 yards and 11 TDs, as well as standout linemen Matthew Etzel and Orrin Busenitz.
But Shawnee Heights' returning cast includes three-year starting offensive lineman Gavin Zuperku and three-year starting linebacker Sean Wunder, both seniors.
Also back on offense are junior offensive lineman Rykan Carver and junior wide receivers Jacob Malcom, Jayden Moore and Jayden Holly.
Malcom caught 31 passes for 315 yards and four touchdowns as a sophomore, while Moore had 28 catches for 385 yards and two TDs.
Other returning defensive starters include senior safety Jaye Jones, senior defensive back Jayden Berry, junior noseguard Christian Gonzales and junior linebacker Alex Dittman.
Malcom, Moore and Dittman all earned All-United Kansas Conference second-team honors last season.
Gonzales was in on 56 tackes with six tackles for loss and three sacks and Dittman was in on 53 stops with six tackles for loss.
Jacob Malcom
Alex Dittman
Christian Gonzales
Swift said the T-Birds did everything they could over the summer to make sure they are ready for the upcoming season.
"We saw some great things,'' Swift said. "Every senior made our expectations for the summer so that shows great leadership in our senior class and all-around I think we had phenomenal participation. We got better in the weight room.''
"A lot of these kids are football players, which is great. A lot of them are multiple-sport athletes but for a lot of them, their main sport is football.''
Shawnee Heights will open its season on the road Sept. 2 against UKC newcomer Piper.
The T-Birds will play their home opener against Lansing on Sept. 9.
SHAWNEE HEIGHTS
2022 football schedule
September -- 2 at Piper, 9 Lansing, 16 at Seaman, 23 Basehor-Linwood, 30 De Soto.
October -- 7 at Wamego, 14 at Topeka West (Hummer), 21 Leavenworth, 28 Playoffs.
Next up: Silver Lake.
