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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Jared Swafford was very pleased with how Year 1 as Seaman's head football coach went.
The Vikings posted a respectable 6-4 record and were competitive from start to finish.
Seaman football coach Jared Swafford demonstrates a technique to his Vikings during a preason practice. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But Swafford admits there's just a higher comfort level this fall as he and the Vikings begin a new year.
"There definitely is,'' Swafford. "I think from just even the kids' standpoint I can see that. They're more familiar with the way that things are going to operate now and practice procedures, offfseason procedures, all those types of things.
"That allows our older guys to now help lead the younger guys. We didn't necessarily have that last year. Not the kids' fault, but it was new to everybody. Now we have that level of comfort for everybody I think and you get into practice and things just kind of start to run themselves. There's always hiccups, but we feel really good about it right now.''
Seaman graduated several top players off of last year's team, including TopSports.news All-Shawnee County Top 22 picks Camden Barta, Brody Gormley and Casen Stallbaumer.
Seaman's football team, 6-4 last fall, goes through a drill during a preseason practice. [Photo by Rick Peterson/TSN]
But the Vikings also return six players who received postseason All-Shawnee County and All-Centennial League recognition.
Senior linemen Logan Cox and Sean Miller and senior Bryson Vawter were all second-team All-Centennial picks last fall while seniors Kasen Hasenkamp and Jaxson Thomas and junior Callen Barta received all-league honorable mention. All five players also received all-county honorable mention.
"I have a lot of respect for the seniors we had last year,'' Swafford said. "They embraced a new coach, a brand new system, everything was new and they did a great job. I really appreciate them and what they did for us, but if we're going to be the program that we want to be, we should graduate great kids and great players and replace them with more.
"We've got a lot of great football players out here right now and you never really replace anybody, you just kind of reload. That's kind of the mindset that we've got right now and we've got guys that are stepping up already that we feel really good about. We had a great summer so we're excited. We were really active this summer and the kids did a great job with that. They handled it wonderfully.''
While the Vikings have now had a year to get used to a new system, Seaman faces another new challenge this fall, beginning its first year in the United Kansas Conference.
"It's diffferent teams obviously, different schemes, different coaches, diffferent players, different locations, all those types of things, which for me that's two years in a row of something new, but we're excited about the new league,'' Swafford said.
The Vikings open the season against Topeka West, also a new member of the UKC, on Thursday, Sept. 1, at Hummer Sports Park.
"It's a good fit for us,'' Swafford said of the UKC. "It's going to be great competition and there's a lot of really talented players and great coaches so we know it's going to be a heck of a league and we're excited about the move.''
SEAMAN
2022 football schedule
September -- 1 at Topeka West (Hummer), 9 at Turner, 16 Shawnee Heights, 23 Lansing.
October -- 7 at Leavenworth, 14 Basehor-Linwood, 21 at Piper, 28 Playoffs.
Next up: Shawnee Heights.
