Springbrook: After rain, Devils looking for sunshine

Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Rachael Golden⁄The Gazette Senior quarterback Harold Brantley.

Not exactly the foundation you want to build your legacy on. Still, Wendel wasn’t fazed.

‘‘We certainly didn’t want bad press,” Wendel said, ‘‘but we’re trying to go in a different direction. We don’t really think about last year or [the program’s] six state titles [from 1979 to ’89]. We’re trying to go forward. We’re trying not to dwell on anything too much except game 1, week 1, Sept. 9.”

That in itself is plenty to swallow, considering the Blue Devils kick off the season with a dangerous Sherwood team, including 2,100-yard quarterback Deontay Twyman. The rest of Springbrook’s schedule is about average in degree of difficulty, meaning the young Blue Devils will have their chances to make Wendel’s big year a memorable one.

Nearly two dozen seniors graduated from last season, including most of the team’s starters, leaving the Blue Devils inexperienced across the board. The biggest returnee is senior Harold Brantley, who took over quarterback duties from Elan Hanopole early in the 2003 season and has retained the role ever since. Last season, Brantley, an NCAA Division I-caliber baseball player who sometimes struggles with accuracy as a quarterback, completed 46 of 107 passes for 637 yards, four TDs and nine interceptions.

‘‘He’s a very good athlete,” Wendel said. ‘‘He’s a leader of the team. I wish I had a couple more like him.”

Brantley’s receiving corps is young. The top four are all juniors: Nick Oates, Dom Omotade, Ben Simmons and Jordan Dow. Springbrook’s backfield, sub-par in 2004 and planning to run from mostly I-formations (and some wing-T), is green, too. Only senior tailback Derek Overton (15 carries, 73 yards) took any handoffs last year.

That places a large onus on the offensive line, which, in the words of Wendel is ‘‘inexperienced ... small ... problem.” Senior Walter Brown (5-foot-10, 265 pounds) is a returning starter at tackle and is clearly the biggest player on the line.

Defensively, Wendel plans to do a lot of rotating to keep the legs fresh and the minds sharp. Brown (tackle) and returning senior Darryl Kornegay (end) will anchor the line, while Overton and seniors Everett Pumphrey and Chris Diggs will be the main linebackers. In the secondary, an athletic group of defensive backs — Brantley, Omotade, Oates, senior Hector Williams and juniors Adou Kouadio and George Greenhow — look eager and aggressive.

‘‘The problem is, they’re all too aggressive,” Wendel said. ‘‘They come up on runs or play action. That’s right up Twyman’s alley.”

While it appears the Blue Devils have a steep, uphill battle for their second Class 4A playoff berth in three years, Wendel has a lot to look forward to in the new era of Springbrook football. Among other things, so many players tried out for varsity and JV — about 150, plenty more than in recent years — that Wendel and his staff had to make cuts. More than numbers, though, the Blue Devils need direction.

‘‘We’ve got to get the older kids to buy what we’re selling and get the ball rolling,” Wendel said. ‘‘It’s going to take some work. I worked with Norman. I worked with other guys. I’m not reinventing the wheel over here. I’m not claiming to be the football guru that brings us to the promised land. There was some stuff we did [in the past] that I loved, and there was some stuff we did that I’ll do differently.”