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Sports

Newcomers Challenged to Carry On Richards Football Tradition

Even with an inexperienced squad, Bulldogs' expectations are always high and that's the case once again as new football season is set to begin.

Richards Bulldogs

Coach: Tony Sheehan, fourth season.

Last Year: 8-3 overall, 6-0 in the South Suburban Red.

Opener: Aug. 26 vs. Harlan, 7 p.m.

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Outlook: “I think Shepherd is the favorite for the conference with Evergreen, Eisenhower, Oak Lawn and us kind of in the middle trying to catch up,” Richards coach Tony Sheehan said. “The conference is going to be a lot tougher this year. We’ll see how our young guys adapt. Weeks 1-5, we’re going to find out really quick what we’re made of.”

Offense

Backs: Richards will have a young quarterback leading the offense this year in sophomore Tommy Mister. We’re very excited about (Mister),” Sheehan said. “He’s very raw, only played the position for a year, but he’s very intelligent. He’s one of those kids who’s a gym rat.”

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To take the load off of Mister, Sheehan expects his “three-headed monster” of juniors Deante Cartwright, Josh Young and R.J. Ballson to split carries out of the backfield. Ballson also is expected to play some wide receiver.

Line: Richards only returns one starter on the offensive line in left tackle Frank Bell. “Frank did a great job for us last year, he’s a bit undersized but has great feet, really gets on linebackers and in our scheme that’s what we want,” Sheehan said.

Sheehan says the rest of the offensive line will probably be composed of juniors, including Wael Ahmad, Randy Flaherty Jr. and Joe Kupcikevicius.

“We have some size up there; they are just a little raw,” Sheehan said. “They got better every day this summer, and you see the improvement.”

Tight ends/receivers: Davonta Corner comes back for Richards after starting at receiver last year. He averaged about 30 yards per catch and can really go get it. Other than Corner, the wide receiving corps is relatively inexperienced.

“Outside guys, we have a couple in senior Danny Gardner and Jimmy Wujcik, who are both tall, lanky guys, but they get after it and block well on the edge and run good routes.”

Defense

Linebackers: Richards will be young in the linebacker spots as no starters return from last season. A.J. Bray was up with the team and got some time on varsity, but wasn’t a full-time starter.

“There’s probably going to be six guys really playing, and we have our three sophomores,” Sheehan said.

In the mix will be Bray, B.J. Dixon, Eric Hall, Andrew Venerable, Romel Hill and DiAndre Smith.

“Romel Hill is just a freak of an athlete; this guy can play and fill holes. He’s fast and runs around.”

Line: Sheehan expects Barron Shepard to be the nose guard. He’s hearing impaired so Richards has had an interpreter on the field, making things a little different during the summer. A mix of juniors will fill in the other spots. Sheehan said Matt Sauter, Jon Gilbreth, senior Antonio Bonaparte, senior Rayfield Smith, junior Montero Jackson and sophomore Savon Robinson did a nice job for Richards during the summer.

Secondary: Richards’ one returning starter in the secondary is Desmond Gallion. “He really stepped in last year and played great and was all-conference,” Sheehan said. “We might be moving him around a bit, playing safety and corner.

The two guys enabling Sheehan to move Gallion around are juniors Donte Johnson and Rod Polk. Another senior who Sheehan singled out was Darrow Traylor at strong safety.

Coach Tony Sheehan said: “Our kids really worked hard all summer. We’re a very young team, inexperienced. We only have three starters coming back. We’re going to be young, but we’re looking forward to it. We’re going to throw them into the fire and see what they do, but they have a lot of talent and they work hard.”

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