That was the word of the night following Friday’s jamboree-style scrimmage held at Rolla High School according to new Dutchmen head football coach Paul Schmanke.

Dutchmen senior running back Blake Harrell tries to escape the clutches of Rolla’s Robbie Pettijohn (20) during preseason jamboree action at Rolla High School Friday night. Joining Rolla and OHS at the jamboree Friday were St. James and Versailles. Owensville will open the 2008 campaign with a road trip to Potosi to take on the Trojans this Friday night with a 7 p.m., kickoff time.

Teams participating in the jamboree included Owensville, Rolla, St. James and Versailles.

Owensville took on Rolla during the first session of the evening.

“We came out flat against Rolla Friday night and we won’t be able to do that when the season starts,” Schmanke said. “Up and down our schedule, we’ll be facing teams that will make us earn everything we get on offense and defense.”

After facing Rolla, the Dutchmen took on Versailles and St. James and had success on both sides of the ball against both teams.

“We saw some positive things tonight and when you’re replacing nearly 20 starters on both sides of the ball from last season, you’re going to find things you’ll need to work on.” Schmanke said.

With 13 seniors gone from graduations, there will be several underclassmen players that will get their chance in the Friday night spotlight. Seniors that made significant contributions to a 16-7 record over the last two seasons included Tyler Griffith, Nathan Cooper, Travis Turnbough, Matt Angell, Brett Nelson, Philip Shoemaker, Chris Meyer, Charlie Meyer, Zeb Dintelman, Brian Decker, Kolby Baker, Josh Schaning and Dustin DeBroeck.

“We’ll have some young kids on the field this year and we’ll try to put together the best football team with everyone we have in our high school program,” Schmanke said.

Defending their Four Rivers Conference (FRC) championship from last season will be a tough proposition as several FRC teams return a lot of players from their respective teams from last year.

“Union, with Jordan Webb (quarterback) has to be right up there at the top of the conference ladder,” Schmanke said. “Hermann and St. Clair also have the players to make some noise in the FRC. Just like in past years, our conference is strong from top to bottom and you never know what will happen from week to week.”

Schedule makers will help this young Dutchmen team grow for when they become upperclassmen in the future.

“There is not a week on our schedule that we can take a breath,” Schmanke said. “We open with Potosi who has a lot of speed and we’ll have to start fast and find a way to contain that speed.”

“After Potosi, we have Blair Oaks, Borgia, St. Clair and Hermann to finish September. All three teams will be tough and we’ll have to come out and be ready to play.”

Sept. 26, 2008, will be a date to circle on your calendar as Dutchmen football will celebrate homecoming and defend the Gasconade County Bowl Traveling Trophy against Hermann’s Bearcats.

“We were fortunate enough to bring back the trophy last year,” Schmanke said. “With (Danny) Mundwiller back at quarterback for Hermann, I look for it to be a very competitive game that hopefully has conference implications down the road.”

OHS will start October visits to the reservation at Pacific and to Stierberger Stadium in Union. Owensville will then begin district play with back-to-back home games against Salem and St. James. Dutchmen football will close their regular season on Thursday, Oct. 30, by traveling to Sullivan to face the Eagles in their lone game on turf. That matchup will likely decide the MSHSAA Class 3, District 7 champion.

However, unlike previous years, the district runner-up won’t see their season end as the top two teams in each district will move on into postseason play.

More details on Owensville’s season opener at Potosi will be addressed in this weeks’ edition of ‘Will’ful Thinking.