Pittsburg given the edge in SEK League football poll

PITTSBURG, Kan. -- The Southeast Kansas League's defending champion Pittsburg Purple Dragons edged out Field Kindley and Fort Scott to take the top spot in the preseason coaches poll announced Thursday (Aug. 9) during the High School Football Media Day at the Watco Companies Conference Room.

The poll was conducted by The Ticket -- 99.1 ESPN Radio, which sponsored the luncheon along with the Crawford County Convention and Visitors Bureau.

This will be the first time since 1980 that the SEK League title will be decided by a full round-robin schedule, with the departure of Iola to the Frontier League and Columbus to the Crawford-Neosho-Cherokee League this season.

Though the Purple Dragons only had two of the six available first-place votes (coaches could not vote for their own schools), they received four second-place votes and scored 32 of a possible 36 points. Second-year head coach Tom Nickelson (shown at right) has 16 lettermen expected back, including five starters on each side of the ball, from last season's 6-3 squad (5-0 in the SEK).

Field Kindley of Coffeyville and Fort Scott ended up in a second-place tie with 29 points each. Fort Scott had top-three votes on all six ballots, but Field Kindley had three first-place votes among its five top-three ballots to forge the tie.

The FSHS Tigers finished 8-2 in 2011, and head coach Bob Campbell should have senior QB/FS Johnathan Stark back to lead five starters returning on offense and four on defense.

FKHS head coach Murray Zogg announced his squad will not have senior QB/SS Cory Turner coming back after violations of team rules. The Golden Tornado does return fleet-footed junior WR/FS James Newton coming back among 14 returning lettermen from a 6-4 squad.

The Chanute Blue Comets were the only other team to get top-three votes, snagging four en route to the No. 4 spot in the poll with 23 points. Don Simmons, in his eighth season at CHS and 28th season as a head coach, has a potent 1-2 punch back in honorable mention all-state senior QB Brock Gilmore and senior TB Blake Kisner from the 8-4 team of 2011.

Independence was fifth in the survey with 15 points. Carl Boldra's Bulldogs were 5-4 last season, but expect just two starters back on offense among 19 returning letterwinners.

Labette County was sixth with 10 points, as Jesse Ybarra returns to the football sidelines for the Grizzlies. He takes over a squad which dropped its first seven games en route to a 1-8 finish last season.

The Parsons Vikings were seventh in the poll with eight points. Youth will reign for David Pitts' second season at the helm, as he expects only three starters back on each side of the ball from the 7-3 squad of 2011.