Marquette Catholic football team has tools for success in 2016
ALTON - Marquette Catholic High School has backfield speed, solid receivers and an experienced line returning for the 2016 football season.
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The Explorers started workouts at Garfield Park this week and head coach Darrell Angleton said he is pleased with the start.
“We had 25 contact days during the summer and had really good participation,” the coach said. “We have pretty good size. We have about 39 players right now, not counting freshmen.
Junior D’avion Peebles, who has blazing speed, returns in the backfield, along with Treven Swingler. Brady Mcafee will be the 6-foot-1 quarterback behind the center this season for the Explorers. Mcafee replaces recent graduate Trey Aguirre at the quarterback post. Aguirre passed for more than 1,000 yards last year and was the leader of the 2015 Explorers' football squad.
Peebles carried for 570 rushing yards with eight touchdowns last year as a sophomore. He also had 229 receiving yards and one touchdown. He totaled 779 all-purpose yards.
Mcafee had 350 yards receiving and 250 yards on the ground.
Angleton expects Peebles to be one of the best running backs in the Prairie State Conference this season. Mcafee is an extraordinary athlete, throwing a fastball 87 mph on the mound during the baseball season last year.
“Brady is a good athlete,” Angleton said. “If you don’t cover him, he can throw or run. We love having the dual-threat guy.”
Lineman Marshall Youngblood is the key cog back in the line after an all-conference season last year. Youngblood, a tackle, is a massive 6-5, 275 pounds. Adam Strozewski is a 6-2, 265-pound lineman who returns for the season. Jake Reiter is another who should shine in the line. Brian Nagy returns and has speed at the receiver spot. Jeremy Strebel and Jayce Maag are two other top receiving candidates.
The Explorers return 10 starters on defense and eight on offense.
“I feel we will be pretty competitive,” Angelton said. “Pawnee, last year’s conference champions, lost a lot of guys and have a new coach. Pawnee always has a competitive team and will again be the team to beat. Mount Olive is pretty strong. We were runners-up last year in the conference.”
Sam Stemm, a top-notch defender, and James Malone, another top defensive player, both return, along with a strong cast of other Explorers on offense and defense. Stemm is 5-9, 225 pounds and led the team in sacks last year. He was a first team all-conference player.
Marquette Catholic was 6-4 last season, losing to Rochester in the playoffs. The team finished the regular season 6-3.
Angelton said he absolutely thinks his team will be successful in the conference. Early in the season, the Explorers face both Civic Memorial and Breese Mater Dei and Angleton said both should be formidable foes.
“CM has a new coach in Mike Parmentier and is a school about twice our size, so that will be a big first test,” Angleton said.
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