With extensive changes throughout the event, Benton activities director Mike Ziesel had quite a bit to worry about in the days leading up to Friday’s City Football Jamboree.
When the final play was whistled dead at Spratt Stadium, however, Ziesel and fellow organizers breathed a satisfying sigh of relief at the conclusion of the city’s first preseason jamboree, which featured all four 11-man schools for the first time in more than 20 years.

Stripped of his chance to get on the field, Lafayette’s Matt Robertson still found a way to get involved at the City Football Jamboree.
The Fighting Irish senior and teammate Dan Wilkinson did their best assistant coach impressions at Spratt Stadium — barking out encouragement while roaming the sidelines, binders and play sheets in hand.
In the last week of his yearlong transfer suspension, Robertson chomped at the bit all night long and will be eligible to suit up for next week’s opener against Kansas City Central.

Lyle Laffoon received a jarring wake-up call Wednesday morning. On the other end of the phone, Southwest Livingston superintendent John Locker presented him with an unusual and desperate plea — coach the Wildcats football team at practice that very afternoon.

Since the City Football Jamboree’s inception in 1948, one St. Joseph team concluded the event with year-long bragging rights.
Not this year — at least not officially.

The auburn has all but drained from Tony Dudik’s moustache, and his foot speed admittedly has diminished. But something in the mid-August air helps him identify with the teenage athletes he’s been coaching for more than three decades. “Just like with kids, there’s highs and lows,” Mr. Dudik said. “Sometimes you go, ‘My gosh, how do I keep doing this?’ But then sometimes you go, ‘This is the greatest thing ever.’ I love it.”

The auburn has all but drained from Tony Dudik’s moustache, and his foot speed admittedly has diminished. But something in the mid­August air helps him identify with the teenage athletes he’s been coaching for more than three decades.

In Brad Colhour’s years of collegiate coaching, he’s seen the toll that steroids can take on the minds and bodies of his athletes.
That’s why Lathrop’s new drug-testing policy doesn’t include performance-enchancing substances and instead will randomly test extracurricular participants for more common and prevalent illegal substances.
“I’ve seen (steroid use). I know what it looks like, and it’s just not there,” said Colhour, Lathrop’s former athletic director and head football coach. “If it were, I would be pushing hard for it.”

Even though they’ll never suit up for Trenton again, Wes Croy’s former players haven’t received any favorable treatment leading up to the Missouri Lions All-Star Football Game.
“Certainly not,” Croy said. “I’m probably harder on them than anybody.”
After a week of strenuous practices, six Trenton graduates will compete for the West team in today’s game, slated to begin at 7:30 p.m. at Walton Stadium in Warrensburg — along with a smattering of representatives from across Northwest Missouri.
Reigning News-Press Offensive Player of the Year De’Andre Vandevender, who leaves for the University of Northern Iowa in a week and a half, should feel right at home running behind former teammates Kyle Hoyt and Ethan Tabbert — both bound for Missouri Western. Griffon-to-be Mitch Giger, a North Platte grad, adds additional size to a beefy set of blockers.

KANSAS CITY — As the crowd thundered its approval, David DeJesus endured a violent and lengthy congratulation from his teammates at Kauffman Stadium last week. It was hard to blame the mob assembled at home plate for its enthusiasm. After all, it had been waiting awhile for such an opportunity. With his last-gasp blast in the ninth inning, the Royals’ veteran outfielder ended the team’s three-year drought without a walk-off home run — the first since April of 2005. His 10th long ball of the year assured them a fourth-place spot going into the All-Star break.

Johnny Coy spent his first days as a Sun Devil finding ways to settle in and beat the heat.
The Benton graduate and Arizona State freshman attended his first classes this week amidst scorching, triple-digit temperatures.