Curtain raises on 2008 season

Anxiety a part of first week of prep football in the state

By Padraic Duffy, Journal staff | Friday, August 29, 2008

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RAPID CITY — One thing that hasn’t changed a bit for Wayne Sullivan, heading into his 18th season as the head coach of the St. Thomas More football team, is the excitement and anxiety of opening night.

“One of the things I’ve talked to my wife, Lorrie, about is that the first time I don’t have this feeling that I have before every season starts, then I know it’s time to get out of coaching,” Sullivan said.

For Sullivan, heading up one of the more successful West River football programs of the last decade has yet to ease the uncertainty that comes with heading out onto the field for the first time all year.

“It starts Monday of game week and it starts every single time,” Sullivan said. “It’s just a gut-wrenching feeling, trying to get everything ready, making sure that you’re on top of things coming up next and then worrying about how your kids are going to perform. That’s probably the hardest thing, you can prepare your kids and try to get them into the right positions to succeed, but until you get out there you don’t know exactly how they’re going to perform. That’s why it’s so nerve-wracking because that’s the one thing you can’t control. I can control gameplan, I can control what we’re going to call, pre-game rituals but come game time, when the ball is kicked, you absolutely lose control of just how they’re going to perform.”

The Cavaliers begin their season tonight at 6 p.m. with a “home” game against Hot Springs at Patriot Stadium in Box Elder. The game was moved from More’s Dutton Field due to construction.

Sullivan’s team comes into tonight’s game with plenty of questions to answer after losing four all-state performers — Alex Hollibaugh, Joe Kennedy, Landon White and Nate Jacobson — from last season. But that’s something Sullivan is used to, and ready for.

“From Nick Wald, who started for me for four years and knew the offense so well that he probably knew what I was going to call before I called it, we’ve had to replace good players,” Sullivan said. “After Wald we had Eric Barker step in and star for years and then Nate Hollenbeck played for a year and took us to the Dome before Nate (Jacobson) took us three straight times. Sure, I’m nervous to see just how the team is going to step up and play, but I think we’re to a point now where our program kind of takes over. I always told the boys when we first started out in the BHC that we would get to a point where we could play with Douglas and Belle and Custer and Lead-Deadwood every year. I think we’re to that point.”

The high school football season kicks off tonight with Rapid City Central hosting Aberdeen Central at O’Harra Stadium, Sturgis hosting Sioux Falls Washington, Spearfish taking on Pierre at Lyle Hare Stadium, Rapid City Stevens travelling to Watertown and Douglas heading to Custer. Other area action will see Jones County travelling to Faith, Timber Lake and Harding County sqauring off in Buffalo, Philip and Kadoka renewing their rivalry in Philip, New Underwood heading north to Newell and Todd County and Pine Ridge playing at Mission.

Rapid City Stevens and first-year head coach Paul Ferdinand begin their 2008 season Saturday at Watertown.