Byline: Rob Hernandez
It's not having a 6-foot-9 quarterback that concerns Southwestern football coach Craig Smith. It's having a 6-9 quarterback with size 19 shoes.
'I'm afraid he's going to keep growing and grow himself out of football,' Smith said of junior Jeff Skemp, the trigger man in the Wildcats' spread offense. 'He's really into basketball.'
Skemp is symbolic of a new trend in prep football players this season: The really tall ones.
Randolph has a 6-foot-11 tight end in Greg Stiemsma. Jefferson has a 7-foot kicker and punter in Kerry Gibson. Wisconsin Dells has a 6-7 quarterback in Jimmy Capelle. Sauk Prairie has a 6-7 safety in Richie Peters.
You might recognize the names. All five have a lot at stake this winter on the basketball court with the most notable being Stiemsma, a junior who led the Rockets to the WIAA Division 4 state basketball title last year and has already committed to play at the University of Wisconsin when he graduates in 2004.
Playing football may subject them to physical risk, but Skemp said there is something to be gained by playing a fall sport.
'You sit around during the football season and you're that much further behind,' he said. 'You're not in as good a shape. Your competitive level is down.'
At 205 pounds, Skemp would like to get his weight up. More importantly, the big guy would like to improve his foot speed and coordination and become a faster, stronger basketball player.
'Last year, my aunt came up with a nickname for me -- Mo -- because she said I was slower than molasses,' Skemp said. 'I told her that when you've got size 19 shoes, it's hard to get those things up and down the floor.'
Check that
The Northern Badger Conference cross country meet has been moved from Prairie du Sac to Reedsburg due to a schedule conflict at Lake Wisconsin Country Club. ... Waunakee beat West Bend East in the fifth-place game Saturday at the Spartan Invitational boys soccer tournament, not the seventh-place game as reported.
Where are they now?
Iowa State sophomore Tony Yelk (Poynette) is averaging 45.1 yards on 17 punts for 15th-ranked Iowa State (5-1). He is also handling kickoffs and long field goals for the Cyclones, who are idle until Oct.12 when they play host to Texas Tech at 6 p.m. in a nationally televised game on WTBS. ... St. Cloud State women's soccer player Ashley Rounds (Madison East) scored the winning goal in a 2-1 win Sept. 25 over Southwest (Minn.) State, and the freshman had two goals Sept. 22 in a 4-1 win over Minnesota State-Moorhead. She is third on the team in scoring with three goals and one assist. ... Carroll College freshman men's soccer player Chris Smith (Lake Mills) is third on the team in scoring with two goals and two assists for the Pioneers (4-3). Another Lake Mills product, Shelley Nelson, has made the women's soccer team at Cardinal Stritch University in Mequon.
Ready ... break
That Mount Horeb-Barneveld football team that outdueled Waunakee 21-19 in a Northern Badger Conference showdown Friday night has eight players from Barneveld. One is senior Ted Swenson, who was credited with the second-quarter safety that broke a scoreless tie. ... Black Hawk High School in South Wayne will name its football field 'Murphy Field' in honor of ex-coach Dennis Murphy, who retired in August after 35 seasons. He will be honored Oct. 11 at halftime of the Warriors' non-conference game with Stevens Point Pacelli. ... Defending state champion Chris Solinsky of Stevens Point cruised to victory Saturday at the Great American Cross Country Festival in Charlotte, N.C. He won the 5,000-meter race in 16 minutes, 4.8 seconds, nearly 6 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher. Pewaukee won the girls small-school division title at the meet.
