Patriots Open Friday Against Sunrise

The Christ Prep Patriots open their 2011 campaign Friday evening as they travel to Bel Aire (Wichita), Kans. for a 7:00 p.m. contest against the Sunrise Christian Academy Buffaloes.

Although the season opener for CPA, the game will be Sunrise's second of the year. The Buffaloes opened up last week against the Community Christian (Norman, Okla.) Royals at home, losing a close game by the score of 26-20. Sunrise stuck with the Royals during the first half, as the game was knotted at 6-all at intermission. Community Christian pulled away in the second half, however, as they scored two touchdowns in the third quarter.

Sunrise QB Zach Howell was 25-44 passing for 245 yards with two touchdowns. His favorite target was WR Bo Westerfield who had nine catches for 109 yards. Preston Atherton added eight catches for 94 yards. The Buffaloes rushed for 26 yards on 13 carries. Community Christian brought a workmanlike ground game to the contest. The Royals rushed for 284 yards on 46 carries.

For those driving to Friday's game the address is 5500 E 45th St N. Bel Aire, KS 67220

We will try to provide live updates on the game via Twitter. To receive updates please follow @PatriotUpdates. If you can't follow the game on Twitter we'll try to have a blog post as soon as practical.

Patriots Spar at Jamboree



Zach Hershberger Walks a Tightrope
 Down the Sideline After a Catch

The Christ Prep Patriots traveled to Bethany, Mo. last night to compete in a four team pre-season football jamboree.  The round-robin scrimmages afforded the Patriots the opportunity to test their skills against live and unfamiliar competition in a game-like format.

CPA coaches and players gave themselves mixed reviews at the conclusion of the competition. Although the evening highlighted some Patriot strengths, it also revealed some areas in need of improvement. And as the coaches discussed, acquiring a better understanding of the team's strengths and weaknesses is exactly the purpose of participating in such pre-season jamborees.

The jamboree format allows each team to run 12 offensive and 12 defensive plays against each of the other three opponents. No special teams play takes place during the scrimmages so each team runs its plays until they've completed the 12. A score, turnover, or failure to get a first down returns the ball to the offensive starting point--the 40 yard line.

Although score is not kept during the jamboree, the general consensus was that the Patriots outplayed the Maysville Wolverines, but were generally outplayed by the Trenton and South Harrison squads--both the Bulldogs.  Overall, the Patriots certainly showed some bright spots against all three of their opponents, especially given the fact that only 17 players suited out for CPA, a decided disadvantage in Trenton's early evening heat and humidity.

Some statistices from the Jamboree...CPA rushed for 49 yards on 12 carries. Jesse Mann led the way with 41 of those yards carrying six times. Timothy Finley was six for 22 yards passing for 144 yards and three touchdowns while throwing three interceptions. Zach Hershberger had four receptions for 89 yards and two touchdowns. Jack Layman had one reception for 40 yards and a touchdown while Chance McCoy added another reception for 15 yards. Defensively, Jesse Mann led the way for the Patriots. Mann had five tackles and three assists while forcing and recovering a fumble and sacking the quarterback once. Zach Hersberger followed with six tackles.

Scroll down to view some photos and videos of the evening.

I sure hope my parents get here in time
to take me to Pizza Hut!

Patriots to Visit Trenton for Jamboree

The Christ Prep Patriots will travel to Trenton, Mo. Friday night to participate in a four-team pre-season jamboree. The jamboree begins at 6:00 p.m. at Trenton High's C.F. Russell Stadium and will afford the Patriots their first opportunity to scrimmage live against another opponent.

The jamboree format is essentially a series of round-robin scrimmages and will provide each team an opportunity to run 12 offensive and 12 defensive plays against three opponents. Besides Trenton, Chirst Prep will go against two other Missouri schools--Maysville and South Harrison (Bethany). South Harrison and Maysville are Missouri Class 1 schools while Trenton is a Missouri Class 2 school. Both South Harrison's and Trenton's mascots are the Bulldogs while the Maysville squad is known as the Wolverines. Trenton plays an independent schedule while the other two schools participate in Missouri's Grand River Conference.

Follow this link to read about the jamboree in the Trenton Republican Times. Read below to view the text of Coach Wallace's email (including driving directions) regarding the jamboree.

Patriot Day Videos, Part II

Today we have some more videos from Patriot Day. We'll try to upload a few more today as time allows. In this first video, Coach Wallace announces the 2011 team captains. Congratulations to captains Jesse Mann, Shane Roberts, Grant Collison, and Jack Layman!

Patriot Day Videos

We took several videos during yesterday's Patriot Day. The quality of these is suspect, but hopefully you'll find yourself or your favorite player in one of them. Since these take so long to upload, we won't publish that many at a time, but we'll try to post at least one more time this week.  Enjoy!

Patriot Day a Smashing Success

The Christ Prep Patriots concluded their first week of practice by enjoying some intense full-pad contact at the team's annual Patriot Day today at Red Bridge Baptist Church field. The team engaged in a variety of drills then worked on several offensive plays. The practice concluded with the infamous "Oklahoma Drill,"  followed by individual player introductions.

Patriot Day is historically a great time for Patriot families to get to know each other better and today was no exception. The team and families enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs, and a potluck spread of other foods after the practice.

Scroll down to view some photos of today's festivities. We'll post some videos of the contact drills throughout the next few days.