Getting Adam D’Angelo back in an Emporia High uniform for this season was a two-step process, one that the Spartan coaches are grateful to have seen happen.
First, the junior defensive end had to make the decision to return to Emporia after moving to Goddard at semester last year. Second, once he was back, D’Angelo had to give in to a relentless blitz of pressure to rejoin the EHS football team — pressure that came from just about everywhere.
“Peers, other football players, friends’ parents — a bunch of my friends’ parents,” he said. “My dad, he was getting onto me. He was really mad — he wouldn’t talk to me because I told him I wasn’t gonna play. And a lot of the staff here at the high school — (athletic director Britton) Hart, he said he was gonna be mad if I didn’t play. (Principal Scott) Sheldon, he was a big influence.”
In the end, D’Angelo decided he missed being with his teammates and the fun he had last year. So just two or three weeks before the season started, he got in the weight room and prepared for his return. Now, he’s one of the Spartans’ most consistent defensive playmakers, and EHS co-defensive coordinator Jay Adkins has called his return a “blessing.”
“It just made us that much deeper on the defensive line, and it made us quicker on the defensive line,” Adkins said. “When he came out and started playing the way he did, we just got a whole lot better. I’m not surprised, necessarily — I’m just real happy that he’s back in Emporia and he’s playing for us.”
D’Angelo moved to Goddard to live with his mother and see how he liked it. He spent the semester there, did some high school wrestling, and he had a landscaping job set up for the summer. But in mid-July, he headed back to Emporia after realizing how much he missed it — especially one aspect of it.
“Just knowing the people,” he said. “Missed the football team, missed people I knew well.”
Even so, returning to town didn’t mean D’Angelo was going to be seen on the field at Welch Stadium on Friday nights. That’s when the full-scale effort to bring him back began.
“I wasn’t gonna play,” he said. “When I came back, everyone kept on forcing me.”
The difference between D’Angelo the sophomore and D’Angelo the junior shows up in the playmaking ability he’s displayed all year long for the 5-2 Spartans. He’s become a routine threat to rack up eight or nine tackles per game, and he’s recovered three fumbles this year. Adkins believes he’s a big reason that Emporia’s defense has improved both against the run and in generating pressure on the quarterback.
“He gives us a lot of speed on that edge,” Adkins said. “It’s really hard to run over there. It’s hard to run against him, and then if you run away from him, he can come down the line and make the play from the back side, with the speed he’s got.
“He’s just got a good head for the football, he really does. And it’s not that he does things right all the time, but he’s always around the play, because he’s got a nose for the football.”
The Spartans were 5-2 at this time last year, and this week’s home game against Salina Central, a team with an identical record, is a pivotal second game in district play. Last year’s season-ending losses to Central and Salina South kept the Spartans out of the Class 5A playoffs, and they’re planning on making a better district showing this year.
“We’re definitely capable of it,” D’Angelo said. “We have to come out and be ready to play in the first quarter. ... We’re busting our tails out there, and we just gotta get everyone to get the mindset to get the job done.”
About Salina
Central and the
district race
Emporia’s 46-14 victory over Topeka West last week and Salina South’s 31-28 win over Salina Central put the Spartans and Cougars in early command of Class 5A’s District 5. If EHS beats Central on Friday, and South defeats Topeka West in Salina, the district’s two playoff spots will be wrapped up. Emporia and Salina South, at 2-0, will be headed to State, with next week’s game between the two determining the district champion.
If the Spartans don’t beat Central, Emporia’s regular-season finale at South on Oct. 30 could carry do-or-die importance, and the tiebreaking point system — which allows a maximum of plus- or minus-13 points per game — could come into play.
Salina Central’s top offensive weapons are running back Cale Sharp and receiver Jesse Wassenberg. Sharp, the younger brother of Kansas senior running back Jake Sharp, has 714 yards rushing on 152 carries and six touchdowns. Wassenberg has 28 catches for 710 yards and seven touchdowns. Also having productive seasons are Fraser Egan, who’s gained 475 yards on the ground on just 83 carries, with six TDs, and Lucas Allen, who has 26 catches for 442 yards and six touchdowns. Quarterback Trey Dallas is now Central’s all-time career passing leader; he has 1,400 yards passing this year with 15 touchdowns and five interceptions.
Defensively, Chandler Perez has six sacks for the Mustangs. Elias Grant has three interceptions, and Shay Wooten has two.
Comments
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)