The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WAI T SBURG - On the one hand, head Cardinals football coach Jeff Bartlow argues that it's good to come from a historic season that sent the team to the state playoffs.

"The culture of winning is there," he said. "There's no doubt the kids believe in it."

The Cardinals went an unprecedented 12-1 and made it to Pullman only to be edged out by Colfax and place third in state.

But it also means having to defend a district championship title and being in a position to fend off challenges from league rivals and beyond.

"People are looking to knock us off," Bartlow said. "We have to bring our A game every week. If you don't, you lose."

The head coach and his players are confident they can bring their A game to Cardinal Field and their opponents' camps albeit without the likes of start players like Kris Cady, TJ Hofer and Tre Brannock.

After two weeks of practices, the pieces of the annual rebuilding puzzle are coming together.

This year, the Cardinals have eight returning seniors, four of whom are in the starting lineup: quarterback and co-captain Zach Bartlow; offensive tackle and co-captain Eshom Estes; and wide receivers Dustin Wooderchak and Justin Zuger, who didn't play his junior year but was on the team as a freshman and sophomore.

That compares to 12 seniors in 2010.

Zach Bartlow's talent and poise as a quarterback are well known. He'll be that much more experienced this year. In the league, only DeSales' Jeremia Cox, a junior, comes somewhat close to matching his depth and versatility in that position, according to league observers.

But the younger Bartlow tends to be somewhat quiet as a leader, so the more verbal Estes will be there to round out the leadership team on the field.

Wooderchak wasn't consistent as a wide receiver last year. He struggled mid season, Bartlow said, but has since improved markedly. "He's had a good start this year (in practice)."

Zuger, who took a year off, has gotten faster and "catching the ball as well as anybody," the head coach said. "That's a beautiful thing for us."

The team has a solid backbone of 16 juniors, followed by a smaller contingent of six sophomores and an impressive group of 11 freshmen who went 5-1 two years in a row when they competed for the Mustangs in middle school. In all, the team has a roster of 41 players compared to 40 last year with 25 new players, or 62.5 percent of the bench.

"It's truly a new team," Bartlow said. "You have a lot to replace. We have enough talent to be very good. We're coming together."

Only two players from Prescott are joining the combine team, but the Cardinals are blessed with a healthy contingent of nine players from the Jubilee Youth Ranch. These include the Donovan brothers, Cadman and Brendan, who competed as 4A players (the highest level) at a high school in Colorado last year.

Cadman Donovan, 218 pounds, starts as an offensive lineman while Brendan Donovan steps up to the defensive line.

"These guys are good," Bartlow said. "They work hard. They're rugged and athletic."

Also returning to the team with outside experience is Billy Brown, a basketball and track athlete who played at Walla Walla High School last season and will start as wide receiver for the Cardinals.

Sterling Eastman, the younger brother of Shane Eastman, the outstanding linebacker from Jubilee Youth Ranch who graduated this year, is being groomed as the backup quarterback, Bartlow said. Roy Ebong, another Jubilee athlete who excelled on the Cardinals' track team, will start as a wide receiver and defensive back, Bartlow said.

With an exceptional group of freshman players, the Cardinals' future seems bright, the head coach suggested.

"You don't get a class like that very often," he said, indicating the high school team owes one to the dedication of Mustangs' coach Jim Leid and his staff for nurturing such a successful middle school team.

It has also helped that Bartlow himself had these players as his PE students since sixth grade. Athletes like Devin Acevedo, Daniel Stansell and Chance Leroue are so good, they will likely find themselves in the starting lineup as wide receiver, fullback and running back respectively, Bartlow said.

Scanning the league for stumbling blocks, the Cardinals will have to watch out for DeSales with Cox as quarterback and their loss of only five seniors this year. Although Cox isn't necessarily a nimble running quarterback like Bartlow, the Irish have several great receivers, while a tight end like Nick Wales is hard to bring down.

Dayton is getting progressively better under secondyear coach Dean Bickelhaupt and Tri Cities Prep has some good starters coming back, including their quarterback, a coach's son. Both Asotin and TOR have either lost a big senior class or key senior players, such as Panthers' quarterback Ben Servatius.

Bartlow predicts "it will be a close league," but he feels good about the season.

"I'm excited about it," he said.

The season starts with Friday's 7 p.m. home game against Davenport.