The Kansas City Star
June 11, 1998
Edition: METROPOLITAN
Section: ZONE/MIDTOWN
Page: 15

Football all-stars to clash in Metro Classic
Author: JENNI CARLSON; Staff Writer

The words shot out across the football practice field at William Jewell College.

"Stay on your feet. " "Stay on your feet! " "Feet! Feet! Feet!" "FEET!" The Missouri coaches for the Metro Classic high school all-star football game should have saved it. All the demands not to tackle, to be careful and to take it easy didn't slow the players a bit.

Didn't anyone tell these guys that they're preparing for an all-star game?

"You're playing football," Center running back Aaron Jones said. "You could get hurt today. You could get hurt next month."

So the Missouri All-Stars are going all out as they prepare for next week's Metro Classic. The game, sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Football Coaches' Association, pits the best recently-graduated seniors in Missouri against the best in Kansas. Practices got under way Monday - Missouri at William Jewell in Liberty, Kansas at Mid-America Nazarene in Olathe - for the June 18 game, which kicks off at 6 p.m. at the Blue Valley District Activity Center.

And the Missouri All-Stars are doing everything to be ready. That means full speed, full strength, full contact.

"Some college coaches are kind of hesitant about that," said Lee's Summit North defensive back Desmond Polk, who is bound for Missouri Western.

College coaches do worry about their recruits getting banged up or even seriously injured in an all-star game. Especially when it's just a few weeks before they report for camp.
The players know that they could take an injury from the Metro Classic with them to college, but most believe that they'll get something much better from the experience.

"I think this is what college is going to be like," Blue Springs South lineman James Hill said.

Park Hill lineman Wes Wilson nodded his head.

"Kinda like the first days of two-a-days," he said.

Players are meeting each other and figuring out how their teammates work. They are learning new plays. They are getting used to the coaching staff.

That takes time. Just like college football will.

Yet things move faster than a normal high school practice. Every single one of the players has above-average skill, ability and knowledge. No one has to be taught how to run an up-and-out or how to hand check or how to five-step drop.

"We were talking about how everything's going so quick," Raytown South wide receiver Aaron Bell said. "Usually, you have a squad that's a little behind. Here, everybody's the best. " And they want everyone to know it, especially the Kansas All-Stars.

"We just want to show Kansas that we do have some athletes," Polk said. "It's Missouri-Kansas. Like North-South." Kansas has won the last two Metro Classics. The Kansas City-area schools on the other side of the state line also boasts one state champion, Olathe North, and two runners-up, Blue Valley and Louisburg, from last season.

So do the Missouri All-Stars care about winning the Metro Classic?

You could say that.

"But I want to win every game I play," St. Pius X quarterback Mike Sansone said. "We could be playing Kansas, Oklahoma, anyone."

Copyright 1998 The Kansas City Star Co.