Strong senior class leads Knights

PALMER -- A season after falling just short of the state championship game, with an overtime loss to East Anchorage, the Colony Knight football squad is a popular pick when choosing a team that just might win it all. The squad has a boat-load of talent returning and a pair of pre-season polls have the Knights as the top team going into the season.

Although his team does return a bundle of talent, including six 2003 All-Northern Railbelt Selections, Colony head coach Randy Magner said it is too soon to throw the Knights into the title game, specifically citing the team's varsity numbers.

"We've got a good group of athletes, of players, just not enough of them," Magner said.

The Knights have more than 80 players in the program as the team completed its second week of practice, but only 28 on the varsity roster. Magner said the number of varsity players, combined with injuries, have caused him to be at least a little concerned.

But even though they lack great depth, the Knights can still boast a group that includes some of the top seniors in the state. Leading the talented crop of Knights are All-NRC selections Rhett Magner, Justin Schwartzbauer, Dominick Bellotte, Kyle Coffman and Shawn Olivera. Junior Tim Egger is also a member of the 2003 all-conference squad.

The All-NRC selections all figure prominently into the Knight strengths -- defense and their running game. Magner, an All-NRC defensive back, is in his second year at quarterback. Magner is expected to not only hand the ball off to the likes of Olivera and Coffman, but be part of a potent passing attack that includes Schwartzbauer, an All-NRC wide receiver.

"I think our running game is our strength, but we should be all right at passing," Magner said. "We've got some other good athletes at receiver, so it's not going to be just Justin."

Magner said Alan Morlan, Austin Manelick and a pair of players new to the program, Rickey Cunningham and Ryan Pauling, could also figure prominently in the passing attack. Cunningham joins Colony after three years in the Wasilla program, and Pauling, a Colony hockey standout will don a Knight football jersey for the first time.

Paving the way for the running game or protecting Rhett Magner in the passing game will be an offensive line led by All-State guard Dominick Bellotte. Magner said Bellotte is one of several Knights who hit summer camps in the Lower 48 and made themselves better. Bellotte will be joined on the offensive line by Josiah Moffitt and Frank Gamboa. Derrick Mosely and three sophomores, Wade Bowen, Justin Beauchamp and James Savage, will also battle for starting sports, according to Magner.

Bellotte and Moffitt will also provide a strength for the Knights on defense, Magner said.

"Our strength is in the middle," Magner said.

That middle will be plugged by Bellotte and Moffitt at defensive tackle and Coffman at middle linebacker. Coffman will fill the biggest void for the Knights, as he steps into the positions left by David Craig, a 2003 Colony graduate.

"Losing David's tough," Magner said. "He's a hard one to replace."

Despite the loss, Magner has confidence in Coffman's ability to do the job. In his first season as a varsity starter last year, Coffman broke the school record for tackles in a season. The mark, set in 2000, was held by A. J. Gangstad.

"Kyle has made himself into a middle linebacker," Magner said.

Also a strength, Magner said, will be the team's defensive backs. Rhett Magner and Schwartzbauer will anchor the defensive backfield with help from Morlan, Randell Harvey and Clint Peterson.

Colony will face a pair of difficult small school foes before marching into the NRC schedule. The Knights travel to Soldotna on Aug. 20 and have a home date with the 3A state champion Kenai Kardinals on Aug. 28. The regular season schedule concludes with a showdown, and possible NRC title match, against North Pole at Colony High School on

Oct. 2.