June 27, 2014
Tensions mount between Sikeston, Cape Central during first day of Contact Camp
sports@standard-democrat.com CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The tension built several plays before. Sikeston's offense was just held scoreless and now it's defense was trying to do the same against Cape Central. But the Tigers were marching. One play was stuffed with a hard tackle by a Sikeston defender up the middle. The very next play went for 15 yards and ended when Cape Central's Kwaychon Chism was brought down hard close to the sideline...
By Chris Pobst - Standard Democrat
sports@standard-democrat.com
CAPE GIRARDEAU -- The tension built several plays before.
Sikeston's offense was just held scoreless and now it's defense was trying to do the same against Cape Central. But the Tigers were marching.
One play was stuffed with a hard tackle by a Sikeston defender up the middle. The very next play went for 15 yards and ended when Cape Central's Kwaychon Chism was brought down hard close to the sideline.
The chatter picked up on the field and near the benches soon after.
A short time later, Chism launched a deep pass to the back of the endzone which was snatched out of the air by Cape Central's Al Young. Sikeston's Donell Cobb was quickly in on the play and brought down Young which led to a small skirmish after the prolonged tackle was made.
The two were separated quickly by an official and several teammates before the pushing match could turn into anything else.
And this was just a scrimmage game.
The fire shown between the Cape Central and Sikeston football teams highlighted the first day of the SEMO Coaches Association Contact Camp Thursday at Cape Central and was a small reminder of how much the two SEMO Conference rivals, simply, don't like each other.
"I felt like the very last game we got emotional with Cape because, you know, we're such good friends," Sikeston head coach Kent Gibbs said tongue-in-cheek. "We've been going at each other since I've been at Sikeston and It's been a really nice, good rivalry and emotions happen. We saw a little bit of that and I think both teams elevated their game a little bit."
Unofficially, Cape Central won their scrimmage with Sikeston 1-0 with Young's catch being the only score. Though a shoving match did occur, nothing more took place and was what both coaches come to expect when the two meet.
"It's a great rivalry," Cape Central head coach Nathan Norman said. "Our kids like playing them and they like playing us. Both teams competed and picked up the pace during that session and we knew that would be the case and that's good. We wanted to see how we would respond to that level of competition."
Competition was what every team was looking for Thursday between Cape Central, Dexter, Kennett and Sikeston who all went head to head in a scrimmage style setting. each team had 15 plays on offense and 15 plays on defense within 40 yards of turf with officials on hand during the sixth annual event.
Norman was looking for competition on the other side of the ball as well as internally.
"We've got a lot of new players and we're just trying to get a feel of who can play football," Norman said. "We're not necessarily worried about what plays we're running we just want to see who's going to compete, who's going to play with good technique and leverage. It's just another good, quality practice against somebody else."
The same was said from Sikeston's angle.
"I think it's always important to figure out if you're going to compete," Gibbs said. "To be real honest, we've not had a real good summer and we've got a long way to go but you can find out a lot about your kids when you start competing against other teams."
Today is the final day of the camp which has a start time of 4 p.m. at Cape Central High School.
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