Vermont QBs face multiple challenges
Toolbox
By TOM HALEY Rutland Herald Staff - Published: July 25, 2009
MERIDEN, N.H. – There is the capability for Vermont to launch an air show just as it did the last time it won the Shrine Maple Sugar Bowl, a 47-40 shootout in 2000 with Mike Keenan throwing a Shrine Game record six touchdown passes against New Hampshire.
The ability to do so stems from Springfield's strong-armed quarterback Grant White and his group of playmaking receivers like Mill River's Allen White, Burr and Burton Academy's Caleb Wiley, Rutland's Mark Comstock and Spaulding's James Durham.
But don't bet too much on it. Head coach Mike Hatt said Friday that the Vermonters might throw four more times than they run, but there is as good a chance they will run it four more times than they fling it.
"Our offense is predicated on what the defense gives us," Hatt said. "It all depends on what the New Hampshire defense is trying take away."
It's all about the quarterback making reads at the line of scrimmage and since White ran the same offense for the Cosmos, he has become very good at it.Talking about Durham, Allen White, Wiley and Comstock, Hatt said, "All of them are game changers."
"It's just fun. Practice is fun," Allen White said. "There is a lot of chemistry with Grant and the receivers on combo routes. Everyone here knows the game"
"It's just exciting," Grant White said. "It's the same offense we ran at Springfield and now you add all these outstanding athletes. Every receiver on the field can make plays."
The 56th edition of this high school all-star game will be played Aug. 1 at Windsor High School, marking only the second time the game will be played on Vermont soil. It was moved to Windsor because of construction plans for Dartmouth College's Memorial Field.
The Shrine's Dave Orr said 2,700 seats will be trucked in from Dartmouth, swelling the seating at Windsor to somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000. There will also be standing room.
Montpelier's Evan Parker and BFA-St. Albans' Kris Sabourin are also taking snaps at QB, but Hatt said the plan is for White to get most of the time. Parker and Sabourin will play elsewhere, though.
"Grant will get most of the downs, but Kris and Evan are capable runners which is important for the quarterback in our offense," Hatt said.
Vermont and New Hampshire will both run spread offenses.
The teams will play intrasquad scrimmages this morning at the Kimball Union Academy training camp and they are open to the public.
New Hampshire head coach Greg Husband, a Windsor High graduate, is looking at Bishop Guertin's Andy Vailas and Milford's Jeff Agnew as his quarterbacks.
"They are both very agile, have strong arms and are good athletes," Husband said.
Stephen Miller, known more as a runner at Springfield, will be used as a wideout for Vermont, more in line with what they are asking him to do at Norwich University.
Relations became a little strained Friday when certified athletic trainer Matt Howland was asked to leave a New Hampshire practice when he was going to treat one of their players because he is from Vermont and there was a fear he would be relaying information, according to one Vermonter in camp.
Shrine shorts: There will be no radio network for the game for the first time since 1955. Orr said the only station coming to Windsor to broadcast the game so far is Poultney's WVNR. … Husband plans to take the New Hampshire team over to Windsor to see the field today.
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