Football signs 23 recruits for 2010 season

By Lauren Burbach

February 10, 2010 No Comments

Missouri Western will add many local kids to its roster after last Wednesday, Feb. 3, when head football coach Jerry Partridge announced the signing of 23 new recruits for the 2010 season.

Of the 23 recruits, 21 are from Missouri or Kansas. The two remaining signees, Cale Grauer and Jeremy Jacobsen, are from Oklahoma and Iowa.

Partridge mentioned that recruiting mostly from the Midwest is a part of the program’s strategy.

“It’s kind of our philosophy to get kids from the Midwest,” Partridge said. “We tell kids that it’s good football, retention rates are going to be better, it’s easier to judge what you can recruit against and who you can go against, and it costs less money to recruit from the Midwest than flying them in from all over the place.”

However, among all of the local products, only one recruit is from St. Joseph. Jared Fox, a defensive back from Central High School, will be joining the team in the fall.

“Jared is a very physical guy, he runs well and he’s quick,” Partridge said. “When we did our physical testing day, Jared did as well as anybody and I like his leadership skills.”

After the recruits got through physical testing on their visitation day, they got a tour of the new Chiefs facility. Partridge thought that seeing this building, even though it isn’t completely finished, was a big factor.

“I think it helped, no doubt about it,” Partridge aid. “It wasn’t as flashy and fancy is it’s going to be next year. But it was a factor, no question. Last year it helped a little, this year it helped quite a bit, and next year is going to be when it really helps – when you’re going to be able and walk in and see it and not just talk about it.”

Partridge thought it was difficult to pick out players from the bunch with more talent than the others.

“It’s always hard to say who’s the star of the class,” Partridge said.

The coaching staff doesn’t see any recruits that will make an immediate impact.

“I think we can redshirt them all,” Partridge said. “I don’t think any of those kids will crack the lineup right away.”

Overall, Partridge and the rest of Western’s staff and players have a good feeling about this recruiting class.

“You never know how many you’re going to sign when you get started on this thing,” Partridge said.

“There’s so many dollars you have and you try to get as many as you can for the amount of money you have. I feel pretty good about what we’ve accomplished. We felt like we did what we did what we needed to do.”

Junior lineman Andy Gilmore agreed.

“The class is really good,” Gilmore said. “I think we signed a lot of kids that will eventually help us win.”

Western is also hoping to get a few more local players to walk on and a few Junior College transfers to complete the recruiting class.