Judging by the number of future Fighting Scots who played in last
month’s East-West Shrine Game, the incoming recruiting class for the
Monmouth College football team can again be considered a good one.
Four MC recruits suited up for the game, which tied the Scots
with one other college for the most future players participating.
One of those recruits, Lexington’s Alex Tanney, was named the
Offensive MVP, while the other three participants were Cambridge’s
Casey Happach, Dixon’s Payton Lumzy and Morrison’s Nick Vandermyde.
Tanney, Happach and Vandermyde all made All-State teams, as did
Pittsfield’s Matt Wassell and Happach’s Cambridge teammate, Kyle
Morey. Additionally, in another postseason All-Star game,
Bushnell-Prairie City product Marcus Ruff earned the Defensive MVP
award.
"We’re very excited about our recruiting class, especially some
of the top end players," said coach Steve Bell, who has a 50-21
record in seven seasons at Monmouth. "We’ve got some very
athletically talented kids, and we definitely feel some of them can
compete right now and help us immediately."
Ruff, Happach and Morey are just three of a long list of recruits
who played their high school football near Monmouth. Others include
Shawn Betar (Monmouth), Kramer Matzen (Orion), Anthony Reatherford
(Westmer) and Adam Sovanski (Kewanee). Two local schools provided
three recruits apiece, as Matt Dever, Jordan Rader and Nick Wright
are coming from Canton and Nathan Parks, Michael Bogguess and Tyler
Hannam attended AlWood. Parks was the Galesburg Register-Mail Player
of the Year.
Four Western Big 6 athletes are also on board, including
Galesburg’s Tom Danielson, East Moline’s Justin Clark, Moline’s
Justin Hoskins and Rock Island’s Adam Schnieder.
On the opposite extreme of the 59-member class are three players
who prepped out of state
