Metro East Sun

With 19 seniors this season, Civic Memorial has a fair amount of familiar faces, but one new face belongs to the man in charge.

Mike Parmentier is the new head coach for the Eagles this season, and he comes in with a career record of 93-70. That includes leading Staunton to the Class 2A championship game in 2013.

Parmentier inherits five returning offensive starters and four defensive starters from last year's team that went 7-3 and took third place in the Mississippi Valley Conference.

All five returning starters on offense are seniors, and four of them are on the offensive line: Cody Reynolds and triplets Andrew, Brandon and Curtis Deckard. Last year's leading receiver, David Lane, also is back.

Rikki Lafferty, Corey Price, Nick Newell and Brandon Deckard are the defense's returning starters.

"We have had a solid offseason with many players participating in those workouts,” Parmentier said in an email interview. “The installation of a new offense and defense can be tough, I feel our players have adjusted very well. It is always a work in progress."

 

MARQUETTE CATHOLIC

With almost the entire starting unit back on both sides of the ball, the Explorers won't need a lot of new-player introductions this season.

“For our size, we have 12 seniors and 15 juniors, which are very strong numbers for us,” Head Coach Darrell Angleton said in an email interview.

The offensive returners include last season's entire starting line, which paved the way for leading rusher D'avion Peebles (570 yards, eight touchdowns). Peebles, a junior, was also a receiving threat with 17 catches, 229 yards and one TD.

On defense, the top four tacklers have returned. James Malone and Xavior Jones each had 67 tackles; Brady McAfee had 65; and Brian Nagy had 59. Each of those players earned All-Prairie State honors.

All-conference selection Liam Maher is back to handle kicking duties for the Explorers, who went 6-4 last season.

NOTE: Not all area coaches returned information before this story went to press.