Nappanee Advance-News, Volume 120, Number 32, Nappanee, Elkhart County, 20 August 1997 — Page 26

Football Ibb, 1997

loses son Wes’s lightning speed at the quarterback slot, both Abel and Roeder stand 6’3”, with Abel weighing in at 200 pounds and Roeder not far behind at 179. The added power in the Panther option attack will not hurt anything either. “We’re not going to be as quick at quarterback this year, we’ll haved a lot more range. We’ve got two pretty good athletes and our team speed will be OK overall.” Defense will be the chal-

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lenge, especially with a talented but young and untested crew. “We’ve struggled a little on defense early,” Dodson said. “We’ve just got to get some quality reps and unfortunately the weather hasn’t been cooperating with us a whole lot, but we’ll get them.” On the other side of the ball, Dodson has been impressed with what he’s seen. The bad news for opponents is that the high powered Panther offense appears to be ahead of sched-

ule. “I’ve been very pleased with what I’ve seen of our offense,” said Dodson, but added quickly, “I’m not getting too excited. We can’t get too excited. We open with Jimtown.” North Wood will play a killer schedule that

includes an opener with the always tough Jimmies, and then consecutive games against Bremen,

1 i sm •

Justin Rogers (51) is a key returner to the Panther squad on the offensive and defensive line.

Concord and Goshen. “You can look at those four games and say you’d be happy to come out of that 2-2 no matter what kind of team you have,” said Dodson. “As young as we are it will be a rough start. Sure it’s a tough schedule

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but that’s the way it is. We’re sure not going to make any excuses about it we’re just going to play it.” The home opener against the Jimmies on Aug. 22 will have a 7:30 p.m. start.