License to drive ... down the field

Steven McBee doesn’t own a set of  keys to the family car.

Yet Fort Osage football coach Ryan Schartz has enough confidence in the sophomore quarterback to hand him the keys to the Indians offense.

“When you put it that way, it’s pretty special for a 15-year-old to be running the offense,” said Schartz, after the Indians opened the 2010 season with a convincing 19-7 victory over visiting Lee’s Summit North.

“The young man can’t drive to practice, but once he gets here, he knows what to do.”

McBee is one of many new faces on an offense that played such a big role in last year’s perfect 10-0 regular season and march to the Class 5 state championship.

He replaces two-year starter Edward Pearl, who is now playing wide receiver at Missouri Southern State University is Joplin.

“I didn’t think I’d get nervous, even though it was my first start and our first game,” McBee said, when asked about last Friday’s home opener, before a standing-room-only crowd of vocal Indian fans.

“But once we came out of the locker room, and I stepped foot on the field, here came the butterflies. But once we ran the first series, I was okay. We have a great team this year, even if we do have a lot of new guys.

“Our offense will continue to get better and our defense is great.”

That defense he was talking about held the Broncos to just 26 yards in the first half.

“That win was one of those total team effort wins,” Schartz said. “Everyone played well enough to win. The defense came up with big plays and Steven did a nice job for his first start.”

Indians defensive back Spencer Gearhart picked off a second-half pass and returned it to North’s 11-yard line. McBee completed an 8-yard pass, then scored on a 3-yard run.

“Steven’s awfully skinny,” Schartz chuckled. “But he’s really fast. You know, we’re all excited about this season and I know the fans are wondering how we’re going to follow up on what we did last year.

“But with a sophomore like Steven running the offense, it’s pretty easy to get excited about the future, too.”

McBee finished the game going 5 of 13 for 36 yards and carried the ball 21 times for 88 yards.

“He’s a lot more comfortable now running the ball,” Schartz said. “And that’s all right. He’s going to grow and develop into a very good quarterback.”

While McBee stood on the sidelines last year and watched the Indians compete for the Class 5 championship, all-state nose tackle Tony Tanumai and all-state offensive lineman Juan Saucedo were getting the job done in the pits.

They know this is a new year, and a new team, and they aren’t the least bit concerned.

“Players graduate, that’s just life,” Saucedo said. “We’re going to be successful as long as we have our great coaching staff.

“Coach Schartz is an inspiration and he and his staff give us 110 percent so we’re always going to give them 110 percent, too.”

Tanumai nodded in agreement.

“The coaches work us hard, but they work as hard or harder than we do,” Tanumai said. “We can’t let down this year, even though we have a lot of new players, because we were the first team in school history to go undefeated in the regular season last year, and we want to come back strong this year and show we’re still a good team.”

Over the past five years, Indians fans have had plenty to cheer about.

Schartz ended a two-season losing streak by winning his first game as a head coach. That team went 1-9, but the foundation was set for a team that has gone 40-17 with four conference championships, three district titles and two state-semifinal appearances.

“I’m proud of how far this program has come and I’m so proud of my coaching staff,” Schartz said. “You don’t accomplish something like that without great coaches, and I think I have the best staff in the state.”