Sports

 

 

Tuesday, December 3, 2002

Intercity schools dominate Big 12 football all-star team

NORMAL -- Bloomington, Normal Community and Normal West high schools dominated the regular season and now the all-conference awards for the Big 12 West Conference.

The Raiders, Ironmen and Wildcats had players named to 31 of the 39 spots on the first team and honorable mention squads.

Bloomington, coming off its second-place finish in Class 6A, had 13 players named, NCHS had 12 players and Normal West six.

There were only two area repeat selections. Bloomington quarterback Andre Brown and running back Damon Mehlberg were named to the first team for the second year in a row.

Bloomington's Andrew Kernes, NCHS' Rashod Taylor, Matt Heid and Brock Weigelmann and Normal West's Jeff Cardoni were all named first team offensive line and all were unanimous selections.

Chad Olson of Bloomington and Jordan Musselman of NCHS were unanimous selections at wide receiver, and Brown was a unanimous choice at quarterback as was Mehlberg at running back.

Joining Mehlberg in the backfield was teammate James Wade.

On the defensive side of the ball, Bloomington teammates Jake Kummer and Rod Castillo were unanimous selections to the defensive line and were joined Normal West's Tarl Mackenzie.

NCHS' Rashod Taylor was a unanimous choice at defensive end and was joined by Kyle McClintock of Normal West.

Ryan Pankey of Bloomington and Mike Eckhardt of Normal Community were unanimous selections at linebacker and Scott Chenoweth of Normal West was selected to the first team.

Jesse Walden of Normal Community was the lone unanimous selection at defensive back and Bloomington teammates Chad Olson and Justin Harrison also made the first team.

Bloomington's Eric Esch was a unanimous selection at punter.

See scoreboard for complete teams