High school football's dream team?

Area high school football teams are ready to tee it up and play for real.

 

Just for the fantasy football fun of it, though, who might be the top picks if – for entertainment purposes only, of course – we were to hold an O-D All-Mohawk Valley High School Fantasy Football League draft?

 

QUARTERBACK: Oneida’s Ryan Kramer. This will be his third season calling signals for a wide-open, spread offense loaded with other proven weapons. Kramer’s thrown for over 2,500 yards and 24 touchdowns over the last two seasons, so give him the edge over two other seniors, New Hartford’s Mike Doyle and Thomas R. Proctor’s Kelly Olney. Doyle passed for 1,420 yards and 18 touchdowns last season, but prime target Mike Kelly, an all-state end, is among several Spartan receivers who were lost to graduation.

 

RUNNING BACK: Adirondack’s Scott Dunlap and Dolgeville’s Clay Ardoin. While sharing the load with QB-TB Cody Hitt (1,210 yards and 13 TDs) and FB Cody Spann (912 yards, 11 TDs), Dunlap still managed to rush for 1,000 yards and 10 touchdowns as a junior. Now, he’ll be the Wildcats’ go-to guy, and he’s built for their smash-mouth ways. Ardoin only carried the ball 74 times last season, largely because the Blue Devils won six games by at least 35 points. He still averaged nearly eight yards per carry and scored 15 touchdowns, 10 on the ground, three as a receiver, and two more on interception returns. The area’s top returning rusher is Frankfort-Schuyler workhorse Jordan Lints (1,301 yards on 205 carries), but he ran for only seven touchdowns and the Maroon Knights have moved up to Class C.

 

RECEIVER: Rome Free Academy’s Marco Dominic and Herkimer’s J.J. Crandall. As a junior, Dominic caught 25 passes for 476 yards and eight touchdowns last year. Crandall, whose older brother Kyle is an Ithaca College receiver and former Herkimer High star, had 25 receptions for 267 yards and nine touchdowns. Proctor’s D.J. Pearson would be a high pick, too, after catching 25 passes for 313 yards and three touchdowns as a junior. Camden’s Kyle Conniff, who caught 27 passes last year, would be another consideration.

 

TIGHT END: Oneida’s Brandon Miles and RFA’s Corey White. Miles had 27 receptions for 558 yards and six touchdowns, and those numbers could be even better this season. White, often used as an “H-back” at RFA, had 26 catches for 262 yards and one touchdown last year.

 

KICKER: In “real” fantasy football, he’d be your last pick. Same here. Just for kicks, though, let’s go with Holland Patent’s Adam Santamour and Sauquoit Valley’s Devyn Hollenbeck, the latter if only because he was 7-for-7 in PAT attempts in last year’s 71-49 loss to Adirondack.

 

DEFENSE: Whitesboro (with veterans Matt Tutino and Sean Wlock at linebacker), Dolgeville (with Doug Gray at defensive end and Ardoin and Andy Johnston at linebacker) and Notre Dame (with Kevin Collins and Caden Romeo at linebacker and Luke Manolescu at safety).