MRH Quarterback Hagens Hones Accuracy Ahead of Opener

Ask junior quarterback Kahlid Hagens any question, about football or otherwise, and the answer is likely to end with, “I’m just ready to get the season started.”

Which is understandable. Because last year, his season just as the Blue Devils got into the thick of state playoffs, and .

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Now Hagens is fit and more than ready for the 2011 season. He's eight pounds heavier and two-and-a-half inches taller than a year ago.

Even with a shortened season last year, Hagens was voted , as he completed 63.5 percent of his passes for 1,937 yards and 24 touchdowns, as noted by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

He said his arm is stronger this year, and he is mostly working on accuracy. He spent the first part of the summer playing basketball, his winter sport.

“Then I stopped. I thought it was about time for football season to start. Get ready for the gridiron,” he said.

He lifted and ran—the usual.

“Trying to get better for the team. To lead this team, that’s about it,” he said matter-of-factly, but with an underlying impatience to get going.

He knows MRH lost some great seniors, but said they have a lot of young guys who now have playoff experience. “They’re coming back stronger too,” he said.

He loves all of his offensive line, he said, but there’s one “special guy,” he said with a smile.

“Antar Thompson. He’s nice. He’s very good. All of them will protect me, but he’s good. A nice lineman to have,” Hagens said.

Thompson, a junior, was voted MVP at a University of Missouri football camp over the summer.

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MRH head coach Brandon Gregory said Hagens has matured both on and off the field.

"This past summer he got in, he watched his games from last year, and you could see where he was trying to get better at things," Gregory said. "He's becoming a student of the game."

"His whole maturity level has changed. We put him into a captain role this year, and he’s emerging as one of the top captains on the team. Watching him grow and knowing that he has another year left, it makes my job a whole lot easier."

Hagens lost Tony King and Cortez Cooper as receivers but isn’t worried because he has sophomore Cortland Brooks, junior Aaron Collins and senior Kashon Hagens. “Those are the three main guys to watch out for,” he said.

School is going well for him. “Love the teachers, administrators, coaches and everything,” he said. “It’s pretty real, just get this thing rolling, it’s about time.”

There he goes again, ready for the season to start.

Hagens is taking a long view of the season. MICDS?

“I just want a victory, that’s it," he said. "Hopefully, it will be the same results this year."

MRH surprised MICDS 26-16 in last year’s opener.

It’s that final game of the season, under the Edward Jones Dome, that Hagens is really itching for.

(Follow contributor Doug Miner on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DHMPhoto and editor Ryan Martin at www.twitter.com/MBPatch)