Kids clinic, Hooper memorial to highlight Southeast Missouri State spring football game

The Southeast Missouri State football team will conclude its spring practices with the annual spring game on Saturday, and for first-year coach Tom Matukewicz the day will be more than just another chance to see his players on the field -- and there's definitely not a shortage of events planned.

"Really if it was just based on football, we probably wouldn't have a spring game because I don't want to get anybody injured," Matukewicz said. "But this is really for the players. They've worked really hard and they get this opportunity to show their friends and family what they've been working for, and for some guys that maybe not a lot of people know about, [it] give[s] them an opportunity to shine."

The game starts at 1 p.m. at Houck Stadium and admission is free.

Matukewicz divided his coaching staff into two teams -- red team and white team -- and held a draft to split up the players for Saturday's game.

The game will consist of four 12-minute quarters with a running clock. The clock will run like an actual game during the final two minutes of the second and fourth quarters.

He even set aside time during Tuesday and Thursday's practices to allow each team to install some surprise plays of their own.

Before the game, former Redhawk and current Dallas Cowboys defensive end Edgar Jones will hold a free youth football clinic from 10 a.m. until noon.

The clinic is open to boys and girls in first through eighth grade. The first 200 kids to register receive a free shirt.

Jones expressed his appreciation for Southeast, which he called a "stepping stone" for him.

"For them to give me an opportunity and then to be able to come back to a town like Cape Girardeau where kids aren't fortunate enough to see NFL guys -- and not so much just about NFL, but it's about life in general and just showing those kids that, 'Hey, if I can do it, you can do it,'" Jones said. "And it's not necessarily being a football player, but a doctor, lawyer, reporter or mayor, whatever it is that you want to be in life.

"But just passing it back down. I mean, I've always thought that the stuff I've been able to see and been blessed with, it'd be selfish if I didn't pass it down to the younger kids and show them that if I did it, they can do it to. To hold onto it and hold onto all the stuff I've learned, it'd be selfish not to pass it back down."

Jones played at Southeast from 2003 to 2006 and was a first-team Associated Press All-American.

"This is his program. Like he's bled here, sweat here," Matukewicz said about Jones. "That's the thing I really like about him is he really wants this program to be successful. ... I've never met him and I can't wait."

At the end of the clinic each kid will choose which team they think will win and will get to join that team as they come onto the field for the spring game.

"We have an intro video, so when the white team comes out onto the field, those kids that chose white will come onto the field with them and vice versa with the red team," Matukewicz said. "That'll simulate what we're going to do on a normal Saturday … so every kid that came to the game gets to take the field with the team on game day."

The team also will present a check to Chris and Sara Hooper for the Dominic Hooper Scholarship fund in honor of their son, a Scott City teen who died Feb. 23 from injuries sustained in an ATV accident.

There also will be an opportunity for attendees to sign up for organ donation.

Jones is signing autographs for $5 at Chick-Fil-A from 6-7 p.m. Friday to raise money for the fund and will be speaking on Friday to the Scott City football team, which Dominic Hooper was a member of.

Southeast football players collected money, and Matukewicz and his wife, Lenna, are making a donation.

Matukewicz read about Dominic's death and contacted Scott City football and baseball coach Jim May, who helped Matukewicz get in touch with the Hooper family.

"They're doing better than I would," Matukewicz said about the Hoopers. "I'd be in the fetal position in the corner. They're really, really strong people and I'm just excited to get them here and have his memory live on. We're going to have a moment of silence, and I know he's going to be there looking after us."

The Redhawks also will wear "DOM" helmet decals Saturday.

Following the game, Southeast coaches, players and their families are going to have a barbecue so that the players' families have a chance to get to know their son's new coach.

"The biggest thing is just when I got here I feel like I had to light a fire under the team, light a fire under the university, a fire in the community and just get this thing hopping a little bit," Matukewicz said. "I feel like it's going well, and Saturday will be something that can feed us into the summer."