Buccaneer football players named to the SCC All-Conference squad are, left to right, Jake Lee, Nathan Carr, Garrett Anderson and Sinjin Bell.

Four Blue Earth Area Buccaneers were recently named to the South Central Conference All-Conference football team.

Jake Lee, Garrett Anderson and Nathan Carr were All-Conference, and Sinjin Bell was on the Honorable Mention list.

Senior Jake Lee has been a three-year starter for the Bucs, and an All-Area, All-Conference player the past two years.

This year he was also named the offensive lineman most valuable player for the conference.

Lee led the team in tackles with 106, as a 5-foot-11-inch, 250-pound defensive lineman.

“Jake is a football player,” Coach Randy Kuechenmeister says. “He loves contact and enjoys the game.”

The Bucs coach says Lee has good feet for a lineman and gets off the ball fast.

“He will initiate the contact and is just a very, very good football player,” Kuechenmeis-ter says.

Garrett Anderson was the starting quarterback for the Bucs after Nick Lee was injured last summer.

He led the Bucs in rushing, gaining 533 yards and averaging 4.6 yards per carry. He also threw for 1,518 yards.

“Garrett had 14 passing touchdowns for us, and also 11 rushing TDs.” Coach Kuechenmeister says of the 6-foot-4-inch, 215-pound junior.

Overall, Anderson accounted for over 2,000 yards of offense for the Buccaneers this year.

“Garrett developed into a very good quarterback for us,” Kuechenmeister says. “Considering he hadn’t played that position for three years. He has a strong arm, but even more important, he is a powerful runner.”

Anderson probably would have played split end or tight end if Lee had not been injured.

“Garrett is just an athlete –capable of doing anything,” the coach adds.

Nathan Carr, a 6-foot-2-inch, 160-pound junior, led the Bucs this past season with 37 receptions, and even more importantly, averaged 17.5 yards per catch.

“Those are terrific numbers,” Kuechenmeister says. Carr also had seven touchdown receptions.

“He definitely was our go-to guy in the passing game,” the coach says. “Nathan makes things happen after he catches the ball – he is very elusive and hard to tackle.”

Kuechenmeister says Carr has the best hands of a receiver he has seen in a while.

Sinjin Bell anchored the defensive line for BEA, playing nose guard.

“He is not very big, but he is very strong and very, very quick off the ball,” Kuechenmeister says about the 5-foot-10-inch, 165-pound senior.

“He beat people with his quickness, especially off the ball,” the Bucs head coach says.

Bell was second on the team for tackles, getting 78 stops on opponents.

Overall, Kuechenmeister called the Bucs season marked by inconsistencies.

“We made too many mistakes or turnovers that impacted the game,” he says. “Take away a few plays and we’d have won more games.”

The Bucs were 3-6 this past season.

Kuechenmeister, who has been the Bucs head coach for 18 years, says he really enjoyed this year, just as much as ever.

“The kids hung in there and had a good attitude,” he says. “We were very competitive, did many things real well, just didn’t always finish.”