There are just 30 days remaining until the kickoff of the 2018 high school football season. But make no mistake, preparations for the upcoming campaign got underway months ago in weight rooms, sand pits and practice fields throughout the state. And teams throughout northeast Georgia are in full countdown mode.
With that in mind we spent the last couple of weeks catching up with programs around our area to get a feel for how spring practice went, how the summer is going and what coaches believe the fall will look like. We call the series "Two-a-Days" in honor of those old-school grinding sessions that lead us out of summer and into fall, asking each area coach two key questions about the state of their respective programs.
Over the next two weeks, AccessWDUN's Friday Game Night will get you prepped for the start of gridiron action with responses from coaches throughout northeast Georgia. (Teams run in alphabetical order)...
COMMERCE
The Tigers were stunned in the second round of the playoffs in 2017 after three straight seasons of making the quarterfinals or better in Class A Public. Region 8-A figures to be just as tough in 2018 and will once again offer Commerce plenty of challenges and competition as the Tigers look to make a 22nd consecutive playoff appearance in 2018. Coach Michael Brown talked about finding some key replacements at several positions heading into Fall practice.
QUESTION: Coach, who is the front-runner at QB to run y'alls vaunted triple-option attack?
ANSWER: Nate Ray. He is a returning starter from last year with over 1,000 yards passing and 250 yds rushing. Nate has worked hard in the weight room and is much stronger, faster, and bigger than he was last year as a sophmore. He has had a great summer.
Q: Y'all graduated several key defensive starters from last season. How are things progressing as you rebuild that side of the ball?
A: We need to find several defensive linemen and two inside linebackers to replace seniors who graduated. The good news is we have competition at all of those positions with several underclassmen pushing for playing time.
- Previously in Two-a-Days: CHESTATEE
- Up Next in Two-a-Days: DAWSON COUNTY
