There are just 24 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)...
LUMPKIN COUNTY
The Indians experienced some key injuries to go with a slew of system changes and a lot of underclassmen in 2017 as they took a step back after being just one win from the playoffs in 2016. Coach Shane Williamson, now in his third season, said they are looking to go back to the basics as they try to rebuild the Indians into a playoff contender. We caught up with Williamson to see how the new/old changes are coming.
QUESTION: Coach, in 2016 y'all were one win from a playoff berth. Was 2017 more of a rebuilding year than y'all expected before the season began?
ANSWER: The loss of Zach Matthews from 2016 and some other players due to injuries at LB produced more of a gap than we had anticipated going into 2017. However, the major difference was too much change on both sides of the ball. We tried to revamp our offense and defense too quickly and it caused our team to struggle mentally. We could not find our identity on offense or defense until the latter part of the season. We played several sophomores and a few freshman as starters and the youth showed at times in key positions.
Q: As you mentioned, y'all struggled on both sides of the ball in a rugged Region 7-3A. What has been the biggest priority during the off-season and which players could have breakout seasons?
A: The major difference for us this off-season was to get back to what we are capable of doing and create an identity for the team to buy into. We began off-season meetings in January, which ran through April. We revamped our strength and conditioning program and had a very physical Spring football practice. We also got back to the basics on offense and defense. We want to be great at the fundamentals of football, which is blocking and tackling and incorporate a physical brand of football. As a total program we have been working hard with the Park and Recreation programs and the Middle School program to help create more numbers in all programs and begin installing our system at the feeder levels to create continuity within the entire program.
- Previously in Two-a-Days: LAKEVIEW ACADEMY
- Up Next in Two-a-Days: NORTH HALL
