There are just 39 days left until the kickoff of the 2016 high school football season -- 21 days until the first practice in pads -- 14 until the first fall conditioning practices may commence.
But make no mistake, the 2016 season got underway months ago -- not in the record books, but in weight rooms, sand pits, and practice fields throughout the state. And teams from throughout northeast Georgia are now in the final stages of preparations that began almost as soon as the 2015 season ended.
With that in mind we spent the last few days 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 it the series "Two-a-Days" in honor of the grinding sessions that lead us out of summer and into fall. And for the next two weeks, AccessWDUN will get you prepped -- twice a day -- for the start of gridiron action with responses from coaches throughout northeast Georgia. We present them in alphabetical order, starting with Apalachee and touring all over the place before ending back up near the start in Winder-Barrow.
We're already hunkering down in anticipation of kickoff; we hope this helps to get you in the mood too...
BANKS COUNTY
Banks County will have its fourth head coach in seven years. But despite the latest change, new head man Josh Shoemaker is no stranger to the Leopards, having been on staff the past three seasons, including as offensive line coach in 2015. They are hoping that will make any transitions much smoother as Shoemaker will keep in place the systems that have helped the Leopards to back-to-back 5-5 seasons.
However, the Leopards won’t be without challenges as they look to replace several key pieces to an offense that averaged 28 points a game and scored 40 or more four times. AccessWDUN sports writer Jeff Hart asked Shoemaker how the changes were coming along.
QUESTION: The offense will return senior quarterback Griffin Goodwin, but y’all lost your entire starting offensive line from a year ago. How is the search coming to find a group that can protect Goodwin?
ANSWER: We had several guys up front that had been starters for a couple of years and that was a big key to our success. We’re looking at a few guys we feel will be the anchors at tackle in (senior) Cole Griffin and (junior) Tripp Martin. Our big questions are at center and guard. We have a freshman, Jackson Ramey [6-foot-4, 270 pounds] that is already on a college watch and will get some time at center and we expect him to be a good one. After that, we’re looking at several guys. We just don’t have too many guys that got a lot of playing time because we had a good, experienced group last year. There are some other guys that are battling and improving so we’ll see where we are after the fall (practice).
Q: The defense does return eight starters from a year ago from a young group that allowed right at 30 ppg but you also have several changes to the defensive coaching staff, most notably Todd Samples taking over the coordinator’s position. How are those changes coming?
A: We do have a new staff and we’re putting in some changes there. But, we ran a 3-4 defense last year and we’ll be staying in that this year. The main thing is putting the right guys in the right positions. We have a lot of the same players returning but with a year of experience under them so we feel good about the side of the ball improving a lot. I do a few things different from the last few years but the transition overall has been smooth because I was here and the kids know me. I feel we’re in a very good spot right now.
Previously in Two-a-Days: APALACHEE
Up next in Two-a-Days: BUFORD
