There are just 37 days left until the kickoff of the 2016 high school football season -- 19 days until the first practice in pads -- 12 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...
COMMERCE
In 2015, Commerce was just one play from playing for its first state title since winning it all in 2000 but fell to Clinch County in the Class A Public semifinals. Coach Michael Brown and the Tigers will have a slightly tougher task in 2016 having to replace three-year-starter Caleb Brooks at quarterback and 75 percent of its defensive secondary, which helped carry them deep into the playoffs the past two season.
AccessWDUN sports writer Jeff Hart caught up with Brown, who said despite some obvious early off-season questions, he feels the Tigers should once again be poised for a playoff run.
QUESTION: The quarterback runs the show in your option attack. How are things coming on finding a replacement for Brooks, who guided y’all to the semifinals each of the past two seasons?
ANSWER: Caleb did a fantastic job for us and it’s always a challenge when you have to replace a guy that was as good as he was. But, we feel like we have a couple of guys who have shown they are capable of running the offense. Matthew Flint (senior) and Lane Sorrow (senior) have been battling and we like what they have shown us so far. Our offense relies on the quarterback making the right reads so that is what we have been focusing on up to this point. I expect both will improve as we get closer to the start of the season.
Q: The defense last year allowed just 13.3 points a game and was anchored by a solid linebacking and secondary group. However, 3 of the starting 4 secondary guys graduated, including leaders Javarious Wood and Trevonta Williford. How big are those losses and is the unit in a rebuilding mode?
A: That is one of our biggest question marks coming into the season. We had a lot of experience back there the last couple of seasons and we only return one guy, (senior safety) Cole Chancey, from that group this year. We have some talent that can step in -- I don’t want to put any names out there yet -- but right now we’re just looking at everybody we feel can give us some help. We had the best June we’ve ever had this year so I feel good about where we are overall coming into the fall practices.
Previously in Two-a-Days: CHESTATEE
Up Next in Two-a-Days: DAWSON COUNTY
