There are just 30 days left until the kickoff of the 2016 high school football season -- 12 days until the first practice in pads -- 5 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...
MILL CREEK
Mill Creek had its best season ever in 2015 winning its first-ever region title and was just one bad second half away from its first-ever trip to the Georgia Dome and the state title game. However, the Hawks come into the 2016 season having lost a lot from its dominating defense, returning just two starters, and coach Shannon Jarvis said rebuilding their defense is a priority.
But the Hawks also return nine starters on offense, including quarterback Cameron Turley and 2015 leading rusher Joe Thomas. AccessWDUN sports writer Jeff Hart asked Jarvis how the summer went in finding some of the missing pieces.
QUESTION: The defense was hit hard by graduation, especially on the line with Peyton Moore (Ga. State) and Tyler Vernon (Ga. Tech), and LB Sydney Otiwu (Mercer). Who do y’all have coming up through the ranks as you try and rebuild the defense?
ANSWER: It’s hard to replace guys like those. That has been our biggest challenge so far is finding guys that are ready to step up to the varsity level. The problem was that we weren’t able to get a whole lot of guys as much playing time the last couple of years as we would have liked because we didn’t have a lot of injuries. That’s good and bad. But, we do feel we have some talented players coming up. We like our secondary with senior Jamar Hall (CB) and junior Jonathan Gipson (S) and those guys have experience and can be leaders out there. The defense will be a work-in-progress most of the fall. Hopefully we’ll find the right guys before the season starts.
Q: You almost have the reverse problem on offense with 9 returning starters and about 13 guys that saw significant action in 2015. Could this be the year that the offense kind of leads the way?
A: We feel very excited about the guys we have coming back on offense. I think the big thing is on the line where we have seven guys that lettered and saw a lot of action last year. Depth on the line is huge and I think we’re going to have that. The one question we have is finding some depth at running back to take some pressure off Joe. We’re looking at three guys -- Anthony Presto, Tyson Morgan, both seniors, and Gipson -- who we think can give us some quality time in the backfield. Cameron has gotten better as well. The offense may have to carry us some early but we feel very good about who we have and what we can do.
Previously in Two-a-Days: LUMPKIN COUNTY
Up next in Two-a-Days: NORTH FORSYTH
