There are just 28 days left until the kickoff of the 2016 high school football season, but make no mistake, preparations for the 2016 season got underway months ago in weight rooms, sand pits and practice fields throughout the state. And teams from throughout northeast Georgia are in full countdown mode.
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 the series "Two-a-Days" in honor of the grinding sessions that lead us out of summer and into fall. And for the next few days, AccessWDUN will get you prepped for the start of gridiron action with responses from coaches throughout northeast Georgia. (Teams run in alphabetical order)...
RIVERSIDE MILITARY ACADEMY
For Riverside Military Academy, it has been a numbers game the past few years, and the Eagles were short having to play in Class AA, and in Region 8-AA with the likes of Rabun County, Union County, Washington-Wilkes, and Greene County. But after winning a successful challenge with the GHSA to move down to Class A, and Region 8-A in particular, where the numbers are much more to their level, the Eagles finally see a possible road to success.
However, Region 8-A is no pushover with powers Prince Avenue, Athens Academy, Commerce, and an improving Athens Christian. Coach Kelly Davis, now in his second year with the Eagles, said the numbers are up across the program and hopes that will also translate into more numbers in the win column.
AccessWDUN sports writer Jeff Hart asked Davis how the change in classification has helped their outlook as they prepare for the 2016 season.
QUESTION: Coach, I know y’all were glad to win your appeal. How has that changed the perspective around the program now that y’all will be in a classification where your numbers are more in line with the other teams you will face?
ANSWER: Well, we feel that we should be much more competitive now. Make no mistake though, (Region) 8-A is extremely tough. But instead of facing teams that have 80, 90, sometimes 100 kids, we’ll be playing teams that have closer to the 50 or so we have. Depth was what was a big issue for us so we think we’ll be closer depth-wise now. The other thing is that now we will be playing 9 region games so every game will be huge with the power rankings. It should make for an interesting fall.
Q: Chemistry always seem to be an early hurdle for y’all with the late arrivals of your student-body. How have y’all combated that during the offseason and who are some guys that we can expect hear about?
A: We graduated our quarterback (Chandler Jones) and our top running back (Kaseem Duke) so those are areas we’re looking at but we don’t have a lot of our guys during the summer and that makes it tough to get a lot of work in as a unit. As we start getting everyone back we will put our focus on building team chemistry. (Senior) Lyle Thompson has been in our system and will battle with (junior) Javon Thompson at quarterback. Javon played wide receiver last year and has some talent. His brother Juwan Thompson we’re looking at at running back. But we have a lot of guys coming back that have been with us the last few years so hopefully that experience will make a difference.
Previously in Two-a-Days: RABUN COUNTY
Up Next in Two-a-Days: STEPHENS COUNTY
