There are just 31 days remaining until the kickoff of the 2025 high school football season. But make no mistake, preparations for the upcoming campaign got underway months ago. And teams throughout northeast Georgia already 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. Our "Two-a-Days" series honors 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)...
COMMERCE (8-4 in 2024; lost 2nd round of Class A D1 playoffs)
The Tigers took a slight step back in 2024 and saw the program make a coaching change. They brought in former Collins Hill coach Lenny Gregory, who won a state title with the Eagles in 2021 with Travis Hunter as the centerpiece of a pair of back-to-back finals in the state's largest classification.
And with Gregory comes a system-wide change in the offense as he implements a spread offense, a 180-degree change from the triple-option the program has run for over 50 years.
We caught up with Coach Gregory to see how the changes are coming and what some of the biggest challenges have been as they try to get back to being a perennial deep-run playoff team.
QUESTION: Coach, we’ll get right to the question everyone wants to know. How is the transition to a spread offense from the triple-option coming along?
ANSWER: Very successful. Kids have come out that are some really good wide receivers for us and our skill players are very talented right now. This summer we've competed in four college 7-on-7 tournaments and at Auburn and at Georgia Tech we finished in the Final Four, both those big tournaments so I was really proud of the kids. It's been about as good as you can get in June.
QUESTION: What have been some of the bigger challenges so far?
ANSWER: The biggest challenge that has taken place is just our offseason, with the schedule and demand in our weight room. Our practices are very high-tempo and extremely challenging. I think that was kind of a little bit of a shock to the kids, is how hard it is and how demanding that this is, and so there's been a little bit of that. But for the most part, once we've gotten into the summer, the kids have been phenomenal. They work hard, they show up. Probably the biggest thing that has been a pleasant, not a surprise, but something that's really been good for me is, is the amount of care and how important football is at Commerce, and I knew that coming in. But to actually come in, you're going to a place where there's so much tradition and so much pride and the kids care. These guys go back generations of successful football. I mean, their dads played here, their granddad's played here, their great-granddad's played here.
There's a very high standard here. A lot of people are saying, 'well, you're bringing in the spread offense. And we're kind of afraid of the losing the physicality part of it.' But the fact of the matter is, we're built on physicality in the way we run the weight room and the way we practice The difference between Commerce this year and Commerce in the past is, they used to run the ISO between the tackles, and now we'll run them on the numbers.
BONUS QUESTION: Who are some guys that have begun to emerge during the summer at the skilled positions on the offense?
ANSWER: Starting at running back, we got two really dynamic running backs. Jace Lyle, he's a really, really good player. And then we've got a rising ninth grader that might be as good a ninth grader as I've ever coached in Marco Huff. The receiving core, probably the most dynamic kid is Ty Sorrells. He's very explosive. I think he's a Division 1 football player and he is going to play one of our slot receivers. And then we’ve got Essien Lockleer, JJ Jarrells and Brennan Griffith. Junior quarterback Layden Bryson is polished. He's got a strong arm, he really understands the offense, and he’s gonna have a big year.
- Up Next in Two-a-Days: DAWSON COUNTY
- Previous Two-a-Days: CHESTATEE
