There are just 30 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)...
EAST HALL (4-6 in 2024; did not make the playoffs)
The Vikings essentially missed out on the playoffs last year in a nail-biting loss to Monrore Area midway through the season. In 2025, they are hoping experience, and having two of Region 8-3A's most dynamic offensive players, will be enough to make that final step.
They did improve significantly on defense and Coach Matt Turner is banking on that unit continuing its progression while the offense lives up to the explosiveness many expect it to be.
We caught up with Turner to check in on how the Vikings summer has gone as they try to make the playoffs for the first time since 2017.
QUESTION: Coach, let’s start with the defense. Significant improvement last year. However, y’all will need to continue that progression this season to make a playoff run. How has that unit looked in the offseason?
ANSWER: We return several experienced guys, and we know what we have in several spots. However, we are also replacing several positions on defense this year, but we feel that we have guys who can step up and contribute. We have made improvements on defense no doubt. We’re progressing but we still have a long way to go. Our focus this spring and summer has been to prepare our guys to win the crucial downs and to stop the run. It all starts up front on the defensive line, and we need our key players up front to raise their level of play. Overall, during the offseason, spring, and summer our defense has been good.
QUESTION: Y’all have two of the area’s most dynamic offensive players in QB Jamarcus Harrison and WR Chasen Jones. Who are some other guys that have started to emerge over the summer?
ANSWER: Jamarcus and Chasen, as well as Lukas Pruitt, have been key players for us on the offensive side for the past two seasons. However, we need those guys to raise their level of play this season, along with our other guys to achieve what we want. On offense, it all starts up front with the offensive line. Servando Sanchez, Austin Crowe, Blade Carney, and Evan Becerra all had a great offseason and a good spring. We are returning both Ever Osorio and Conner Brooks on the offensive line and we have several other guys battling for spots as well. We invested a ton of time in developing the line this offseason. If we can continue to get better upfront, we know that will improve our offensive production.
On the skill position side, Kani Williams had a good spring as well as Walt Jarrett, Elijah Buffington, and Micah Morrow. And this summer, we have also seen Kahlil Goss and Germany Jones emerge as playmakers as well. We feel good about the guys we have but they all must keep pushing every day to get better.
- Up Next in Two-a-Days: EAST JACKSON
- Previous Two-a-Days: EAST FORSYTH
http://accesswdun.com/article/2025/7/1292779/two-a-days-east-hall