Inch by inch, step by step the Winder-Barrow High School football team is nearing the start of the 2011 season.
This Friday the Bulldoggs will make a turn into South Forsyth High School for a preseason scrimmage. While most preseason affairs of this nature have a controlled surrounding, Bulldogg coach David Wagner said this will resemble more of an actual regular season game.
“Everything will be full go,” the coach said. “We will even have live special teams.”
Wagner said he likes being able to work on special teams live.
“Last year Rockdale County returned a punt on us,” the coach said. “Maybe if we had been able to work on special teams in our scrimmage it would have been different.”
Wagners said he discussed the prospect of having a full live scrimmage with the South Forsyth coaches and they were also willing to do so.
Leading up to the scrimmage will be a little different for the WBHS team, however. During normal game weeks the players would have “heavy” practices Monday and Tuesday before backing off some Wednesday with a walk-through on Thursday.
This week Wagner said the players would have full-scaled practices Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before scaling back some Thursday to get their “legs back under them.”
Despite the tough practice conditions (see related story), Wagner said the Bulldoggs have continued to make progress and that he is interested in seeing how Friday’s scrimmage plays out.
“All coaches like scrimmages because it allows you a chance to see how far you have progressed in practice,” Wagner said. “We will still have two weeks until the regular season opener so that gives us time to correct areas we need work in and to continue working on the things we did well.”
Friday’s scrimmage is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
“The players will enjoy going against another opponent,” Wagner said. “We’ve been going pretty hard in practice for some time now. Players always look forward to the scrimmages. As coaches, we also like them since they are such a great learning tool. I think we will see several areas we have progressed in. We hope that will carry over to our regular season opener in two weeks.”
WBHS opens the 2011 regular season Aug. 26 at Rockdale County High School in Conyers.
