Many of the goals the Apalachee High School football coaches set for their players this spring were met.
Head coach Shane Davis always likes to establish a depth chart in the spring and for the most part that was done the past two weeks.
“There are still a few questions,” Davis said Sunday night as he finishes breaking down the spring game. “Of course, there may still be questions once the season starts. However, when it comes to our first and second string players we are in pretty good shape.”
The Wildcats will return to work June 1 as the coaching staff wants the players to concentrate on final exams and then to have a short break from football before work resumes for the 2012 season.
“It was a good spring,” Davis said. “I liked the way we handled it. Sometimes it’s hard to tell exactly what you can and what you can’t do at practice.”
Wanting the spring game to resemble an actual contest as much as possible, the coaches used a “blue-white” format. Eric Tanner and Zay Henry, offense standouts last fall, picked up where they left off.
“We couldn’t guarantee this type of spring game would work but it’s something we’ll look at again,” Davis said.
Players from Haymon-Morris Middle School and Westside Middle School also took part in Friday’s spring game atmosphere.
The middle school players scrimmaged prior to the AHS players taking the field at R. Harold Harrison Stadium.
“It is nice to be able to get the middle school players involved,” Davis said. “I think the fans enjoyed the way we set things up this spring.
Defensively, AHS coordinator Matt Sorrells said the spring session was “very productive.”
“Our goal was to find out who could play and where,” Sorrells said. “We wanted to make sure we left spring with at least a two-deep depth chart and I think we accomplished that. We stayed very simple during spring so that everyone could be evaluated equally.”
The Wildcats will continue to be based out of the 4-3 this fall.
Offensively, coordinator Joel Miller was also impressed by what the AHS players accomplished during the two-week spring session.
“We pretty much have our depth chart ready for the fall and we were able to install our base plays,” Miller said. “We will now be able to rep those all summer, so come August we will begin getting ready for Lanier.”
Miller, who has coordinated the Wildcat offense for several productive seasons, said the tools are in place to be successful this fall.
“It will come down to our ability to take care of the football and to execute assignments,” said Miller. “I feel like we have the players that can do the job, now they have to make sure they know what to do when a defense throws different looks at us. Our team chemistry seems great and we will need to stay together when we get to region play because our region presents huge challenges every week.”
