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By Jim Steele
steele@mckenziebanner.com |
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An ambitious pre-season awaits the McKenzie Rebels as
their full-contact summer football camp started Monday.The Rebels, 9-5 and Class 2A state semifinalists for the
second straight year, hope to build depth, implement new
offensive and defensive schemes and find out where they
need improvement, says MHS coach Wade Comer, starting his
third year as the Reb skipper.
"The kids have done a good job coming in lifting and
conditioning in the mornings," said Comer. "Now we've
started back and it just seems like yesterday we were
starting up last year. It doesn't take long to get here,
does it?"
McKenzie will have staggered workouts culminating Friday
with a 5 p.m. visit from Jackson Christian School for the
first pre-season scrimmage.
"We'll work special teams early, then we'll work on
defense," said Comer. "In the evenings we'll work on
offense."
The coach said he hopes to solidify schemes with this
first week of practice.
"This week, we'll get our special teams in and introduce
the players to the defensive and offensive packages. We'll
get them in."
The coach says he doesn't expect miracles in the first
week.
"We won't be where we need to be timing wise this week,"
said Comer. "What we want to do is we want everybody to
know what they are supposed to do and where they are
supposed to be. Then we'll work through repetitions."
A productive spring and a successful passing league
campaign has paid off thus far. The Rebels already have
some exposure to the new schemes and packages.
"We already have a lot of it in," said Comer. "This week,
we'll concentrate hard on the running game and pass
protection."
Once the Rebs have a few workouts under their shoulder
pads, they'll begin intersquad work. After the visit from
JCS on Friday, the Rebels continue their challenging
pre-season work Tuesday, Aug. 5 with a trip to Jackson for
a three-way scrimmage against South Side and Humboldt. The
following Friday, MHS will entertain perhaps the best 3A
team in the state: Crockett County. On Aug. 12, McKenzie
will finish its scrimmage work when it hosts 5A Henry
County.
"We want to find out what we're up against and see what we
need to work on," Comer said. "That's another reason we
have those scrimmages. We want to see who can play and who
can't." |
