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By Jim Steele
steele@mckenziebanner.com |
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After a couple of days in shorts and helmets, McKenzie
football coach Wade Comer and staff have been pleased
with the progress of the Rebels.
The first few days have been orientation sessions with
an emphasis on teaching. Thus far everything has gone
well.
"We're still a long way from where we need to be, but we
didn't look too bad," said the coach. "When we put the
pads on, that's when we'll find out what we are made
of."
And the pads go on this week. Full contact started
Monday and Comer hopes players begin to make names for
themselves.
"When you put pads on kids, then they start separating
themselves," Comer said. "And the first two or three
weeks of practice, we worry more about what we are doing
than what everybody else is doing."
The early emphasis has been on teaching the system to
the players and so far, they seem to be grasping it.
"We are trying to focus on us, learning responsibilities
and techniques," Comer said. "We are trying to pay
attention to detail because a lot of time, when you are
preparing for other teams, the little things get
overlooked."
When last season ended, Comer said he wanted to
cultivate more leadership from the team. He took steps
to make sure that a firm pecking order was in place. So
far, it's working.
"We have a good core of seniors and they've shown a lot
of good leadership the first week and that's good," the
coach said. "Leadership is something I felt we needed to
improve on and it seems to be paying off right now."
The Rebels will prepare for a scrimmage Friday at Alamo
against a powerful Class 3A Crockett County team. But
this week, the Rebels aren't necessarily worried about
what the Cavaliers bring to the field.
"Our goal for the first few weeks is that we hope to
find kids who will hit and we are looking for kids to
separate themselves at a few key spots," he said.
The Rebels lost 11 seniors from last year's team, and
those 11 won more football games than any senior class
in MHS history. So there are some holes to be filled.
Comer says the most immediate need is at offensive guard
and linebacker.
"We need to find some depth, too," Comer said. "We'll
have a starting 11, but you know that it isn't very
often they will all be there every game, so we need to
build some depth."
Comer hopes to use this week's scrimmage as a measuring
stick for the team.
"We'll find out where we are and it will give us a
chance to work on things and see what we have to do
better for the next time," he said. "And it gives you a
chance to play some young kids, too."
