All area football teams got their preseason practices started last week as they prepare for the Aug. 29 opener.
Here’s a rundown of how their first week went:
Newton County Academy
Since taking over at Newton County Academy, coach Stevie Nelson has put up some impressive offensive numbers. But Nelson is quick to admit that this year will be different.
“We have to work on our passing game, big time,” Nelson said. “We are definitely going to be run heavy but we are working on throwing the football but haven’t been very successful at doing that yet. It’s definitely one of the things that we have to work on. We have to put in the rest of our special teams and figure that out. But we have to keep getting better at what we do. It’s just a lot of repetition and just keeping it simple.”
Nelson did say he has been pleased with his four seniors.
“I really like the leadership of may four seniors,” Nelson said. “They know what it takes to win and have been through the fire. They lead by example and are coaches on the field for us. The kids are working hard and doing everything we ask and that’s all that I can ask for at this point.”
Nelson said he had 18 players out in 10 through the 12 grades and also had 19 out in junior high. He said it the most football players seven through 12 that he has had since he came to NCA.
Newton County
In Decatur, veteran coach Bobby Bass is changing things up a bit.
“We have really changed up our practice and it has made us be a lot more organized,” Bass said. “There is not a lot of down time but a lot of go, go, go. We talked about it before the season, we had gotten to where we had some marathon practices and just go to where the kids were getting worn down and not getting anything out of it.”
Bass said he hops the shorter, more efficient practices will pay dividends later in the season.
“So this week, we will got 21 periods on Monday and Tuesday and get them out of there,” Bass said. “Wednesday will be just helmets and shorts, just 10 periods and try to get them out with the bus and it be more of a recovery day. We will then go back to shells on Thursday and Friday but try to get our in an hour and a half. We are just trying to save bodies where they can make it to Friday nights.”
Newton County will host Lake on Aug. 22 before opening the regular season at home against Morton on Aug. 29.
Newton
Second-year Newton coach Jeffrey Crosby said the Tigers had a good week of practice as the prepare for the season opener.
“We used the time to really work on special teams since we were in helmets,” Crosby said. “We put a real emphasis on that. It hurt us at times last year and we have to be better over there. It was some of the best weather ever for the first week of practice. We didn’t have to wait and could go at 3 p.m. and get going. That really helps a lot.”
Crosby has said the Tigers will try to be more run heavy this season and shorten games.
“The run game has looked good this week,” Crosby said. “We are just working on small details of the run game, when to bounce and when to hug blocks and keep it inside. And we worked on a lot of ball security drills and things like that. We worked on a lot of red zone and short yardage things. We struggled in the red zone last year and have to be better there this season.”
Union
With the Yellowjackets in helmets this past week, Union coach Jordan Wren said it was a good time to work on some of the finer details of the game.
“We slowed everything down and did a lot of individual things and worked on things that we didn’t take an emphasis on this summer,” Wren said. “We have got a new offensive line coach and a new defensive coordinator so we slowed some things down and worked on a lot of individual stuff with those groups. We worked on some play-action pass stuff and cleaned up some footwork with the backs and what gaps we are supposed to be pressing.”
Wren said the defense also did a lot of “low-impact” tackling.
“We worked a lot on defensive fits and did a lot of tackling,” Wren said. “I think we did a poor job of forcing turnovers last year so we put in a 10-minute period where we worked on stripping the football and different things that I haven’t done in the past. I thought the kids really liked it. Zie Buckley told me he thought we got a lot better fundamentally and you always like to hear that as a coach.”
Wren said the Yellowjackets will strap on the pads this week and “get back to the physicality of the game” and hear some pads pop.
Union will travel to Sebastopol on Aug. 22 to take on the Bobcats in a jamboree.
Sebastopol
Coach Keith Brown enters the 2025 season with more questions than answers at this point. But he hopes to get some of those answers this week as the Bobcats put on pads for the first time this preseason.
“We have got a young group,” Brown said. “We lost a big class with 14 seniors and now it’s time for a new group to step up. We have a lot of competition for a lot of spots. But everybody is ready to put the pads on. We will see how physical we are and who likes to hit and who doesn’t. This year, we are going to have to do the little things well. We are going to have to tackle better this season and to do that you have to be more physical in practice. We have to find out who we are and what we are made up. We are going to thump a lot this week, especially up front. We only return two starters up there and there are a lot of question marks. We will find out this week where we are at.”
One big piece for Brown is at quarterback where he must replace Adrius McDougle, the two-time Class 2A Mr. Football.
“We have saw some good things fro Samarion Jones at quarterback so far,” Brown said. “He has played a lot of games for us and has stepped up and been a good leader. He fits into what we are trying to do. But you could potentially have several different people at that spot. We just have to find as many ways as possible to get our athletes the ball in space.”
Lake
Right over the Scott County line, veteran coach Tate Hanna and the Lake Hornets are gearing up for the first full week in pads.
“We had a really good week and I was pleased with how hard the kids worked,” Hanna said. “We have 59 out right now and that’s a good number for us. For a week in helmets, it was a good week. We are a lot further along right now that we were last year. Of course, we have Griffin Boles back at quarterback and that makes things a lot smoother. We return five linemen and two more that played a lot so we have a lot of depth there. We return the running backs but are young at the skill positions but I think we have the potential to be good there.”
Hanna said the first week in pads will be focused on tackling.
“We will get in some hitting this week and be more aggressive with the tackling drills,” Hanna said. “We will be more in depth with the tackling drills this week. We will bang around a good bit with our inside drill. We have a long way to go on special teams but we will get there.”
Lake travels to Newton County on Aug. 22 for a preseason jamboree with the Cougars.
