For the second straight year, the Lake Hornets didn’t get to play a spring football game.
But second-year Lake coach Tate Hanna said it wasn’t nearly as big of a deal as it was last year.
“I really don’t think it was a big deal this year,” Hanna said. “Last year, we really needed to play one and didn’t get to play one. I’m not upset that we didn’t get to play but the kids were pretty upset. They really wanted to play and that’s what you want out of your kids. You want them to be competitive. If I had went in there and told them we weren’t playing and they had applauded, I would have been worried. But the good thing is we didn’t get anybody hurt.”
With a host of starters coming back, there weren’t many positions up for grabs this spring for the Lake Hornets. The main position up for grabs was tailback where D’Alex Jennings, Ethan Gray and Zywon Ledbetter emerged as the frontrunners heading into the summer.
“The one thing we were trying to figure out this spring was who was going to be our tailback to replace Mark (Qualls),” Hanna said. “And I think we have that narrowed down to three players. But we feel like it will take more than one player to replace Mark. All three of them are different runners and bring something different to the table. We are a run-first team and need more than one running back.”
There were some changes as Jon Shellenback was promoted to defensive coordinator while Kyle Watson moved to the offensive side of the ball.
“We have so many returning, we feel like we should be pretty good on defense,” Hanna said. “Everybody over there has played a lot of football. The biggest thing for us is we have to be more aggressive up front. We have just about everyone back in the secondary and will be pretty good back there. Defense was one of our strong suits last year and should be this year as well.”
Hanna said the Hornets will start lifting on May 29, just four days after school is out and will lift Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Hanna said the Hornets will participate in a 7-on-7 camp with Newton County, Neshoba Central, Sebastopol, Lake County, Union and Scott Central. While the backs and receivers are playing throw and catch, Hanna said the lineman will also be working through drills.
“That’s something we did when I was at Nanih Waiya,” Hanna said. “All of the offensive line coaches will take the lineman and work with them at the same time. It gives the linemen something to do and I thought it helped us tremendously.”
