Wildcats open quest for region title Friday

Football coaches, at all levels, preach the value of not overlooking any opponent.

Apalachee High School football coach Shane Davis will deliver that sermon to his players this week and hope they are listening as final preparations are made for the season opener against Monroe Area.

While the Purple Hurricanes did not register a win in 2008, Davis sees an improved football team that will visit R. Harold Harrison Stadium Friday for a 7:30 p.m. kickoff which signifies the official start of the 2009 season for both schools.


Monroe Area has moved to a triple option offense used by Georgia Tech coach Paul Johnson throughout his coaching career.

“Monroe has a good team,” Davis said. “They are extremely big on their offensive and defensive lines. They are bigger than us. All we have to do is show our players the film and they can see that they are better than last year.”

Still, however, Davis knows football players, especially at the high school level, might not be able to push last season’s 0-10 record by Monroe Area completely out of their minds.
“As coaches, we have to get across that last season is over with,” Davis said.

Preparing for the triple option is also something of a challenge for Davis and his coaches.

“It’s the first time we’ve seen it in a long time, if at all since we’ve been here,” the AHS coach said. “They are very disciplined and tough to defend. They execute it very well.”

The AHS Wildcats got a warmup for this Friday’s season opener by defeating Westminster in a preseason scrimmage last week. Officially, the score was 20-13 although Davis said he took both good and some not so good from it.

“That’s the way it usually is,” the coach said. “There were some things we saw where we needed to get better."

There were no significant injuries from the scrimmage for AHS.

In their preseason scrimmage against Eagles Landing, Monroe unveiled a potent triple option offense, led by Demontavious Smith at quarterback, Demetrius Fuhr and Mike Hendricks slotback and Tre’shard Burdette at fullback.

With game week now here, the AHS coaching staff were set to work the players heavy Monday and Tuesday before beginning to peel back some Wednesday, Davis said. The AHS coaches met over the weekend. Davis said the coaching staff meets Saturday with another meeting beginning at 2 p.m. Sunday.

See the Barrow Journal's Pigskin Preview in the Aug. 26 edition now on newsstands.