By Chase Porter
Staff Writer
Early mornings and extreme heat; spring football is back. Coming off a devastating 41-40 loss against Euless Trinity in the fourth round of the playoffs, the Coppell Cowboys are taking this spring seriously in preparation for 2011.
Coach Joe McBride has already kicked off the spring season with 6 a.m. practices on Monday and Wednesday and hot afternoon conditioning sessions on Tuesday and Thursday, with Friday scrimmages, to make sure that the new varsity players are ready for next season’s Friday night lights.
“During spring football, we try and see over offseason and spring football who is ready to step up and fill the holes for the graduating seniors and who can perform on Friday night,” McBride said.
With a number of key players graduating next month, McBride and the rest of the coaches will have tough decisions to make about their new team and who to bring up. Some positions, on the other hand, need no replacements.
The offensive line that consisted of almost all underclassmen in 2010 will start as seniors next year for the Cowboys. These offensive linemen include Emilio Primera, Leighton Light, Jake Williams, Sam Rice and Riley Massey. Each of these players, with previous experience at their positions, will be a great attribute for the team next season.
Also, with senior quarterback Joe Minden graduating, junior Jake Larson is slated to be next season’s starting quarterback and is showing a lot of promise in practices this spring. McBride is also looking to Larson to become a leader for the rest of the team.
“I’m really excited to finally get my chance to prove myself as the varsity quarterback and also start along side all of these guys that I have been playing football with since elementary school,” said Larson. “I think filling Joe’s shoes at quarterback will be hard but I think that from watching and learning in practice and in games will really help me to adapt quickly.”
With the majority of the positions filled and ready for next season the running back position remains unclaimed. With the graduation of senior Cam McDaniel the team will need someone too not only fill the spot with talent but also leadership, as McDaniel has been one of the teams most productive team leaders.
McBride is looking mainly for hard work and dedication to the team to move players up into unfilled starting spots. To thin out the herd, the coach has scheduled a strenuous practice schedule to show who is willing to play the hardest.
These spring practices either start before school at 6 a.m. or after school from the beginning of seventh period to around 6 p.m. At these practices conditioning, scrimmaging and of course, hitting drills are all incorporated to make next seasons team prepared and ready to take on any one of their opponents.
“The practices are really hard especially because we are so close to the end of the year but everybody who is out there on the field knows that if we don’t put the work in now then we wont be able to do our best next season,” junior linebacker Ethan Evans.
On Friday, May 26, the varsity and JV teams will scrimmage each other in the annual spring game after school. The coaches believe this is great preparation to learn and run the offensive and defensive schemes and also have some fun after the long and agonizing spring practices.
