Believe it or not, the 2017 high school football season is right around the corner.
When Apalachee, Winder-Barrow and Bethlehem Christian return from a weeklong hiatus Monday, they will be wide open in making preparations for the start of the season in August.
The Wildcats and Bulldoggs are in the middle of the Georgia High School Association’s annually mandated “dead week,” which prohibits all team or individual activities, but they were steady at work through June.
In addition to the Wildcats working out and going through drills four mornings a week, the team competed in a 7-on-7 at Sanford Stadium and another large one at Walnut Grove. They also competed in a padded camp at Social Circle and even enjoyed a team-bonding overnight “lock-in” at the school gym, where they watched a movie and played games like dodgeball and basketball.
“I hope we can do things like that more often,” Apalachee coach Steve Sims said last week. “Our kids had a lot of fun with each other and really responded well the next day during our work.”
Apalachee will be heading into a rebuilding year of sorts after losing several starters on offense and defense, but Sims said he has seen several players make strides from the end of spring practice at the Wildcats’ scrimmage against North Oconee to this point in the summer.
“We are really young,” he said. “We lost everybody in the secondary and all of our linebackers, and we’ll probably be looking at least three sophomores back there. “Plus we’ve got a new defensive coordinator and some new defensive coaches so we’re learning on the run. But the kids are getting better.”
Sims said the team’s strength will be on the offensive line where several starters return.
“That really showed up when we brought our linemen to the padded camp,” he said. “You get to see a lot of things you don’t get to see in the 7-on-7. We’re more a play-action team and don’t have a lot of what would be considered 7-on-7-type plays. We’re not going to change a whole lot. We want to try to do what we do well.”
Still, the 7-on-7 outings have given Sims a chance to look at the two quarterbacks he plans to give ample playing time to this coming season in junior AJ Millbrooks and sophomore AJ Forbing.
“They are both going to play. When (Forbing) goes to quarterback, that allows us to use (Millbrooks) in different ways in different packages. He’s one of our playmakers so you want to keep him on the field. They both have been doing a good job.”
Meanwhile, Winder-Barrow, which has competed in 7-on-7 outings at Athens Academy and Athens Christian, is in the opposite situation. The Bulldoggs return a seasoned quarterback in senior Brock Landis while they are working to replace a few spots on the line of scrimmage. But, like the Wildcats, Winder-Barrow coach Heath Webb is looking for new guys to fill holes at wide receiver and cornerback.
“We’re seeing some guys start to emerge, but the competition is still out there,” Webb said. “Once we get into July, we’ll start figuring out who needs to get the bulk of the reps.”
Webb said Winder-Barrow has shifted its summer focus somewhat toward the padded camps the GHSA now allows.
The Bulldoggs are slated to compete in a three-day camp July 20-22 at Riverside Military Academy.
“I think the biggest thing we’ve seen this summer is a hungry football team that competes well on a day-to-day basis,” he said. “They have a desire to get better.”
Apalachee and Winder-Barrow will begin official practice — in helmets and shoulder pads — July 25 as part of the GHSA’s acclimation period. They are allowed to begin full-padded practice Aug. 1.
The teams will play their preseason scrimmages Aug. 11 with the Wildcats hosting Dunwoody and the Bulldoggs traveling to Flowery Branch.
Winder-Barrow opens the season Aug. 18 at home against Clarke Central while Apalachee kicks off its 2017 campaign Aug. 25 at River Ridge.
BCA
While Bethlehem Christian isn’t subject to the same GHSA Dead Week, Knights coach Lance Fendley has opted to mirror that by giving his team a weeklong break to spend with families and take a week to rejuvenate.
When the Knights come out of the break, they’ll be conducting official practices; though, like the GHSA, they can’t be full-padded at first.
The pads can come on July 24, and Fendley said the team will have full practice in the morning, special teams workouts after lunch and then 7-on-7-type drills in the evening.
BCA will host a 7-on-7 tournament July 20 against Piedmont Academy, the Heritage School and Monsignor Donovan and will have a controlled scrimmage at John Milledge Academy, the reigning GISA Class AAA champions, on July 26.
“It’s going to be a good measuring stick for our program and a win-win,” Fendley said. “If we go over there and get thudded, we know there’s the standard and what we’ve got to do to try to get there. And if we do well, our guys can say they swapped punches with one of the best and it’ll be a huge confidence boost.”
While the GISA doesn’t allow teams to conduct spring practice, Fendley said the team had a strong month of June and excitement is building around a program that reached the state playoffs for the first time in school history last season.
“We’ve had 100-percent attendance at our workouts and mini-practices, which is the first time we’ve ever had that,” Fendley said.
“Right now, we’re at 30 kids, which is seven more than last year, so we’re excited about that. We’ve got a veteran team that wants to get better every day returning, a lot of experience around the field, along with some newcomers who I expect to contribute.
“We’ve expanded our coaching staff from five guys to nine so that just lends more credibility to our program and allows us to give players the added structure they need.”
The Knights will host Briarwood Academy Aug. 4 in a preseason scrimmage and will open their season Aug. 11 at Piedmont Academy.
