Scrimmage marks end of spring drills
The Pioneer football team concluded its spring practice sessions with a full-contact controlled scrimmage against DeKalb County Friday, scoring five touchdowns while allowing four from the Tigers.
New head coach Gerald Tidwell said he was pleased with the Pioneers’ overall effort and enthusiasm throughout spring drills.
“They were pretty fired-up and enthusiastic, and they have been all spring,” Tidwell said. “They worked their hind ends off.
“For 10 days of practice, there’s no way we’re going to have every situation covered where kids know immediately how to react to what they see. And that showed today, especially on defense. But they were very aggressive on both sides of the ball.”
With defensive back-turned-quarterback Justin Grissom running the offense, WCHS relied mainly upon the tandem of T.J. Jarvis and Mario Pezzimenti to move the football against the Tigers.
Tidwell said he was more pleased with the offense’s performance than the defense, and noted the opposite is usually true in spring practice.
“Most of the time your offense is way behind your defense when you first start out. But we’re just the opposite,” he said. “I think our offensive linemen are a strong unit. I think they’re going to be pretty darn good this fall.
“Our backs ran hard, and I thought Justin did a pretty solid job for 10 days at quarterback, especially having never taken a snap before.
“I was pleased with the offense. The things we messed up on involved option principles, and you just can’t learn an option game in just 10 days. It takes all summer, and the biggest part of August to get good at it. But they made some good plays.”
Defensively, Tidwell said the Pioneers looked sharper in the interior than they did on the perimeter, making note of several instances where his outside linebackers and secondary weren’t able to properly read the opposing offense.
“I was pleased overall with the way they played, but what does concern me defensively is their lack of discipline,” he said. “We teach them how to read offensive people and react a certain way, and tonight they didn’t do that. They did not play disciplined football, and they missed way too many tackles.
“But all those things can be fixed with time, and we’ll get that fixed. So I’m not concerned about that.”