Pioneer football team begins spring practice
After a disappointing season last fall, the Warren County Pioneer football team and coaching staff is focused and on a mission during spring workouts, which started Monday.
In his second season as head coach, Gerald Tidwell is very pleased with the number of kids out on the practice field.
“We have around 54 kids out here from 10th through 12th grade that really want to play football. Our coaching staff was hoping for 40 to 45 kids to come out, and to have 50-plus kids out here is great. We have a dozen new faces out here, with a couple of them that haven’t played before or haven’t played in a year or two and that’s very positive,” Tidwell said.
The Pioneers will have a solid class of sophomores this fall off from last year’s freshman team that coach Tidwell hopes will step up and make an impact on the varsity level.
“One of the biggest things that’s been so pleasing so far this spring is the upcoming sophomore class,” he said. “They’re very talented, you see them make great moves in simple drills and that’s something we haven’t seen a lot over the past year. It’s a very athletic class.”
The Pioneers lost several seniors last year, so leadership and experience will be a top priority this spring.
“We have a lot of work to do this spring. This is a very young and inexperienced team right now. We have more speed this year but we have little experience at the varsity level.
“Everything is new to everybody and it’s going to take some time. The schemes are new, we have different ideas, different people doing things and different ways of doing things, so it’s going to be a learning experience for not only the players, but the coaches as well. Everybody is working hard to head this team in the right direction.”
When spring practice started last year, Tidwell was still pulling his staff together. But this year his assistants are hard at work doing what they do best — teaching football.
“I could talk about the difference between last year at this time and this year for a day and a half,” Tidwell said. “Last year everything was new to me and for the other coaches. We weren’t sure what to expect from each other last year as a staff and with the players.
“This year, the players and coaches are all on the same page. I learned last year we have a great staff and they want responsibility. This is a highly qualified staff and I’m sitting back and letting them teach.
“We have several new faces on the staff this year with Jeff Martin, Paul Willis Martin and Mike Lytle, and they’re doing an excellent job coming in here and teaching these kids. Everything is so organized this spring and running very smoothly. When practice is run the way it has been this week, you get so much done. The kids have been working very hard and are learning so much more.”
The Pioneers may have a few key spots to fill this year and one of them will be at quarterback.
“Joey Haston isn’t out here this spring, and is taking some time off to decide if he will play football or concentrate on baseball. If Haston does come back he will move to defense as a linebacker or play some fullback,” Tidwell noted. “We have a couple of kids at quarterback in (Josh) Paz and (Heath) Crisp right now, and by this fall I’m sure will have a couple of more candidates at that position. We have better depth at each position this year. I know how hard these kids are willing to work from last year and every one of them will fight hard for a position.”
The Pioneers will close out their first week of spring practice with a scrimmage today against Wilson Central at 6 p.m. The scrimmage will be in two parts, with one-hour practicing together and the next hour scrimmaging.