BY WSON COLONEL FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT RYAN DAVENPORT
The (1-0) Henderson County Colonels started the season with a big bang as they took down the Calloway County Lakers 61-6 two weeks ago in Henderson.
The Colonels had a good week of preparation last week as they practiced hard in their different drills and individual on-field practice as well as watching film to prepare for their game tonight against the Christian County Colonels.
Henderson County Colonel Head Coach Josh Boston was asked about his thoughts on how his team played against Calloway County two weeks ago and he responded by discussing how his team came out fast and took care of business early. “I think the biggest thing is how fast we came out and started the game. I talked about it on the radio with Steve last week and just the maturity that it showed from where they were juniors last year, most of these kids started as juniors. We went into some games last year that we should have won a lot bigger than we did but because of some immaturity, you know we played down a notch to the competition instead of playing to our ability. Where this year it’s a game versus Calloway County, we did a good job of coming out and taking care of ourselves and doing the things we had to do. Not worrying about who we were playing and the speed at which we came out and played with. As I said, it just shows the maturity of these kids and how they handled the situation. We talked about the plan and what we had to do each week and they handled that well and we came out and took care of ourselves.”
When asked if he was surprised by the explosiveness of the Colonels offense in the first game of the season, Coach Boston talked about how he was sort of surprised and how he wasn’t surprised as well as discussing how the Colonels had sort of an advantage against the Lakers. “In a way, yes but in a way no. We knew they were young, you know we knew we had the leg up. Speed-wise and size-wise and so one thing that was good was once we got into the second level, the offensive line did a good job of getting us through the first level and once we got to the second level we made some explosive plays. You know Jaheim and Jordan, two different dynamics. Jaheim got to the second level, making some cuts and some moves in open space and Jordan just did a good job of keeping things tight. He stayed close to his lineman, close to his blocks and so then when he popped out on the backside of the second level, you know it was like you almost didn’t see him, and then there he was.”
Coach Boston was asked if he had any takeaways that stuck out to him from the Calloway County game when watching film with his coaches and players. Answering that question he discussed the different grades whether a kid got a check for doing something positive or a minus for something negative that the players did in the game and how to get better for tonight’s game against the Colonels from Christian County. “Yeah, there was a lot of stuff. We didn’t have a whole lot of kids grade out. When I talk about grading out you know it’s an 80 percent and so we go through and we grade every single play, every kid plays. They either get a check on the play that they did the right thing or they get a minus if they did something wrong or they can earn a plus if they kind of went above, you know extra effort. Didn’t have many kids grade out, we had a few but there was a lot of stuff we had to clean up and we’ve got to clean up as we go on. You know in these next few games we’ve got to be a lot more disciplined, we have got to play with the speed that we played with in the first game but there was sometimes we got away with some things versus Calloway. Going inside of blocks and things like that you know against Christian County and Boyle County, Tilghman, and these guys you know you can’t do those things. You know you can’t go inside and avoid a block and make a play. They have got explosive players and you know when you do stuff like that, they make one guy miss and they have the speed to take it the distance so we’ve got to make sure that we clean up on those things.”
When talking about what the Colonels did during the bye week, Coach Boston talked about the different drills and how the team has prepared to be ready to take on the Christian County Colonels on the road in tonight’s game. “We spent our Monday like a typical Sunday, we came in and watched film and conditioned. Then Tuesday we broke it up into three days and so Tuesday was all individual drills. We didn’t do any group work, we didn’t do any teamwork, we spent every single minute of it in our individual positions, working on things that we had talked about from the film session that we had to improve on to get better. Then on Wednesday, day two, we brought it in in group settings and so the wide receivers would go with the quarterbacks or the running backs would go with the quarterbacks or the linebackers would go with the defensive line, or the linebackers would go with the secondary and work on group type stuff. Still no team stuff that day, never came together as a whole group, we just put the things together from our individual day on Tuesday into small group settings. Then on Thursday, everything was team and so we did some scenario stuff, put the ball on the goal line, did some down and distance stuff, and kept everything in whole group just to kind of bring the week together in a close. Then on Friday we lifted weights in the morning and then I gave the kids Friday evening off. We already had our lift in and so I encouraged them to go eat together, go to a game and just be friends and hang out together and spend some time with each other so that’s how we spent our off week.”
When asked about the Colonels’ opponent for tonight the Christian County Colonels, Coach Boston talked about the two games they have played on the season and discussed how they play their style of football. “Yeah, very explosive. They have had a few down years the past few years. They came out of the first game against Caldwell County with explosive plays. Caldwell County didn’t do a great job of keeping em in front of them, they let them get behind them. All of their touchdowns against Caldwell were a big play, deep shot type of stuff. Then against Logan County, Logan County is a good football program right now, Coach Adler has turned it around down there the past few years and they did the exact opposite. They played the physical game up front and they took away the big plays, they tried to make them line up and manage the down and distances and things they couldn’t necessarily do. It didn’t replicate the way that they played in the Caldwell game and they did a great job against them and scheming them like that.”
Coach Boston was asked what player from the Christian County Colonels stood out to him so far this season and responded by talking about their quarterback and a wide receiver and how their defense is set up this season. “Quarterback’s a great football player, Jordan Miles, he also plays basketball. Really good athlete, good with the ball in his hands, and does a good job of getting the ball down the field. Then wide receiver number five, he can go, he’s a big play guy, he’s one of those guys that he gets the ball in his hands he’s dangerous with it. Defensively they fly fast to the football, they have shown five different defensive types of sets in the films that we’ve had. They line up in a set that they feel matches your personnel the best and they just race to the football. They keep everything in front of them downhill and they attack it and they let you kind of have the things underneath and go get it and so very fast on defense and explosive on offense.”
The (1-0) Henderson County Colonels go on the road tonight to take on the (1-1) Christian County Colonels at the Stadium of Champions in Hopkinsville with the kickoff at 7:00 P.M.
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