The Henderson County Colonel Football team is looking to continue their success this season with a returning quarterback and experienced receivers as well as some younger potential talent.
The Colonels went 10-3 last season that included 2 postseason wins. The first postseason win was a 48-0 shutout win against the Barren County Trojans and the second postseason win was a 35-6 win against the Meade County Green Wave before suffering a 23-10 loss to the Louisville Male Bulldogs in the Class 6A Quarterfinals that would end their season.
In his 8th season as the Head Coach of the Colonels, Coach Josh Boston talked about this team being his least experienced team and how he and the coaching staff has handled it. “Those two things kind of go hand in hand. If you do have a year where it’s your most experienced, the next year you’re probably going to have your least experienced team. Defensively has definitely been the biggest curve for us. We’re still even after having two scrimmages, we’re still trying to find our mix. We’re gonna run different packages on the field. Depending on the situation of the game, who we are playing, scheme wise, gameplan. We are going to have in and out of packages to get different guys on the field and so that’s kind of been the hardest part coaching staff wise is finding that mix. We even made a tweak to it this week and moved somebody else to a different position and so it’s just going to be one of those things that constantly rotating, getting a few games under our belt. Grades wise, grade them after every single game we go through and we do evaluation and grades and kind of see who’s performing, who’s making plays, what guys do we need to put where. In these early games like I said we are just trying to find our mix defensively. Offensively, both of our tight ends are starting for us defense and so we needed them fresh and ready to go defensively. We’ve got a handful of receivers this year that during the offseason, during 7 on 7’s, showed that they can catch the ball and make some plays. Offensively we’ve adjusted out to four wide where over the past seven years we’ve always had really good tight ends. This year our tight ends (have) to both start on defense. Luckily we had some receivers that stepped up and made some plays in the offseason during those 7 on 7’s and so our primary set offensively we’re going to be four wide most of the night to make sure that we are getting guys on the field and keeping them fresh.”
Coach Boston discussed his quarterback and how some of his players can play at different positions for this upcoming season. “Trajdon (Davis) is the guy he’s going to be starting for us at quarterback. Then Max Thompson who was in that quarterback mix, he’s still our backup quarterback if something happens but he’s also a two way starter for us right now at safety and receiver. He did a great job of switching to those positions and stepping up and doing what he needed to do. He’s still got the background, he’s still got the skill set. He even got some reps (at quarterback) in the Union County scrimmage to where we’re making sure that he is still able to do things that we need him to do there. It’s almost just like every position we’ve got, we’ve got four guys that are going to be rotating at safety. We’ve got four guys that are going to be rotating at inside receiver and those are the same four guys on both sides of the ball. It kind of goes back in the same thing we’re really trying to still find our mix but we’ve got a lot of guys that can get on the field. We’re not necessarily a two platoon football team but we’re one and a half and we’ve got guys that can rotate in to give guys a break when we need to and so it’s been good to have that mix.”
Coach Boston was asked how much the passing game will come into play this upcoming season and he responded with this, “It’s all going to be game to game. Trajdon knew last year he didn’t have to do a whole lot, he had Jordan (Wright) and Jahiem (Williams) next to him and then he had Banks and Pendergraft in the slot and it was just a lot of facilitating, him being a sophomore, where now he’s going to carry the load and we’re going to rely on him with his arm, we’re going to rely on him with his feet and his experience has gotta come into play because when you only return five guys, luckily one of them is your quarterback, and so that helps a lot.”
Coach Boston discussed a new face in the running game for this upcoming season in Anthony Burrus and Boston responded with this, “He’s one of those guys that when I was talking about the weight room earlier that really attacked it. He was one of our five that made the thousand pound club. He power claimed 315 pounds on liftathon day and so he physically prepared his body to be able to step in and carry that load. He’s done the right things in the offseason, great kid, you never hear him say a word. When he gets the ball in his hands, he runs physical, he runs fast and he does the right things.”
Coach Boston discussed the health of the rest of his team besides wide receiver Koien Banks, who’s been out with a turned ankle, and Coach Boston responded with this, “Health is good. Henry Porter is still out. Looks like he will be cleared in probably early September and so anxious to get him back out there. It has been a long time since having him on the field. As far as the group that we knew we were coming into the season with, everybody’s healthy, everybody’s ready to go.”
Coach Boston discussed his opponent in the Meade County Green Wave and the type of team they have this season, “With Meade County they are a very physical program. They’re never going to have much speed, they’re not going to be flashy but they’re always going to have tough, physical kids. When it comes to the first game of the season, this time of year, it’s not always about who can make the most plays, it’s about who can make the least amount of mistakes. That’s where your discipline comes into play and you got to make sure that you’re getting lined up. A lot of time those mistakes is just getting lined up, it’s not always necessarily the running, the blocking, the tackling part of it, it’s the getting lined up part because you are seeing things and gameplans are starting to go in and the whole mental side of it, you know getting yourself in the right spot to make the play.”
Coach Boston discussed his keys to the game in order to come away with a win on opening the 2023 season, “Like I said it’s going to come down to who makes the least amount of mistakes. They’ve got some really good football players. They lost some key pieces last year like we did but they’ve got a few returning. It’s going to come down in this first game tonight who can make the least amount of mistakes and come away with a win.”
In his 20th season as the Head Coach of the Green Wave, Coach Larry Mofield talked about his team and some of the players and positions his team will have to fill for this upcoming season. “We lost a good bunch of seniors. We had some kids on the offensive line that we knew we were going to have to replace, our quarterback we were going to have to replace. We had some holes to fill, not as many on defense as we did on offense. Defensively we lost a starting safety Jay Fortner who is going to be big shoes to fill but really that was our only defensive starter that we lost. We will have to replace the offensive line. We had three good size kids up in the middle that really helped us compete and do some things last year. We lost Jacob Lacefield out of the backfield who was a hard nosed kid for us, he wasn’t a burner but he could get some stuff done between the tackles. We knew that it was going to kind of be I don’t know if you necessarily say a rebuilding year upfront but we were going to have to find some kids up there and then we are going to have to replace a running back and quarterback and I think we’ve got some skill kids. We are not going to outrun a lot of people but we do have some kids that can catch some balls and maybe get some yards after catch.”
The Colonels will open up the regular season against the Meade County Green Wave at home at Colonel Stadium on the new turf field tonight Friday August 18th at 7:30 P.M.
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