BY WSON COLONEL FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT: RYAN DAVENPORT
The Henderson County Colonels football team is looking to have success this season with some returning veteran and experienced players, as well as depth at multiple positions.
The Colonels went 7-5 last season which included a 31-26 win against the Apollo Eagles in the Class 6A State Football Playoffs before suffering a 51-28 loss to the Daviess County Panthers that would end their season.
In his 7th season as the Head Coach of the Colonels, Coach Josh Boston was asked if this was his best team he has had on paper, he talked about the experience he has returning as well as spring practices and how that experience has helped during practices. “The offseason has been good and the summer has been good, strictly because of the amount of experience that we have returning. We probably had one of the best spring games that we have ever had but when you look at we return 9 starters on defense, and so when you return that much experience the competitiveness of your spring practices are a lot higher because you’re not trying to find as many guys to fill positions.”
Coach Boston was asked if any senior or other veteran player is being a vocal leader or taking the role of being a leader, he responded that all of his guys with experience are stepping up in different ways and aspects during practice and he mentioned one player in particular who has stepped in and taken the leadership role. “Not really. We’ve got a group where every kid is different and unique in their own way. Whether it is vocal or performance or work in the offseason and so it’s a unique group and so they have all kind of separately stepped up in different ways to kind of fill their role and do their part. A big one as far as junior class goes that has really stepped in and taken some leverage this year is Jackson Pendergraft. He had a really really good offseason and worked his tail off and he has popped into some spots.”
When talking about his 2 Division one commits on this Colonel team, Saadiq Clements to Purdue and Bryce Tapp to Eastern Kentucky, Coach Boston discussed how they will use Clements for his senior and final season as a Colonel. “Saadiq’s gonna be able to play a little bit of everywhere. Matchup wise we’re going to be able to find matchups in games as far as personnel we’ll be able to put him inside, if a matchup matches up better with him over top of one of their guards he’s going to play a lot more inside that week. If he matches up better on their tackle then we’re going to be able to put him outside, you know we’ve got that depth to be able to move him around to help him make plays. He is a very explosive player and we will put him in positions to help him be successful.”
When asked about his strengths in this Colonels team, Coach Boston didn’t hesitate to continue to talk about the experience and the position that this team has been in before. “It is definitely experience. The number of guys who have been under the lights and they know the feeling. The nervousness that you have as a first-year starter isn’t going to be there because they have been in those situations and they have been in the tight games. Then with this group, we have seen the results of some immaturity and hopefully grown and understand the importance of that as we get back under the lights this year.
When asked about his team’s concerns for this season, Coach Boston discussed the quarterback situations as there are 2 main quarterbacks fighting for the main quarterback role this season. “Well, we’re still trying to figure out the quarterback position. We got two guys that will be rotating with our gun offense. Both of them have their strengths and both of them have things that they have got to improve on. We’re going to keep playing them both until one of them kind of separates themselves. Like I said they are both unique in their own way, they both bring qualities to the team, going to keep going until one of them really grabs it by the reigns and shows that their going to take it and be the leader, be the commander of the offense and the one that gets us going the most. Then you’re also going to see Dru Meadows, he played some quarterback last year. We moved him to receiver, he is starting two ways for us right now he is starting at receiver and at corner. When we go to our under-center stuff he will be our under-center quarterback when we do those things. That’s kind of a whole different perspective outside of you know with Trajdon and Max doing our gun stuff. Like I said, both of them have their qualities, both of them are doing good things and both of them bring different aspects and both have got two different scripts. When Trajdon’s in, it’s more of a quarterback-run style option that gets the ball in the perimeter. When Max is in, we utilize his arm a little bit more but we’ve got to use an extra blocker you know cause the option stuff is not really his style. We’ve got to do some tweaks to our run game and then both of them are capitalizing on it. The good thing about both of them is that they have got Jordan who is a three-year starter and Jaheim who is a four-year starter sitting next to them in the backfield.”
When asked about the Colonels’ first regular season opponent, the Calloway County Lakers, Coach Boston focuses on the type of offense and defense the Lakers will play. “They’re kind of in the opposite situation we are. They lost a lot of seniors last year and so they are going to have a bunch of new guys on the field. Their quarterback’s good with the ball in his hand. They run the option and so you’re going to see him making plays on the perimeter, getting the ball on the perimeter, a lot of screen game offensively, and getting the ball out of his hand. Defensively very similar like they were last year they’re going to base out of a 4-3 scheme wise but they’re going to be in a 3-4 personnel, they’re going to have three defensive linemen and four linebackers and one of them is always going to be on. It will look like a 4-3 always in a two-high safety but you know they try to put their guys in position to be successful.”
The Colonels open up the regular season tonight at 7:30 pm at home against the Calloway County Lakers on Hall of Fame Night at Colonel Stadium.
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