County coaches talk football at FCA Media Days
HUNTSVILLE- It’s the time of year to talk football and coaches from across Madison County gathered Sunday for FCA Media Day. There were some new coaches like Laron White at Sparkman and Keith Henderson at Buckhorn. Still a year away from realignment teams will play the same region opponents as last year.
For Hazel Green Coach Will Wagnon it means another year in tough Class 6A Area 8 playing Decatur, Austin, Muscle Shoals, and Hartselle. All four teams from Region 8 won first round playoff games last year.
Hazel Green finished 6-4 last year tied with Muscle Shoals but lost the tiebreaker and missed the playoffs.
Hazel Green will have 25 seniors up from 13 last year.
“Defensively we got a lot of young guys who are very talented but experience is down but they work hard,” Wagnon said. “Our defensive ends Dakota Hill and Clay Patterson are two juniors talent wise good as any we have had at Hazel Green.”
Several teams including Hazel Green must replace a quarterback who started for multiple years.
Cole Guffey was a 3-year starter at Hazel Green. Brady Polson was a three-year starter for Bob Jones, and Buckhorn also will have a new quarterback. James Clemens projected starting quarterback Jamil Muhammed injured his knee in practice and will be out for the season after surgery to repair an ACL.
“We have not named a starter,” Wagnon said. “Chase Starling (Soph) and Jacob Medlen (freshman) will compete at quarterback and they are young guys but they are pretty skilled. They both have done a lot of extra work outside of our practices.”
Wagnon said that his young quarterbacks have a skill set far beyond what quarterbacks did at that age a decade ago.
“It’s unbelievable the maturation process for young quarterbacks now. They have perfected their craft. They can make throws you wouldn’t expect a freshman to make. Most of these guys go to camps now and work with quarterback coaches during the summer. Without outside help neither one of these guys would be as far along as they are.”
Bob Jones will have a sophomore starting quarterback as Dylan Ray and Caden Rose will compete.
James Clemens will turn to Jackson Reese (Jr.) and Connor Cantrell (Freshman) to replace Muhammed.
Reese played in the spring game and split reps with Muhammed in 7-on-7 competitions.
“He’s a very good passer, very good in the pocket,” said James Clemens quarterbacks coach Kyle Parker. “Connor is a very smart player, knows the game and is incredibly savvy. It’s a great opportunity for these young guys. Losing Jamil hurts. Whoever can put us in the best position to win we will roll with them.”
Buckhorn will turn to Cole Styles at quarterback.
