The process has just started for Barrett Donahoe.
The initial steps for the first-year Heritage Academy football coach and his assistant coaches have involved tearing things down to build a foundation.
Donahoe saw signs last week the Patriots were ready to move in that direction, but he didn’t see enough of them to avoid 36-23 loss to Lamar School in the season opener for both teams.
With a week to review and to prepare for a week two matchup against Starkville Academy, Donahoe has turned his focus to getting Heritage Academy to play faster.
“The main thing about Friday night was Lamar played at a greater speed,” Donahoe said. “That was just a tremendous difference. It comes with confidence and understanding how to play the game.”
Donahoe said the Patriots addressed being faster off the snap on offense and on defense Tuesday in practice. He said he put players on the stop watch to show them where they were and where they needed to be. The difference was an eye-opener.
“We (hit the timing mark) a lot because we focused on it, but previous to yesterday we were not there at all,” Donahoe said. “We were not anywhere close. I don’t think they understood how to be close to that.”
That’s why Donahoe and his coaches took time this week to show the players how to get off the ball and moving downhill in less than two seconds. Donahoe believes a faster pace coupled with a physical mind-set will be a dangerous combination once his team understands what it takes to play that way every snap. He joked that he hopes his players would pick it up by tonight before admitting it likely would be a year-long process.
“It is going to create some really good times for Heritage Academy football,” Donahoe said.
Part of the building process also means changing the mind-set in the program, Donahoe said. Unlike at Marshall Academy, which made the playoffs in 2011 for the sixth consecutive season, Heritage Academy is trying to get back to the postseason for the first time since 2005, when it lost to Starkville Academy 31-7 in the Class AAA, Division II title game.
Tonight’s game at 7 at Starkville Academy, which last season played in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, Division II title game, should help Donahoe gauge where his team needs to be to get back to the playoffs. He hopes the Patriots will deliver a more consistent effort and avoid a “flat” third quarter in which he thought the players didn’t compete well.
“One of the things that is going to be rewarding is when we look at the scoreboard in November in a playoff game and we see that we have been successful,” Donahoe said. ”
Leake Academy (0-1) at Immanuel Christian (0-1)
The combination of youth and injuries can be deadly early in the season.
A district game in week two can make that mix even more dangerous, but that’s what Greg Watkins and his Rams will have to deal with at 7 tonight when they open their Class AA, 2AA schedule with a home game against the Rebels.
Immanuel Christian, which is coming off a 37-0 loss to Winona Christian, will be without junior lineman Luke Hudson (concussion). Hudson’s injury depletes a position that already had been hit hard by graduation losses.
“We had our spurts (last week) where we did well on the line, and as the year goes on our line will get better because we’re so young,” Watkins said. “Leake Academy’s line is going to be pretty good, so we’re going to have to step it up each week to get better if we want to be successful.”
Without Hudson, Watkins said senior Wilson Harmond will be asked to set the tone because he will have to play with teammates with significantly less experience. He said the offense has made several adjustments in an attempt to take the pressure off the offensive linemen so they don’t have to hold their blocks as long.
“They’re going to have to hold their blocks for a couple of seconds,” Watkins said. “If they can do that with our speed we can make some things happen. We just have to make sure we can’t have one missed block on every play because it really shuts us down. We have to get a little more consistency.”
Watkins said the first game of the season should ease the transition for some of his younger players this week. On defense, he will look for more pursuit and better tackling against Leake Academy, which lost to Simpson Academy 42-13 last week.
“When someone goes in and makes a hit everybody else has to come in and help out,” Watkins said. “We had guys in position to make tackles, but everybody else relaxed and the guy breaks loose. We have to be more consistent on gang tackling.”
Hebron Christian (1-0) at Victory Christian (0-1)
Defense has been Chris Hamm’s focus this week.
Coming off a 68-42 loss to Clinton Christian, Hamm said the Eagles worked long and hard this week to shore up a defense in preparation for their home opener at 7 tonight.
“On Monday, we went all defense,” Hamm said. “On Tuesday, we went half and half. They responded really well.”
Hamm said he didn’t see any finger-pointing and felt all of the players accepted their part in the loss. To prevent it from happening again, Hamm said Brandon Shaw will move from lineman to middle linebacker. He said Shane Bradford will replace Shaw up front on both sides of the ball.
Hamm’s goal was to try to limit the number of players who saw action on both sides of the ball, but he feels the experience of Bradford, Shaw, and Bo McCrary will help solidify the defense.
“We have been trying to locate some linebackers in two-a-days,” Hamm said.
Hamm said Bradford, who didn’t play much defense last week, is up to the task of joining McCrary an Shaw in going both ways. He said a key will be finding other players who can give those three players a break to keep them as fresh as possible.
Hamm said Victory Christian will do everything it can to control the clock. He said the team likely won’t utilize many no-huddle looks and will try to manage the game by calling plays in from the sideline and using all of the 25-second clock.
Even though he doesn’t know much about Hebron Christian, which defeated Strider Academy 20-6 in an 11-man game last week, he has heard tonight’s opponent likely will keep the ball on the ground.
“We’re going in blind,” said Hamm, whose team lost to Hebron Christian 54-14 on Sept. 15, 2000, in the last game in the series. “There is not much you can read into an 11-man game. We have preached to the boys this week that regardless of the team or what they look like we just have to go play and play our ball.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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