BY CLIFF SMELLEY
May brings about thoughts of the end of the school year and graduation, but for some, it’s also a time to think about football.
For approximately three weeks, the sounds of whistles blowing and coaches giving instructions have filled the air at Bradford, Keystone Heights and Union County high schools, with players donning helmets and pads as part of an early preparation for the 2025 football season.
Practices are now set to wrap up by lining up against opponents during spring games/jamborees. Bradford will host Suwannee on Thursday, May 15, at 7 p.m., while Union will travel to Folkston, Georgia, that same night to play against Charlton County High School at 6 p.m.
Keystone will host a four-team jamboree on Tuesday, May 20, at 6 p.m. Eight total quarters will be played, beginning with the Indians taking on West Nassau for two quarters. West Nassau then plays Interlachen, followed by two quarters of play between Interlachen and Lafayette. The jamboree ends with Keystone vs. Lafayette.
Bradford Head Coach Jamie Rodgers has a team that returns experience in the skill positions on offense and in the defensive secondary, but he and his staff are looking at a lot of players who haven’t played much on the varsity level, if at all.
“We’ve got so many kids who haven’t had to play on Friday nights for us who are going to have to contribute,” Rodgers said, adding, “That’s the biggest obstacle we have right now.”
With that in mind, practices have been more physical than they’ve been in the past, and the entire duration of spring practices was shortened.
“We’re severely beat up after a couple of weeks,” Rodgers said. “That’s one of the reasons I didn’t extend it and have four weeks of spring this year. I just knew we were going to be hitting so much more this spring than we have in the past.
“It’s 10 to 12 days. That’s enough to get what we need and then play a game, evaluate where we’re at and use the summer to get better.”
Besides a lot of inexperience, the Tornadoes are working on operating out of a 3-3 stack defensively, which features three linebackers lined up behind three linemen.
“That’ll be completely new to everybody,” Rodgers said. “It’s more movement. The last three years, we’ve been able to get in a base defense pretty much, sit there and then make teams beat us. Then we’d throw a couple of different looks at them.
“This year, we’re going to have to move around quite a bit more.”
The Tornadoes have a lot of work to do beyond the spring game, so Rodgers said what he’s looking for against Suwannee is simple — players giving it their all.
“I want to see them play hard every single down,” Rodgers said. “If they’re out here jogging, that means they’re probably not going to play very much in the fall for us. It’s about their effort and loving football. We can teach everything else.”
For UCHS Head Coach Andrew Thomas, this spring has been about developing players — players having to fill positions vacated by graduating seniors and players who are new to the Tigers’ program. Many of those players will also have to play on both sides of the ball.
“We’ve got a lot of kids who are young who are coming up and having to take over,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a lot of inexperience. We’re not deep. Our roster is a little short of what it has been.”
Thomas, who was interviewed for this story on May 9, likes how practices have progressed, saying, “I’ve really been pleased with the growth over two weeks. We’ve got a long way to go, but we’ve made some good gains overall.”
Making gains will be important because the Tigers’ most experienced unit, according to Thomas, is probably the offensive line, which will return three starters. The coach, in talking about some of the holes that have to be filled, said his team has to replace its entire defensive line and linebacker corps. The defensive secondary will have one returning starter.
Thomas said the offense has some experience with its backfield, but also said the Tigers will be relying on a new quarterback.
“There’s just a lot of inexperience right now,” Thomas said.
The spring game will be between teams that don’t know much about each other. Thomas said the coaching staffs have talked to each other about some of the things each team does, but added it’s hard to fully prepare for a team that you haven’t seen on video.
“You know there are going to be some mistakes,” Thomas said.
Therefore, the goals are for the players to compete, be physical and put into play everything they’ve been learning in practices.
“The things that we’ve worked on — we want to see us be able to put a little bit of it out there on the field,” Thomas said, adding, “We’re not really keeping score, but we’re looking forward to playing somebody else. That’ll be good.”
Keystone will have the chance to compete against two opponents in its spring jamboree, but the Indians have been competing all spring. Head Coach Steve Reynolds has made that a point of emphasis.
“It’s going really well,” Reynolds said. “The kids are learning a lot of new stuff and competing. That’s one thing we’re doing — really focusing on competition every day. Compete at something. We finish practice with a competition. We start practice with a competition. We’re keeping score. They’re in teams.”
Reynolds said he likes where the Indians are at, with many experienced players returning and the number of players participating in practices totaling approximately 50 (varsity and junior varsity).
“We have some kids who’ve played a lot of football,” Reynolds said, citing such players as Colton Hollingsworth, Zane Leger and Kyle Perkins — all of whom will be seniors.
The coach added, “We’ve also got some kids who played a lot of football as young guys.”
Reynolds said one of the team’s strengths right now is a defensive line that has a rotation of six players.
“That transitions to the offensive line, too,” Reynolds said.
He added that Keystone also has four players who bring experience at linebacker.
The goals for the spring jamboree include continuing what’s been occurring in practices.
“I want to see kids compete. I want to see kids finish. I want to see kids give tremendous effort,” Reynolds said, adding, “We want them to compete and to have fun, and we don’t want anybody to get hurt. That’s it. Then, we’ll evaluate it.”
