Two-a-days begin today

Like the rest of the state's high school football teams the Red Tornadoes were in full pads on Friday for the first day of "contact" drills (aka HITTING!). For those who aren't familiar with the process, a certain number of practices must be concluded before teams are allowed to go full contact. Friday was the day and the Tornadoes took full advantage of it. As is customary the first day of hitting brought out several spectators who were eager to see what this year's team is made of. They did not leave disappointed! The hitting was hard and we all found it very good.

The Tornadoes conducted another full practice on Saturday morning that included a mini-scrimmage between the varsity offense and defense. This portion of practice was filmed as part of the ongoing evaluation process as Week 2 of the pre-season begins. Today the varsity had a light practice in the morning (9:00) and will return to the field at the usual time (6:00) for evening practice. This schedule will continue through most of the week. The week will culminate with a trip to Tuscola High School in Waynesville for Border Bash II.

New defensive coordinator Wayne Hicks is satisfied with the progress made by the players in adjusting to his preferred schemes, which are different from what his predecessor ran in 2006 and 2007. How quickly they get ahead of the learning curve will dictate how well the defense performs in the early part of the season. Fortunately, as stated before, the defense has several returning starters and their experience certainly willl help with the learning process.

I want to make special mention of junior Buddy Withers who has found a spot on the starting unit at linebacker. Buddy did not play football last season but has come on strong in the off-season and now in the pre-season and should definitely give the defense an extra burst of speed, which will be needed to deal with the offenses that Hickory will face in the CVAC. Another couple of juniors, Cole Smithey and Drew Siciliano, have also made great strides on the defensive side of the ball. Once again Hickory should be very stout against the run.