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| Egli likes what he sees from Tribe |
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6/24/2016
By Dan Manley
Advocate Sports Editor
The Montgomery County High School football team is currently on summer hiatus after going through drills through the first week of June.
Those days of workouts left Egli more optimistic than he was at the end of spring practice about the upcoming season.
The June sessions consisted of over 17 hours of football where the Indians were able to get all of their special teams in place with the exception of extra points.
“We think we’ve got a soccer player who’ll be our kicker,” Egli said.
The Tribe watched some film and spent a lot of time trying to narrow down the quarterback situation before they return on July 11 at the end of the Dead Period.
Juniors Chase Spencer and Tanner Wells are the two individuals who appear ready to battle for playing time at quarterback this fall.
Egli said that they decided to take senior Dillon Akers out of the mix simply because “we’re a better football team with Akers at running back.”
Egli said he felt like Akers had proven himself in the spring to be able to run the offense, leaving that as a backup in case problems arise.
The Indians ended the June workouts with three young men playing both ways on the depth chart.
New guys
The squad will pick up two new players from Magoffin County who are moving into the system. One is a junior and one is a freshman.
“From the spring workouts we only had two players that didn’t show up in June and they both were dismissed so that they could attend camps,” Egli said.
That was among the sophomore, juniors and seniors. There were some freshmen who weren’t there but the numbers were still in the upper 70s.
Egli said that of the 46 freshmen from the spring that he had spoken with every one of them individually and felt good about seeing all of them there when their practice starts for the fall.
Staff
uncertainties
Egli is still working toward getting his staff completed and is waiting now on teaching vacancies to try to fill the remaining positions.
He said he felt like those spots would work themselves out by the time July practice arrives.
The Indians will have about three weeks to work without pads during which time they’ll host one 7 on 7 passing event and then three weeks in pads to get ready for the season opener in the Recreation Bowl against Collins High.
Expectations
The Indians will get graded in practice, Egli said.
“You’ve got to be able to grade out at 80 percent or better if you’re going to be successful,” he said. “That’ll be what we’re looking at for every position. Based on what we’ve seen so far we’ll have a lot of good competition for playing time and the players will know exactly where they stand on the depth chart.
Egli said he would be surprised if there weren’t 100 players out for football, freshmen through seniors, when practice is in full swing in several weeks.
“It’s just a building block,” Egli said. “Having a hundred kids won’t assure that we’ll win a lot of football games, but getting a lot of young men involved will ultimately help us find some additional football players and hopefully will help a lot of young men benefit even if it’s just from the discipline they learn and from being a part of a team.”
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