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Many unknowns for T-bird football

T-birds test out schemes

By Russ Doubleday
Enterprise reporter

Spring practices this year have seen a flurry of activity for the Shorewood football team. Most importantly, new offensive and defensive schemes and formations have been adapted. Key positions also needed to be filled from last year's large senior class.

After successive 1-9 seasons, third-year coach Andrew Hershey is focusing on the fundamentals ahead of next season. He has put special emphasis for his players to become better at blocking and tackling. And since these are only practices, not real games, the coaches can help guide players right on the field.

"We put some hard work in the spring," said Hershey, "and we're hoping it's going to pay off in the fall. It's an opportunity to … make some mistakes now so that mistakes hopefully won't happen on Friday nights."

Spring practices four days a week began three weeks ago. Last week, Shorewood finally got to test their new schemes on somebody other than themselves.

"You can only (run plays) so much against your own guys," Hershey said of watching his team scrimmage against King's June 24 at Woolsey Stadium. "So we get out here and go full speed a little bit, and it gets me more realistic and guys really understand their assignments."

Shorewood still has a lot of question marks at key positions. The starting quarterback has not been chosen. Hershey said that Nathan Jeannot and Dempsey Brown, both seniors-to-be, are vying for the spot. The loss of Dorian Lair at running back and free safety will be big shoes for anyone to fill, but his brother, sophomore-to-be Eugene Holley will be expected to carry some of that load at running back. The loss of several seniors on the offensive line is also being addressed.

Hershey thinks these losses can actually help his team become better.

"It's kind of a no-name squad, which will be a good thing because I don't think we'll rely on one person," Hershey said. "So if somebody has an off night, maybe four or five guys can step up."

Hershey thinks the team will fill in some of these positions "by committee." He wants to spread responsibility around the entire team to avoid relying too heavily on one player. He also feels this will make Shorewood harder to defend against if he includes many more players in each game.

Returning to the team is wide receiver and senior-to-be Luke Nelson. He hasn't been able to attend any practices because he has been off at football camps for the Air Force Academy and Brigham Young University, two schools he's being recruited by, as well as the University of Utah.

Hershey will be happy if Shorewood simply performs at a higher level over their last two seasons.

"My big thing is improvement," explained Hershey. "If we can improve our fundamentals, if we can improve our tackling, if we can improve our plays, if we can improve that, we'll take a step forward.

"And if we can focus on what we need to do to get better as opposed to what our league is doing, those results will show up in the (win/loss) column."