After a busy couple of weeks getting equipment ready, making sure shirts and shorts are ordered, and also doing all the paperwork needed for the upcoming season, the Review was able to sit down with head coach,, Tad Webb, of the DeKalb Middle School Saints.
The Smithville Review: After last season's success, what are your expectations about the upcoming year?
Coach Tad Webb: Well, just like any year, we always have high expectations. Going into this year, we know that we lost a lot of good players, but we expect to put a team out there that will put out the effort and compete in every game. Our goal is to go out there and compete and see what happens from there.
Review: What do you expect from your returning players? Do you anticipate any of them stepping in and having a good year?
Webb: We do. We have several seventh graders coming back from last year's team. You know, unfortunately, a lot of them did not have a lot of playing experience, due to the success we had with the eighth graders. It was such a big class with so many quality players.
We do have one returning starter, AJ Mooneyham, and I expect him to do a lot of big things for us. We have Joey Moon, who will be our quarterback for us. We also have a couple of guys coming in, Vandyne and Walls.
Defensively, we are looking at guys like, T.J. Bain and Braxton Pugh. We also have Elijah Hendrixson on the outside and hopefully helping at the receiving corp. We are young, as far as game experience goes. That is the thing that we really have to battle against.
Review: What kind of team speed will you have this year?
Webb: It's kind of a mix. We are not going to have blazing team speed, but size -wise, we have some young men that are a good size for their positions. Across the board, we are mixed in with some quick and big guys, but overall we will be an average team, speed wise.
Review: Is your offense much like the high school? Will you run your own style or call your plays according to your talent?
Webb: You assess your talent and see what you are good at, and that is going to be your strength. We use a lot of the same terminology as the high school does, but you know, their plans are to sling it around. They have been like that for several years.
We have in the past, been able to throw it some, but we have not been mainly focused on passing. This year we are looking to be about the same as last year. We are going to mix in passing to give our running game some holes and give them some space.
Review: What team, in your conference, do you think will be the front-runner this year?
Webb: You can never count out Trousdale Satterfield. They always have players come in and are ready to play. They won our side of the division last year and I expect them to be there again this year. They will have two players returning that played for them last year that were pretty good.
Another team that I would look at, that is on our side of the division is Macon County. They had some good young guys playing for them last year. We were blessed to come out with a victory there. They have some coming back.
A new team coming into our conference is Westmoreland. They will always be a disciplined and good fundamental ball club.
In the other division, there are two other teams coming in from Putnam County. They are bigger schools, so I would expect them to be there, of course, along with Livingston. Webb added that the two teams are Avery Trace and the other is Prescott South.
Review: Your numbers seem to be very good. What do you think about the turnout?
Webb: The numbers are up. That is something that has improved since my first year coaching here. Each year they have crept back up. I think that is from the achievement that the boys have made on the football field, thus sparking some interest, and that's all on the players of the past, bringing that fire and inspiration back.
Review: How do you feel about your program, entering your fourth year?
Webb: There have been a lot of changes in the program. Of course, it was not just me, we are getting the player out that wants to play and my coaches that I have helping me are great.
Coach Joey Agee has been with me since day one. He has come in and done a great job. Coach Josh Agee came in two years ago and really brought a lot to us. This last year we picked up Coach Justin Poteet and Coach Tony Schellingburger. They have brought a lot of fire back to us being a younger generation.
With the coaching staff we have in place, we are able to work well together, and we try to make it fun. The kids feed off of that and I think that is an important part of the reason they have decided to come out.
Review: What type of Defense are you planning to use this year?
Webb: We are going to mix it up. Last year, we ran some different defensive fronts and changed up the linemen's alignments to give us some advantages.
But, with some of the teams we play against, that will run a “wing tee” verses someone that will run the “spread,” that particular offense will dictate what we will do and it will be a little different with each opponent. We will be pretty much in a 3-4 or a 4-5 man front all of the time.
We had some success running our shade defense last year and that is the direction we will go this year as well.
Review: You have had the opportunity to coach at both the high school and middle school levels. What are the differences between the two?
Webb: Well, the main difference that I saw when I first arrived was the size and speed of the players. But, the desire and the will to want to play football and compete is the same.
You know, we don't go as in depth as what they do at the high school level. We focus more on getting the basics and fundamentals and incorporating some of the pays that the high school will run.
It is a little more challenging at this level, to be able to compete on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The biggest difference would be the game speed. Middle school is not as fast as the high school level, but that's true for any level. When you step up a level, the speed is definitely going to be different.
Review: Do you feel that the seventh graders are ready when the get to the middle school program?
Webb: Year in and year out that changes. You have some sets of players that come in and are able to compete. Then you have some sets of players that come in and have not hit their growth spurt. These groups may not be quite as ready and that is something that I have noticed at this level. You don't know what is going to happen from sixth grade to seventh or from seventh to eighth grade.
One thing that I preach to them is having or lacking playing time and success here, does not dictate or determine what you will do at the next level, because you never know when you will hit your growth spurt.
Everyone else might grow early and you may grow late; you may not get the playing time here, but you may get it at the high school level or on the flop side, you may grow early and then everyone else catches up with you. Then suddenly, you are not the big player you once were. So, as far as being ready, it is hard to say. It just depends on when they hit their growth spurt.
Review: With that being said, what are your thoughts on letting sixth graders on the team, but not letting them play come game time, in an attempt to learn as much as possible in three years, instead of two?
Webb: The downside to putting them on the team, is most of the sixth graders are not ready. I have not seen any sixth graders that could come in and withstand any of this. Just the size difference between sixth and eighth grade would be hard.
Being on the team, yes they would learn more, but if they can play somewhere and actually get some game experience, I think they are better off. Playing at the Jr Pro level, they can get more repetition there and then once they get to us, we can start working on the terminology and other things.
Review: We at the Review, thank you for your time, and we wish you much success and good luck in the upcoming season.
Webb: Thank you.
Saints look to keep up momentum