The Deweyville Pirates just missed making the playoffs last season losing in the closing seconds of a pivotal district game. Brandon Prouse has moved in as the new head coach at Deweyville. He inherits a program that is small in numbers with only 21 players coming out for football.
Coach Prouse expounds on the Pirates’ offense for this season. Jace Atchley played a lot of running back last year and will be counted on to be a key ball carrier for Deweyville. Darin LaVergne will see plenty of time at fullback in the Pirates’ Slot-T Offense. Lance Wilhelm played a little last year and is being counted on to take over the halfback spot. Nathan Henson returns at center to provide leadership in the offensive line.
Coming up from the junior varsity is Dillon Fears, and he is looking good at tailback. Prouse has two quality youngsters competing to be the starting quarterback for Deweyville, Keevin Gordon and Nate Buxton. “Gordon is a junior, Buxton’s a sophomore,” Prouse summarizes.
Deweyville is very inexperienced on defense, but Prouse has confidence in the skills of two returning starters on the Pirates’ defense. Justin Lilyquist should be the leader on defense from his linebacker position. Justin played every game last year. Atchley also returns at linebacker.
The defensive line will all be new for Deweyville. The secondary will be young too with players coming up from the junior varsity. Prouse praises, “They’re very athletic and flying around, I feel pretty good about the defense.”
Coach Prouse lost a lot of experience in both the offensive and defensive lines to graduation. He is counting on some players to step up and fill those holes. Landen Thompson may see starting time in the line on both offense and defense. Deweyville lost 14 seniors to graduation, but the skill set for the Pirates coming out for football is very good according to Prouse. Depth especially in the linemen positions is going to be very thin with really only six to seven players available for those positions. “They’re accepting the challenge, and working very hard, we’re going to be okay,” Prouse professes.
The goal is always to make the playoffs. Prouse analyzes the Pirates’ chances in a tough district this season. The Groveton Indians are the defending district champs and are the favorite again with the Centerville Tigers using star running back Brandon Madison being their chief rivals for the title. Prouse predicts, “We’re hoping that what we do offensively kind of would keep us in the games for the fourth quarter, you know try to shrink the game and try to pull an upset on a few people.”
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