West Morgan Football

Tanner In Newscourier

Rattlers preparing for county rivals with short week of work
By Justin GravesJustin@athensnews-courier.comTANNER – With a short week of practice and a lackluster preseason jamboree performance last week, Tanner coach LaRon White said his team needs to pick up the intensity before they open the season at Clements Thursday night.“We looked good and bad last week at Speake,” White said. “I wasn’t pleased with everything we did in our jamboree. We’ve got to pick up the intensity.”With the game on Thursday night, it means Tanner only has two full days of practice. White is turning to his 10 seniors to make sure everything is strictly business at practice this week.“It’s up to us to make sure everybody is in high gear this week,” senior defensive back George Adams said. “Every game is important, so we have to get as much work in as possible this week.”Even though White doesn’t exactly like the short week of work, he said his biggest obstacle this week is preparing for a team they aren’t sure about. Clements has completely different coaching staff than last year and White isn’t exactly sure what to expect.“We know they are going to run a spread offense and they have a lot players returning from last year,” White said. “So we know they are going to spread the field out and throw the ball a lot. The big question is what to expect from their defense.”One area White wants to address this week in practice is the team’s physical mentality. He knows Clements returns the bulk of its starters from last year, including leading rusher Jesse Cobb and the team’s top playmaker Cody Arnold.“We’re going to have to be physical, especially on defense,” Adams said. “We’ve got a lot of big guys on our team this year, but they’re all real young. Clements has a lot of experience coming back, so we have to be ready to play.“We can’t take anything for granted. The main thing we do is make sure we’re ready to play by Thursday. We’re going to have to pick up the intensity and be a hard-nosed football team.”Even though White wants to get as much work in as possible this week, he doesn’t plan on throwing too much at his team. “We’re going to get our work in, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to practice longer than usual,” he said. “I don’t want to overload these guys.“Everybody is real excited about finally getting the season started. It’s real important that we come out and set the tone early this year. We’re starting a new season and we want to get off to a good start.”

posted by Coach Shaw @ 10:04 AM