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Page 4B SPORTS The Kings Mountain Herald August 10, 2006 GARY STEWART gstewart@kingsmountainherald.co Pardon the pun, but Jeff Putnam has a lot more ‘hope’ these days. The first-year Hope Christian Academy head football coach greeted only eight players on his first day of practice last Monday. On Tuesday 12 showed up. This past Monday the numbers were up to 17. By the time the season opens Friday, August 18 at City Stadium against Northside Christian Putnam hopes to have over 20. “Things are going pretty good,” he said before prac- tice Tuesday. “We've got some players back from the beach and other places and other guys are registered and have already paid but just haven't shown up to practice yet.” Because of the small num- bers, Putham doesn’t plan a pre-season scrimmage, pre- ferring to concentrate on working individually with players who don’t have var- sity experience. And, he’s hoping the recent heat wave -doesn’t have an adverse effect on the program. “I think we have more players on the way, but as hard as it is to believe, even when you come out there and you're guaranteed to start and it’s hot there will be some to fall by the wayside. But we're getting after it.” ‘ Hope put on pads for the first time Monday, and Putnam was planning on hit- GARY STEWART / HERALD Hope Christian Jeff Putnam watches in background as two Hope Christian football players learn blocking technique in light practice session last week. The Thunderbolts began hitting Tuesday in preparation for their season opener at home on August 18 against Northside Christian. ting for the first time Tuesday. § “I think by tomorrow we'll have good numbers out there,” he said. “But it seems like every time Iask some- one ‘where’s that guy?’ they say: ‘he’ll be here tomorrow.’ It’s been tomorrow for three weeks.” : The Thunderbolt coaching staff, which includes Shawn Clark and Lamar Wood, is putting in the offense and defense. “The defense is not a big deal,” says Putnam, who was defensive coordinator last year. “It’s the same thing we ran last year (a base 40). Defense comes together quicker. It's more reaction. The offense takes more time to get in and for everyone to learn the language and learn their assignments. It just takes more time to pick up on that and execute it. “On defense, if you've got athletes it comes together pretty quick, even if they don’t exactly know what their reads and responsibili- ties are. They can still fly around and make a play. “By the same token the other team’s offense is not clicking like it will later in the season, so it makes it eas- ier for a defense to click. But we're doing that football thing and putting this in. I don’t know if it'd be any eas- ier if you were at an estab- lished school.” The linebackers should be the strength of the Bolts’ defense. Two of the new players, Terran Brooks and Chavis Poole, should be as good as any of the area pub- lic schools’ linebackers. They are both also outstanding running backs, Brooks at full- back and Poole at tailback. Poole, who played middle school ball at Kings Mountain, was the leading rusher at Crest last year before going down with a season-ending injury. A returning player, Taylor Brewer, is another linebacker who will spell trouble to the opposition. He will be used as a bandit-type player, Putnam said. Tight ends will also be an asset. A lot of teams will be trying to avoid Jamien Holland, a returning starter at 6-8, 245. Tyler Shores, a returnee, and newcomer Kevin Friday will try to make Hope gearing for August 18 opener them pay when they come the other way. “We're going to show some different fronts,” said Putnam, “and we're going to bring some guys from line- backer because that’s where our athletes are. We'll do the same things we did last year We'll try to get in our defense and stay tnless our oppo- nent makes us get out. We're not going to be overly sophisticated. Every week we'll scheme and do the things we need to do that we think will beat our oppo- nent.” On offense, the Bolts will run a Delaware wing with the goal of being a running team first. That's where guys like Poole and Brooks will pay big dividends. Josh Gilbert, an outstand- ing option and passing quar- terback, returns for his senior season after winning the MVP in last year’s Christian School national tournament in Dayton, TN. “We're going to run first and we're going to scheme and try to take advantage of things we think our oppo- nent will let us take advan- tage of,” Putnam said. “If that’s throwing more this Friday than next Friday, that’s what we'll do. We're not going to overhaul our offense every week. We're going to put an offense in and practice the same thing over and over and go out and attempt to execute that. We're not going to try to trick a bunch of people. We're going to line up and try to make plays.” Ba bei WALXMART SUPERCENTER WILKINSON BLVD., BELMONT
The Kings Mountain Herald (Kings Mountain, N.C.)
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