Gridiron Preview - Tri-Cities Prep Jaguars

Share

By Keith Leventhal

Story Published: Aug 27, 2010 at 10:35 PM PST

Every high school football team is dealing with the challenges of replacing players or finding the next star.

But, the Tri-Cities Prep football team might have more obstacles to overcome this year than any other squad in our area.

The biggest change for the Jaguars will be finding a replacement for one of the best all-around athletes in the state, Will Hoppes.

Prep does return several other players from last year's state championship team.

But, with a new quarterback, it might take them a little time to get on the same page.

Lost in all the talk about Hoppes is the other big change the jaguars are dealing with...a move up from 8-man football to 11-man football.

And head coach Dan Whitsett says that's just forcing them to take things slowly in practice.

Coach Whitsett says, "Starting a little different this year and starting a lot of foundation stuff, gotta lay the groundwork, gotta get back to the basics, couldn't pick up where we left off after summer camp as quickly with this group, but it's a good thing, working hard as coaches and we got a lot of talent out here, lot of kids that want to be here and its exciting."

Tri-Cities Prep has a bit of a strange schedule this year.

Their first 3 games will all be 8-man games, including a game against Liberty Christian.

Then, after a bye week, they hit the 11-man portion of their schedule.

And the regular season wraps up with arguably the biggest game of the year as they play DeSales, one of the best 2B teams in the state.