Published: August 04, 2008 10:05 am            

Chappell’s Cardinals looking to make a return trip to post-season

By Jimbo Collins / Staff Writer

The South Laurel Cardinals have been taking advantage of early football practice time despite not being allowed to take the field in full pads until this past week.

“We’ve had a great three weeks here,” Head coach Jason Chappell said. “We started on the tenth and it seems like it has been a while now in just helmets and T-shirts, but we kind of went into it knowing we weren’t going to be able to have contact.

“We have focused on all of our basic ideas on both sides of the ball and on special teams,” he added. “We have also been trying to get into great physical condition and build mental toughness. I feel like we have made great strides. I don’t know if we have completed those goals, but we have ran hard and had the guys in for double sessions three times a week. We have done a lot of running and heavy lifting. I feel like we’ve got a real good start.”

Chappell said he likes what he has seen from his team to this point, but is eager to see how they respond to contact.

“Like I told the boys last night, we’ve not blocked anybody yet and we’ve not made a tackle yet,” Chappell said. “We’ve not broken any tackles yet, so we have to come out starting friday and focus on being the most physical football team on the field. Hopefully, we can do those things. All in all things have gone really well.”

One of the obvious expected strengths of the team will be senior quarterback Ricky Bowling. Chappell said the Cardinals return seven offensive linemen from last year’s 6-5 team and expects solid play this season.

“Based on previous performance and what we know about some of our guys, we return seven out of our top eight offensive linemen from last year,” Chappell said. “We definitely feel like that is going to be a strength for us. Obviously having Ricky (Bowling) back there is — any time you have a returning starter at quarterback it is going to be a strength for your team, especially when you’ve got a guy that is going to be a four-year starter and has thrown for the kind of yards, touchdowns and completion percentage that he has it is a definite strength for you.

“I really feel like we have got some guys that may have played only a supporting role in the past and their roles are going to be increased this year,” he added. “I think some of those guys are going to surprise people. We have a lot of kids who have worked extremely hard since last season ended and I think we are going to see the benefits of that.”

South Laurel lost several key players to graduation after last season, but Chappell is optimistic about the players expected to fill those roles.

“As a coach you never want to say ‘I have a concern with this position or that position’, because then the kids read the paper and think ‘coach don’t think I can play,’” Chappell said. “It’s not that at all. One of the concerns I have is that we are relatively new at some skill positions. You lose guys like Cody Quinn, Wes King and Bubba Bailey offensively from last year’s team.

“Then you lose Lucas Brown and others defensively and all of a sudden you’ve got quite a few spots where you are going to have a new kid in there,” he added. “A lot of those kids are older kids, but young in terms of experience. That would be a concern, but again, on the flip side of that, those are the same kids that I am talking about who have worked extremely hard and we feel like are going to be in pretty good shape in some of those positions.”

The Cardinals will begin the regular season at North Laurel Aug. 29 against Holy Cross in the seventh annual Cumberland Valley Bowl at 6 p.m.

        

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