Wetumpka High School football opened spring practice with special teams.
The opening kick went through the uprights but the placement of the drill only points that special teams are still an emphasis for coach Bear Woods. Two years ago it was the Indians' Achilles heel.
“We got offense, defense and ‘WE’fence, special teams,” Woods said. “It’s a place where everyone gets to contribute under the one TRIBE philosophy.”
Outside of quarterbacks and some of the linemen, everyone took reps covering kick returns Monday as spring practice opened. The extra effort on ‘WE’fence paid dividends for Wetumpka last season.
“We blocked 11 kicks last year, scored three different touchdowns and set up another two,” Woods said. “We expect to be impactful there. We will spend time doing it. It's a good time for us as a team. You get offense and defense working together. That's the ‘WE’fence part of it.”
Last year James ‘Bobo’ Browning made a huge impact for the Indians on special teams. He is currently injured and coming over to football from baseball.
“He had 27 tackles on kickoff last year,” Woods said. “He also started on offense and on defense for us at different points in the year.”
Wetumpka returns a core group of players especially in the trenches. But the Indians lost impact players that they must replace.
“We graduated 32 touchdowns last year,” Woods said. “We have got to grow impactful players.”
Even on the defensive side of the ball they lost single season tackle record holder Kelvin Walker, defensive back Justin Goblin linebacker Logan Guard and Ethan Baylor in the defensive line. With losses, Woods was pleased to see 35 freshmen out last week during a boot camp of sorts. It made Monday’s practice much smoother allowing offensive plays to be installed.
But more importantly, it allows more and better competition.
“Everything we do is compete, every drill, every rep and every moment,” Woods said. “We say, ‘Win the moment.’ That is we want guys to want to compete, coaches to bring that competition and then go to Opelika and compete.”
Woods is looking forward to the competition between players, even at quarterback. He expects Kymani Clary and Charles Skipper to compete for the starting role. Skipper got the start for the Indians last year against Pike Road.
“He put up 500 yards of offense and took it down to the wire as a freshman with them,” Woods said. “Clary gets the edge at the moment. But it will be a competition and Baker Pouncey will compete as well.”
While building the next set of impactful Indians, Woods is also instilling character through the word heart.
“We have got to have a heart,” Woods said. “Everyone uses that, but I’m trying to define it for the guys. It's not accept mediocrity. That's what heart is to me. We talk about humility, effort, attitude, reliability and toughness. Those are just going to be our values that we're going to cling to them to make better men and a better team.”
The Indians will travel to Opelika for a spring game May 16. The format will feature three quarters of junior varsity play and three varsity quarters.
