Even with the caliber of the competition in Region 1-AAAAA football, a 3-7 record is still unacceptable for those who love Warner Robins High.
Guess what? The league is getting even stronger with not one, but two defending state champions. And that newcomer is the one school the Demons crave to beat the most.
So for the past two weeks, it’s been spring football time with the obvious goal of turning around Warner Robins’ first sub-.500 season since 1966. This is a program that, from 1968 to 2006, averaged (not including ties) a 10-2 record per season.
“Of course nobody’s satisfied with how last year went,” said head coach Bryan Way after Tuesday’s session. “The kids really worked hard in the off-season as they always do. I think our kids understand that 3-7 is not acceptable, and we are improving.
“We have some guys who are stepping up. We just have to be more consistent. That’s the difference between winning and losing. In the league we play in, you have to play every play because everybody you play is going to be good.
“You have to be disciplined, fundamental. Those are the things we’re concentrating on … things we’ve always talked about, but placing a little more emphasis on them.”
In addition to those football fundamentals, the Warner Robins coaches are using the spring to look at a more varied, multiple approach to the offense. There’s a chance fans will see some more throwing of the football, provided the team can find people to consistently make the catches. The offense will be run on a full-time basis for the first season by W.J. McAllister, who finished out last year at quarterback with four touchdown passes and 533 yards through the air.
His backup, getting some good spring work in according to Way, is Maurice Dudley.
“It’s an adjustment to a lot of our kids, but we’re getting better at it,” said Way. “That’s probably been the major change, to get more open offensively. Position-wise, no major changes.
“We still want to run the football. We’re going to base out of the wing, but will spread out more often. We’re not going to throw it 95 percent of the time. If there was only one way to be successful – one offense and one defense – everybody would do the same thing. It all comes down to execution.”
If there is one Warner Robins player to put on the front cover of any team publication, it would be rising senior kicker David Clark. The Clark legend began when he was a true freshman, and in three years alone he set the school record for points by a kicker with 181, made field goals with 23 and the longest field goal, a 52-yarder last season that eclipsed his own 50-yard length.
A standout soccer player as well, it still remains to be seen if Clark will ever be used in other capacities – such as receiver or free safety – on the football field. But his abilities should make him a ‘money’ kicker, meaning college scholarship money. For kickers, though, as Way explains, the road to college football is different from other position players.
“A lot of coaches don’t give scholarships to freshman kickers,” he said. “They’ll ask them to walk on, and maybe after a year put them on scholarship. Kicking in college is a lot different from kicking in high school. They kick off the ground, the goal posts are narrower, and a lot of (coaches) want them to come in for a year and see how they adjust.
“But I feel confident (Clark) will have a chance to go kick somewhere.”
During the off-season, Way and Warner Robins added a couple of new names to the schedule for the first two weeks of 2008. The campaign will start on the road against Wheeler High in Marietta, and week No. 2 is a home game against a perennial playoff contender, Grayson High of Gwinnett County.
Wheeler is undergoing a coaching change this year, and Way said the new boss is a former defensive coordinator who will likely put his best players on that side of the football.
“We don’t know a great deal about either one of them,” said Way. “I know Wheeler’s going to have real good athletes. I imagine they will continue to be pretty wide open on offense.
“Grayson has been to the second or third round of the playoffs the last couple of years. They will try to run the football and be physical. It’s two completely different attacks for the first two games, but it’s something we have to be ready for. In our region there are some who like to run the football, some who like to throw it and some who do both equally well.”
