The Lions Just Re-Load...
- Aug 24, 2016
- 3 min read
The 2016 high school football season is just a couple of days away and the Carterville Lions appear to be ready to roll.
This past Friday was the "Meet the Lions" night at Carterville High School, and meet the Lions we did as it was as good of an offensive showing as we've seen in several years. Now granted, this was a "soap scrimmage" as us old timers use to call it back in the day, but if this "O" continues into the regular season like they performed in the scrimmage, they will be a point scoring juggernaut.
I said coming into this season the main question for the Lions will be the play of the offensive and defensive lines. That's what was said last season as well, but as it turned out, it was injury bug that slowed Carterville at the beginning of the season.
Could we see a high school version of the "greatest show on turf" in Carterville this year? I don't know that I would go that far, but when you look at the skill positions the Lions are in great shape coming into the regular season.
Lions quarterback Harley Vaughn, in his junior season, was able to pick up valuable varsity playing time due to the injury to Blake Hicks. He is throwing the ball as well as any high school quarterback I've seen in several years. Again, if the offensive line can give #3 the time he needs to get the ball away, look out.
On the receiving side for the Lions, there will be plenty of good hands players that can run as well when they get the ball. Also, be on the lookout for Luke Ford this year. Luke participated in the Nick Saban football camp just a few weeks ago and was selected to the All-Saban team. I promise you, he learned lessons there that will be used all season long, and not just on the football field.
And as is always is with any Dennis Drust coached team (106-34 record), the running game sets the tone for the Lions offense and this year will not be any different. Brock Tuttle and Max Grey will start in the backfield and will give this Lions offense the punch they need to open up the passing game. Or will the passing game open up the running game for Carterville? We will have to wait and see.
We will find out this Friday as the Lions take on the Benton Rangers at home. Last year the Rangers won in overtime at Benton and set the tone for the beginning of the Lions season. In that game, turnovers and injuries by the Lions allowed Benton to get the week one upset. But as we all know, that is the key in every game during the season. Don't turn it over and let's bring everybody back healthy for next week's game. I can promise you this, the Lions will be a fun team to watch this year. Last year they finished at 6-4 for the season, which was fantastic given the 1-3 start they had.
As far as the broadcast go, you can hear every Carterville Lions game on NewsRadio WJPF AM 1340/1020 and you can even listen online at www.wjpf.com. This year we will continue live streaming all of the games on YouTube. This is something I started midway during the basketball season, and it was very well received. This year all of the Lions football and basketball games will be available on YouTube live-stream. You can go to my Carterville Lions 2016 page and keep up to date on all the Lions sports.
Athletic Director Brett Dial and the crew at the high school have done a great job of getting ready for the season as usual. And they have been incredibly supportive of the broadcast we do at WJPF. This year there is a new Carterville Athletics webpage you can find at www.CartervilleLionAthletics.org. This is a much better, user friendly Lions page and you can get all of the latest information on your Lions there. Plus, you will be able to find the link for the livestream posted there as well.
Thanks for reading! Go Lions!
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