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PalmettoPreps.com brings its readers more on the Chapin football squad as the team gets set to begin spring football.
Head coach Justin Gentry recently took time out of his schedule to break down his quad in advance of the opening of practice. What did we learn?
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The Eagles' front should be able to cause opposition some problems this season, considering offensive linemen like Josh Taylor and Thornton Gentry...
Gentry: "We've got a lot of returners on both sides of the ball. Offensively, our overall strength will be up front. We've got most of those guys back, pretty much all of them that started last year for us."
Quarterback Roger Pedroni has plenty of experience, and is a film junkie to boot. Chapin is going to bring a different look offensively this season...
Gentry: "He's the best quarterback I've coached in terms of watching film. He watches more film on the weekend than some of my coaches," he joked.
Last year we felt like with our young offensive line and our strength we wanted to take some pressure off of them, did more gap scheme stuff. We're going back to more of our run and gun, air raid mentality. The kids are excited about that."
What's the latest on the skill positions for the Eagles?
Gentry: "Jaylin Thomas, one of our leading receiver is back. We're going to have some holes to fill at the receiving department. Probably the best kept secret off last year's team was our receiver, Zavier Short. He started midseason for us and came on strong as the year progressed. We don't have many kids in our hallways with the ability he's got.
Running back's going to be a little up in the air. We've got Cooper Evans returning, he'll be the lone returner. Bennett Galloway's a young guy coming through. That's kind of open, they're going to fight it out. Cooper's real fast, quick, shifty and Bennett's going to bring a different aspect to it.
The team's defensive philosophy will be similar with some adjustments in the box. Plenty of experience is returning on that side of the football...
Gentry: "We're still going to be a 3-4 team. We're going to play a little different philosophy up front to play to some guys strengths a little bit. Other than James Wells which was a big loss for us, we have our whole linebacker corps back. We lost Jacob Drag up front, he got hurt midway through the year which allowed us to play a lot of this young guys. Garrett Huyck's a big anchor for us, he's going to play some offensive line for us but we've got to have him on defense.
Secondary could be the strongest it's been since I've been here. Right now we've got Will Stogner and Conner Lehmann, they'll be juniors but three year starters for us. Jordan Thomas is going to be fighting for one corner and Olajuwon Wilson. He's waited patiently for his turn and I think he's going to shine this year.
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