The last few seasons have been rough for the Gordon Central Warriors so they are looking at 2016 as a new start or a new era.
The Warriors are moving back down to Class AA after spending four years in AAA and winning just two games in the last three seasons, and they are hoping the change will help them be more competitive against rosters roughly the same size as theirs.
But that’s not the only thing they’re banking on. A new attitude and commitment has been evident in the players according to David Humphreys, who is going into his fourth season at the helm. He said there have been many indications over the past offseason that things are changing for the better.
“The biggest thing is our attendance during the summer,” said Humphreys. “We doubled our attendance from the year prior. It’s still not where we want it to be, but it’s a lot better. Another thing is the kids are doing a better job communicating with us and letting us know where they are and what they’re doing. They’ve also begun to see that there are consequences for doing things the wrong way, and a lot of that comes from the players holding each other accountable. That started in the weight room. The kids have been committed in there, and you can see the results. They’re more confident because of that.”
Along with those indications, the size of the roster is another positive. Last season, the Warriors had around 30 players total, and many of the starters played for the majority of the game on both sides of the ball. They’ve almost doubled that number to start 2016 with close to 60 players, which makes a huge difference depthwise and also having more bodies to get work done at practice.
Humphreys said he’s not only seen numbers go up from a roster standpoint, but there’s also been a clear change in the physical attributes of many of those players due to their commitment in the weight room and conditioning overall.
“This summer was real productive for us,” said Humphreys. “I was a little nervous about things because renovation in the weight room took a little longer than we expected so we had to go to some alternative training methods. But these guys paid the price, and we feel like we’re in as good a shape right now as we’ve been in the past four years. And with our attendance over the summer, we’re able to coach up to the guys in the preseason rather than coaching down to catch guys up on what they missed like previous years.”
The Warriors will return an experienced quarterback to the starting spot this season with junior Martavius Harris entering his second full season as the firststring signal-caller and third season overall after seeing limited time two years ago. Humphreys said Harris has come a long way in taking some of the coach’s doubts away after an up-anddown spring, and he feels good about where the quarterback is going into the season.
“Coming out of the spring, I was a little disappointed with him, and we had a conversation about it,” said Humphreys. “He’s an emotional player, and sometimes when he was down, it affected his teammates. But he’s worked extremely hard to improve his leadership and attitude. He worked really hard this summer to learn when to speak and when not to speak, and he’s made great efforts to fix those deficiencies I was worried about. He’s been spending and will need to spend more time mentally in the game, and I think that will make him a much smarter quarterback this season.”
At the skill positions, the Warriors have as much depth as they’ve had in recent memory, especially at the running back position with starter Branson Towe back for his junior year and several other capable running backs, including Alex Abat and Cameron Pierce. Receivers expected to contribute are Jordon Green, Christopher Gibson, Dalton Freeman among others.
“Going into the season, we feel like we’ve got better depth at the skill spots, and that should help Martavius and Branson not have to shoulder so much of the load,” said Humphreys. “I think we’ve got some running backs that can carry it several times a game and some receivers that can do some stuff we haven’t had recently. There’s a few more working parts so defenses won’t be able to key on one guy as much. We’ve missed that the last several years.”
Blaize Goss will lead the