Parkers Chapel aiming for 2021 turnaround
A year ago, Parkers Chapel won its first playoff game since 2010, but the Trojans struggled in 2020, winning only two games to match its lowest win total since 2008.
“Disappointed for us going 2-8,” Parkers Chapel coach Elliot Jacobs said. “We weren’t able to reach our goals. As the head coach, that’s my fault. That’s not getting us ready to go each week. We need to do a better job in the offseason with our kids, and that’s something we’ve talked about and our kids know that.
“They were disappointed, but at the same time, we kind of got to not really finish our season, but we got play a full 10-game schedule and a lot of people didn’t, so we’re happy we were able to compete and give our seniors some games to play.”
The Trojans made the playoffs for the 11th time in program history thanks to knocking off Strong for the fourth straight year, but Parkers Chapel will enter the 2021 season with a new quarterback with All-Conference selection Trace Shoup graduating.
“By far our best athlete,” Jacobs said. “He’s a better receiver for us, but he did what we needed him to do. We needed him to play quarterback, and he did a pretty decent job for us. We’re going to miss him defensively.”
Jacobs said Chris Greer and Lancer Clark are the top candidates for the job.
Clark, who will be a senior next year, was one of five All-Conference selections for the Trojans.
“Just a tremendous athlete for us doing it receiving-wise, and we expect him to have a bigger role next year,” Jacobs said.
Greer, who will be a junior next year, got some work in at quarterback prior to Shoup taking over.
“It’s something we’re going to look at,” Jacobs said. “Between him and Lancer Clark, Lancer is going to get the majority of the reps because he’s not in basketball right now and he doesn’t play baseball, so he’s going to get a lot of our offseason reps, but at the same time, we’ve got to have two guys ready to go in case something were to happen, so we’re looking at Lancer and Chris.”
Jacobs lauded the tandem for their athletic ability.
“They’re similar to what they can do,” Jacobs said. “Neither one of them are the best throwers in the world, but they’re both very athletic. We just have to do a good job as coaches of teaching them proper mechanics and spreading the ball out so that defenses just can’t focus on who is at quarterback. We don’t expect either one of them to be like what Caleb (Jacobs) was, but we see a similar type of athlete those two guys can be.”
In addition to losing Shoup, the Trojans will also be losing All-Conference running back Edison Thompson to graduation as well.
“He did a good job later in the year of running the football for us,” Jacobs said. “He started to play more defense and did a real good job there. We’re expecting him to have a shot to play at a small college or maybe walk-on at a UCA or something like that.”
Jacobs said trying to find replacements for the departing skill players will be a key to the Trojans’ offseason.
“We’re losing a lot of our skill kids,” Jacobs said. “Obviously, we’re losing our top running back, two of our top receivers, so it’s a deal where skill-kid wise, we’re lacking right now. We’ve got to do a good job in the weight room and get bigger, faster and stronger and then find out who can make plays for us and figure out ways to get them the ball.”
The Trojans will also be losing a major part of their offensive line with All-Conference selection
Payten Tompkins graduating.
“By far the most improved player that we've ever had,” Jacobs said. “His junior year, we had an opposing coach tell us that their job was to attack him on defense. They didn't feel like he wasn't any good. This year, that same coach said, ‘OK, we didn't want to go to that guy. He's the one guy we wanted to stay away from.' He really bought into the program. I'm very proud of what he's done.”
Two-way standout Blake Caldwell capped his career with the Trojans by earning All-Conference honors, and Jacobs had plenty of praise for the senior.
“Blake Caldwell was probably our best all-around player this year,” Jacobs said. “He led us defensively and he made some plays offensively when he was able to get in there. He's a guy that we're going to miss.”
Jacobs said next year's team will rely heavily on sophomores and juniors.
“Next year, our numbers are going to be real low,” Jacobs said. “We won't have a big senior class. It's not like there's kids walking the halls. There's just not a lot of kids in that class. It's the same thing with the freshman class, so we're going to be junior-, sophomore-heavy next year. As a coach, you don't like that, but at the same time at our level, we've got to play with who is out there. Each year is interesting. This will be one to see what these guys can do. Hopefully during spring ball, we'll have a better idea and then make our adjustments after that.”