After 1-9 season, Clarksville banking on experience
CLARKSVILLE, Texas— Clarksville is banking on numbers and experience to help turn around the Blue Tigers in 2017.
After enduring a 1-9 season, the Blue Tigers have more kids out and depth at several positions that were thin last fall as they begin their new campaign.
“Having most of our players back with varsity experience is a plus,” Davis said. “They’ve really responded well so far, and we anticipate some pretty good things. They’ve shown they took that rough learning curve, and they’re a whole lot better now. The kids retained a lot from the spring.
“We got a couple players back who didn’t play last year, and that’s going to help us too.”
With so much experience back, with 15 lettermen, and seven offensive starters, six on defense, Davis and his coaching staff have already seen a difference early in fall camp.
“We’re ahead of where we were at this time last year,” Davis said. “We were weak up front on both sides of the football, and our offensive and defensive lines are going to be a strength for us this year. We’ve got enough bodies to be able to rotate and keep them from having to play all night long on both sides. The kids are talking a lot about winning; they want to win.
“After you go through a season like we did last year, they know we could’ve done some thing different, but at the same time they’re focused on doing better and stepping up to the plate.”
Senior Malcolm Woodberry (6-0, 155), junior running back/ linebacker Deont’e Tavie (5-11, 185), junior lineman Markeath Taylor (6-3, 230) and sophomore quarterback/DB Quay Scales (5-9, 155) have shown leadership qualities early on for Clarksville.
“Tavie rallies around the players, makes sure people are showing up to the weight room, making it to practice,” Davis said. “Markeath has really emerged as a leader for us. Our seniors have been doing a good job as well, but our underclassmen are extremely good leaders. We’ll have nine seniors, which is a bump up for us. It’s a good senior class, and they’re well-rounded, too.”
Taylor, senior Kyrie King (6-0, 225), junior Eric Zaavedra (5-11, 205), sophomore Brian Chavez (5-8, 185) and junior Quentin Jackson (5-9, 221) are expected to man the offensive line. Terence Titus and
freshmen Tyrone Hayes and Ardadrian Gray are also pushing for time on the line.
“They’re progressing well,” Davis said. “They understand that a couple of them start on both sides of the football, and we’ve told them that we’re going to make sure we take fresh. If we take thew mindset of playing every play as hard as we can, we’ve got some quality backups who can come in and keep us at a high level.
“We think we can wear some people down with having the luxury of depth, and quality depth.”
Woodberry and Tavie, who is returning to Clarksville after a year away, will share the load of running the football. Scales is expected to take over at quarterback.
“Malcolm and Tavie are pretty good backs, and we have a freshman who is pretty fast and explosive who will develop over time,” Davis said. “Ranzae Daniels (5-7, 150) also adds depth back there. We’ve been lacking depth at running back, and we’re pretty set at that position this year.”
Backing up Scales is Tavie at QB. Another transfer could also help and will see some snaps in a wildcat formation.
“We are a spread team, but we do have a tight end formation for the first time in a long time,” Davis said.
Sophomore Neo Scales (6-2, 210) will play tight end when called up, and also in the receiving corps. will be seniors LaTerrence Childs (6-3, 148), Adarius Ivory (5-11, 150) and LaVante Edwards (5-9, 160), all 4-year lettermen.
“We’ve also got some younger receivers, and having three seniors allows those guys to develop before they’re out there playing every snap,” Davis said. “We’ve got good numbers out. As far as linemen, we’ve got 13 linemen and two are seniors, so we fell good about that.”
Sophomore Thomas Harris (5-11, 275) joins Titus as one of the heaviest Blue Tigers and will man the nose guard position. Taylor returns at tackle, and King and Neo Scales will hold down the ends.
“Nose guard has been an Achilles’ heel for us, and we’ve solidified that with Thomas inside,” Davis said. “He can run and is a big, strong kid. He’s probably going to draw a lot of double teams, which is going to help Markeath, who is an athletic big man, and Kyrie the same way. This is the probably the first time we’ve had four down linemen who are all over 210, and going against some of these big teams we’ll be going against that will help.”
Tavie had 99 tackles as a freshman for Clarksville, moved to Sherman and played on the varsity as a sophomore, and he’s back at inside linebacker. Freshmen Grey and Jacqualein Dennis are vying for the other inside linebacker position.
Outside linebacker will be Woodberry and Ivory, and in the secondary Childs, Edwards and Quay Scales return. Quen Doolittle and sophomore Tra’Derrian Rose are competing for a spot in the secondary.
“We have a bitter taste in our mouth with a few of our losses that could’ve went either way,” Davis said. “At the same time, morale is up and focus is where it needs to be, as far as the kids and the coaches, and we feel pretty good about what we’ve got going on.”