Parkland’s past success in rear-view mirror
Parkland’s string of six straight District 11 football titles ended in 2018.
With no key holdovers from those past championship squads, the 2019 Trojans want to forge their own identity.
A slow start to preseason camp gave way to Parkland’s best session yet Thursday as it completed the fourth of its five heat acclimation practices. Coach Tim Moncman expects the Trojans to continue striving for improvement after they slid to 7-5 overall and 4-4 in the EPC South last season.
“Winning the six in a row, complacency set in a little bit as much as you try to keep that away from it,” Moncman said. “The way they’ve attacked the whole offseason is a different focus I think.”
Added tight end-defensive end Jalon Perkins: “We’re pushing a hard reset. All those teams were continuations of each other. Those sophomore and junior classes saw those seniors, and we didn’t have that. We’re younger. We didn’t have those same all-state kids.
“This is a whole new Parkland. We have to play different. We have to think different.”
Learning a new offense is priority No. 1 for preseason camp.
The Trojans’ past few teams relied on size and power to move the football.
Parkland will shift toward the spread attack it ran at the start of its District 11 title streak, when first Tim Baranak and then current Virginia senior Devante Cross ran the offense.
Chris Kinane has returned to Moncman’s staff as offensive coordinator after Bret Comp headed back to Wilson. Kinane last served as Whitehall’s offensive coordinator.
“We work well together,” Moncman said. “We’ll be a little more fast-paced. We’ll have multiple packages. The kids are grasping it. It’s a little shock to their system with some of the stuff we’re doing, but we’ll get it down. I’m not worried about it.”
An offensive line led by Penn State recruit Nick Dawkins should give Parkland the chance to compete with anyone up front. The Trojans also have depth at running back.
They haven’t settled on their quarterback. Senior Tanner Lewis returns after starting eight games as a junior, but Moncman said three other players will compete with Lewis through next week’s scrimmage at Wilson-West Lawn.
While its offensive identity will change, Parkland’s defense will stay similar to past units. Perkins should be one of the stalwarts after bulking up to 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds.
“Defensively, we’re more of a brute team,” Perkins said. “We emphasized less speed this year. We all got stronger this year definitely in the offseason. We’re going to rely on that to create a new line of scrimmage with the defensive line and fill a lot of holes.”