'12 Team Preview: Hillsboro Indians
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
The 2012 season is a new, fresh beginning for the Hillsboro Indians as they look to learn from a very rough '11 season and look to make great strides in the coming months to improve a program that wants to build positive consistency.
One big difference for the '12 squad is the Indians have experience as many of the Hillsboro squad was forced to play the '11 season as freshmen and sophomores, going from eighth grade football to the varsity level of the South Central Ohio League, leading to the Indians' 2-8 overall mark and 2-4 record in the league.
This year, the overall numbers for Hillsboro for each class have improved.
"We're kind of evened out with all our classes," Hillsboro head coach Brian Spicer said, entering his fourth season at the helm of the Indians. "There's 12 seniors, 12 juniors, 14 sophomores and then 12 freshmen.
"I knew when I got hired that last year's numbers were going to be down, and we'd hoped to get them back up," Spicer said. "Honestly, this was another year that we were worried about that, but we got a few more kids out that maybe had taken a year or two off. If we get 20 kids per class, we're as good as anybody for any Division III school, but realistically, we should be closer to the 15 mark, and right now we're taking a big step that way. I was really impressed with the numbers all throughout the summer."
Spicer continued to talk about the overall effort of building a solid, consistent program.
"We have a full varsity squad that I think is going to be a level or two deep and a JV squad that's going to be a level or two deep. We haven't had that kind of depth really since my first year, so actually right now, it's nice to see that," Spicer said. "You build, you build, you build … you work, you work, you work … and to say it's going to happen, it's going to happen, you ask for patience and everybody's looking at you like 'OK.' But you know, it's paid off.
"It's the fourth year I've been here, and to me, that's when you want to start seeing those things. If you step in and everything's great, that's one thing, but when you come in and you try to rebuild some things, it takes a bit of time. I think we're right there on the doorstep."
Hillsboro lost 12 seniors from last season, but of those, only three played all four seasons in the program. Last year, HHS entered the season with no linemen that had varsity experience, while they had skill position players who had played varsity games … this year is different.
"The big thing is we're kind of a role reversal of last year, where last year we had a lot of skill guys that played but no linemen. Well, this year all the linemen are back – we didn't lose any linemen, we had no senior linemen last year, but now we're trying to place the skill guys," Spicer said. "I think we have some good skill guys in here, but we don't have guys that have had a lot of experience as far as playing, except for our sophomores.
"Our sophomores as freshmen last year were playing quite a bit. We have moved some guys around, but they've been here all summer working hard. I tell you, they're clicking where they need to be right now. Even if they had been playing two or three years in the positions they were, I don't think they'd be any further ahead than where they are right now."
As for the Hillsboro offensive line, they return Ethan Emery (center), Skylar Murphy (guard), Zach Brown (tackle), Todd Adkins (guard) and Zach Stacy (tackle).
"Every one of those guys played last year at the same positions," Spicer said. "We've got some depth, though. We have guys who played on and off. We have Phillip Hall, who played last year as a guard, coming in and out. I've got Chad Walker, Jordan Mosley, all these guys also played. We literally are two deep in every position in guys who played last year."
As Spicer said before, they are replacing running backs, wide receivers and the quarterback from last year. Penciled in at quarterback is sophomore Logan Lesley, who was injured (broken leg) during the first game of the year last season vs. Western Brown.
"He was our best skill guy as a freshman last year, and we missed him all year. We've got him playing quarterback a little bit, taking some snaps there, and he's only a sophomore, so that's where our skill depth is," Spicer said. "We have no senior quarterbacks, no junior quarterbacks. We have to go that far down, but he's pretty good, so it's no big deal."
Playing at wide receiver will be Zach Young (who started as a freshman), as he replaced Lesley last season after he was injured. Also returning to the program after one year away is junior Kordell Ford, who as a freshman was one of the more productive players on the Hillsboro team. Also at running back will be Kyler White and Craig Jackson, who is a fullback. Some new faces in the starting lineup or getting a good deal of playing time for HHS will be Jeremy Crider, Michael Sulton (transfer from Wilmington) and Drew Huffman.
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"We've got Kordell [Ford] back, which is big for us. As a freshman, he lettered for us and did pretty good, so we're looking forward to him coming back and doing some good things on the back field as well," Spicer said.
"So again, three guys (Crider, Sulton and Huffman) that don't have a lot of experience as far as positions we are going to have them play but have been on the varsity field. I think the game itself won't be as scary to them. We've just got to make sure they are learning the plays and can do the things we want them to do."
With the experience from last season, Spicer said his team isn't scared of the competition anymore.
"It's really funny, it's like night and day. Experience is everything at this level. It really is," Spicer said of the difference of last season and now. "You have freshmen who came in that are athletes and good players, but until they get out there on Friday night, it's a different game. You go from eighth grade to Friday night … I mean, that is a huge change.
"Some of these guys struggle with the speed of the game at the JV level because that's a big change. We always say the JV game to the varsity game is another big step, so we have guys taking double steps and triple steps, and last year that was rough. We knew it was going to be. We asked them to hang tough. We knew we were going to take our lumps. Here we come out here for our camp days, and we did stuff in July that we weren't doing in Week 8 last year. We are way ahead of where we were. This is not the same kind of team as it was last year."
The way the offense is set up this season is pretty much how the defense is as well, with the defensive line having the most experience on the field.
"We've got a lot of guys back. A lot of guys saw a lot of action. I think again, it mirrors our offense, where the guys up front have all the experience," Spicer said. "Our defensive line has pretty much everybody back, and then our linebacking corps is going to be new.
"We have some guys stepping up who have to play those spots. When you look at our offensive line and flip it over, it's the same. A lot of those guys who were running, playing the running backs, are filling in at linebacker, and our receivers are filling in at defensive back. The weird thing is because we had the defensive backs who were young – I mean, Zach Young and Logan were both starters on defense last year as freshmen – well, they're back. So we have some young guys over there, but they have experience."
Spicer said on defense, the Indians must stop the run.
"We're just going to line up in our normal looks and basically ask the guys up front to control the line of scrimmage and the other guys, run to the ball. We've got to stop the run, and in our league, that's still the number-one thing, there's no doubt about that," he said. "We got to find a way to get nine guys the ball, 10 guys, 11 guys, and just swarm and gang tackle and play good team defense. We don't have any standout guys going to do all the work for us."
Some of the players who will be looked at to make those stops on defense will be Jackson and Huffman being the top defensive linemen. Murphy, Brown, Mosley and Emery will play a lot more defense this year. Adkins, who played all last year at defensive end, also returns.
Sulton will play at one of the corner spots, and Avery Ventura probably will play a lot at the other corner, according to Spicer.
"Really, with that said, every one of those guys has a backup ready to play as well," Spicer said. "You've got Kyler White, who is going to play running back on offense, but he's going to come in and play some linebacker on defense. He could easily play safety as well; he played that last year.
"I wouldn't be surprised that you see closer to 20 guys playing on defense, rather than just the 11 guys you saw on offense. We are going to rotate guys in and out. I don't think we lose a beat with the depth that we have, which really, even three years ago, we didn't have."
With the season around one week away, Spicer said the enthusiasm is unmatched, and his players are finally enjoying the sport.
"It's about how many guys are coming out, how many guys are willing to work, how many guys are going to line up beside you and work to be good, and that's the biggest difference," Spicer said. "All summer, guys have been working harder than I've seen. When they want to be good, that makes it a lot more fun to be a coach. You can see the difference in that group as far as that. The hunger's there. As a coach, you just sit back and coach."
One big difference for the '12 squad is the Indians have experience as many of the Hillsboro squad was forced to play the '11 season as freshmen and sophomores, going from eighth grade football to the varsity level of the South Central Ohio League, leading to the Indians' 2-8 overall mark and 2-4 record in the league.
This year, the overall numbers for Hillsboro for each class have improved.
"We're kind of evened out with all our classes," Hillsboro head coach Brian Spicer said, entering his fourth season at the helm of the Indians. "There's 12 seniors, 12 juniors, 14 sophomores and then 12 freshmen.
"I knew when I got hired that last year's numbers were going to be down, and we'd hoped to get them back up," Spicer said. "Honestly, this was another year that we were worried about that, but we got a few more kids out that maybe had taken a year or two off. If we get 20 kids per class, we're as good as anybody for any Division III school, but realistically, we should be closer to the 15 mark, and right now we're taking a big step that way. I was really impressed with the numbers all throughout the summer."
Spicer continued to talk about the overall effort of building a solid, consistent program.
"We have a full varsity squad that I think is going to be a level or two deep and a JV squad that's going to be a level or two deep. We haven't had that kind of depth really since my first year, so actually right now, it's nice to see that," Spicer said. "You build, you build, you build … you work, you work, you work … and to say it's going to happen, it's going to happen, you ask for patience and everybody's looking at you like 'OK.' But you know, it's paid off.
"It's the fourth year I've been here, and to me, that's when you want to start seeing those things. If you step in and everything's great, that's one thing, but when you come in and you try to rebuild some things, it takes a bit of time. I think we're right there on the doorstep."
Hillsboro lost 12 seniors from last season, but of those, only three played all four seasons in the program. Last year, HHS entered the season with no linemen that had varsity experience, while they had skill position players who had played varsity games … this year is different.
"The big thing is we're kind of a role reversal of last year, where last year we had a lot of skill guys that played but no linemen. Well, this year all the linemen are back – we didn't lose any linemen, we had no senior linemen last year, but now we're trying to place the skill guys," Spicer said. "I think we have some good skill guys in here, but we don't have guys that have had a lot of experience as far as playing, except for our sophomores.
"Our sophomores as freshmen last year were playing quite a bit. We have moved some guys around, but they've been here all summer working hard. I tell you, they're clicking where they need to be right now. Even if they had been playing two or three years in the positions they were, I don't think they'd be any further ahead than where they are right now."
As for the Hillsboro offensive line, they return Ethan Emery (center), Skylar Murphy (guard), Zach Brown (tackle), Todd Adkins (guard) and Zach Stacy (tackle).
"Every one of those guys played last year at the same positions," Spicer said. "We've got some depth, though. We have guys who played on and off. We have Phillip Hall, who played last year as a guard, coming in and out. I've got Chad Walker, Jordan Mosley, all these guys also played. We literally are two deep in every position in guys who played last year."
As Spicer said before, they are replacing running backs, wide receivers and the quarterback from last year. Penciled in at quarterback is sophomore Logan Lesley, who was injured (broken leg) during the first game of the year last season vs. Western Brown.
"He was our best skill guy as a freshman last year, and we missed him all year. We've got him playing quarterback a little bit, taking some snaps there, and he's only a sophomore, so that's where our skill depth is," Spicer said. "We have no senior quarterbacks, no junior quarterbacks. We have to go that far down, but he's pretty good, so it's no big deal."
Playing at wide receiver will be Zach Young (who started as a freshman), as he replaced Lesley last season after he was injured. Also returning to the program after one year away is junior Kordell Ford, who as a freshman was one of the more productive players on the Hillsboro team. Also at running back will be Kyler White and Craig Jackson, who is a fullback. Some new faces in the starting lineup or getting a good deal of playing time for HHS will be Jeremy Crider, Michael Sulton (transfer from Wilmington) and Drew Huffman.
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"We've got Kordell [Ford] back, which is big for us. As a freshman, he lettered for us and did pretty good, so we're looking forward to him coming back and doing some good things on the back field as well," Spicer said.
"So again, three guys (Crider, Sulton and Huffman) that don't have a lot of experience as far as positions we are going to have them play but have been on the varsity field. I think the game itself won't be as scary to them. We've just got to make sure they are learning the plays and can do the things we want them to do."
With the experience from last season, Spicer said his team isn't scared of the competition anymore.
"It's really funny, it's like night and day. Experience is everything at this level. It really is," Spicer said of the difference of last season and now. "You have freshmen who came in that are athletes and good players, but until they get out there on Friday night, it's a different game. You go from eighth grade to Friday night … I mean, that is a huge change.
"Some of these guys struggle with the speed of the game at the JV level because that's a big change. We always say the JV game to the varsity game is another big step, so we have guys taking double steps and triple steps, and last year that was rough. We knew it was going to be. We asked them to hang tough. We knew we were going to take our lumps. Here we come out here for our camp days, and we did stuff in July that we weren't doing in Week 8 last year. We are way ahead of where we were. This is not the same kind of team as it was last year."
The way the offense is set up this season is pretty much how the defense is as well, with the defensive line having the most experience on the field.
"We've got a lot of guys back. A lot of guys saw a lot of action. I think again, it mirrors our offense, where the guys up front have all the experience," Spicer said. "Our defensive line has pretty much everybody back, and then our linebacking corps is going to be new.
"We have some guys stepping up who have to play those spots. When you look at our offensive line and flip it over, it's the same. A lot of those guys who were running, playing the running backs, are filling in at linebacker, and our receivers are filling in at defensive back. The weird thing is because we had the defensive backs who were young – I mean, Zach Young and Logan were both starters on defense last year as freshmen – well, they're back. So we have some young guys over there, but they have experience."
Spicer said on defense, the Indians must stop the run.
"We're just going to line up in our normal looks and basically ask the guys up front to control the line of scrimmage and the other guys, run to the ball. We've got to stop the run, and in our league, that's still the number-one thing, there's no doubt about that," he said. "We got to find a way to get nine guys the ball, 10 guys, 11 guys, and just swarm and gang tackle and play good team defense. We don't have any standout guys going to do all the work for us."
Some of the players who will be looked at to make those stops on defense will be Jackson and Huffman being the top defensive linemen. Murphy, Brown, Mosley and Emery will play a lot more defense this year. Adkins, who played all last year at defensive end, also returns.
Sulton will play at one of the corner spots, and Avery Ventura probably will play a lot at the other corner, according to Spicer.
"Really, with that said, every one of those guys has a backup ready to play as well," Spicer said. "You've got Kyler White, who is going to play running back on offense, but he's going to come in and play some linebacker on defense. He could easily play safety as well; he played that last year.
"I wouldn't be surprised that you see closer to 20 guys playing on defense, rather than just the 11 guys you saw on offense. We are going to rotate guys in and out. I don't think we lose a beat with the depth that we have, which really, even three years ago, we didn't have."
With the season around one week away, Spicer said the enthusiasm is unmatched, and his players are finally enjoying the sport.
"It's about how many guys are coming out, how many guys are willing to work, how many guys are going to line up beside you and work to be good, and that's the biggest difference," Spicer said. "All summer, guys have been working harder than I've seen. When they want to be good, that makes it a lot more fun to be a coach. You can see the difference in that group as far as that. The hunger's there. As a coach, you just sit back and coach."