JONESBOROUGH – The Chuckey-Doak football team went to David Crockett on Wednesday afternoon for a 7-on-7 scrimmage and came back feeling good how they handled themselves in their first competition after the TSSAA’s two-week dead period.
“I’m very happy today, especially with it being our first 7-on-7 and coming out of the dead period,” Chuckey-Doak coach Billy Kaylor said. “I thought offensively we did some good things, and we were much crisper than we have been. We were competing for the football on both sides of the ball, and I was really happy to see that.”
The Black Knights are now just over six weeks away from their regular season opener against North Greene, but before that Kaylor knows his team still has work to do.
“We need to continue to be crisp, and communicate better,” Kaylor said. “We need to make sure we know our concepts and our assignments. Then how our physicality progresses up front on both sides of the ball will be huge in determining our success this year.”
Wednesday was Chuckey-Doak’s first chance to work against another opponent since the dead period ended. The big thing Kaylor was looking for out of the scrimmage was to see how his squad competed when lining up across from another uniform, but he also wanted to test his young squad’s grasp of the playbook in a game-like scenario.
“First we are looking for them compete,” Kaylor said. “We have been very intentional in the spring and early summer about working on install. We are still pretty young, and we still have some growing to do. But I wasn’t having to do a lot coaching on the field, and it seemed like most of it stuck over the dead period. That really helps us as the season approaches, because we seem to be understanding the concepts.”
The Black Knights did more than compete on Wednesday, they made plenty of big plays on both sides of the ball with a handful of interceptions on defense and long touchdown passes on offense. That was something that had Kaylor excited leaving Jonesborough as several different players made plays on both sides of the ball. That included veterans like Dominic Hahnlan, Brayden Greene and William Johnson, as well as young guys like Marcus Britt, Jaden Britt and Skylar Davis.
The standout on Wednesday was senior Dom Atchison who missed most of last season because of injury. He split time at quarterback, receiver and defensive back against David Crockett and made plays at all spots. In addition to his athleticism Atchison’s leadership was evident as he spent much of the afternoon instructing and encouraging his younger teammates on both sides of the ball.
“He is such a dynamic athlete and it’s great to have him back out here. He has really stepped up as a leader of this team. As a receiver and quarterback he will be an important part of what we do. He has made big strides in the weight room, and it shows,” Kaylor said.
The Knights return another quarterback with starting experience in sophomore Kiptyn Ball, but he was not at Wednesday’s scrimmage. Kaylor has not decided who will start behind center week one, but he is pleased with how both have performed in the offseason.
A year ago the Black Knights took some lumps with a young team in a 1-9 season, but now those young players have a lot of experience under their belts. It showed on Wednesday and Kaylor is hopeful that their experience will show on Friday nights this fall.
“We have a lot of guys that are a year ahead of where they would have been,” Kaylor said. “They don’t realize right now but those guys getting that much experience last year will play huge dividends down the road. Even though it was a struggle at times, experience is the best teacher.”
