Aug. 14—The preseason officially starts Friday for the Palestine Wildcats.
Palestine High School’s new Athletic Director and Head Football Coach James Reyes officially steps onto Wildcat Stadium field for the first time in a 4:30 p.m. scrimmage against the Jacksonville Indians.
The freshman and junior varsity will start the scrimmage, followed by the varsity around 6:30 p.m.
“Scrimmages are bonafide practices to me,” Reyes said. “We are going in and trying to get better at Palestine. We want to know where the kids are. I am not going to sit here and lie to anybody. We are switching from a Wing-T to a spread offense, so everybody is learning. The coaches are doing great and they are coaching. Coach (Lance) Angel did a great job of hiring staff members and I got lucky. I am reaping the benefits of having some great staff members.”
The details of the scrimmages are varsity will go 12 plays with the varsity offense and defense, followed by the second units. They will then do a goal-line session and follow with some kicking plays. After that, they will decide on a full half or a quarter.
“We will then talk and decide if we have seen enough, and if we have then we will cut it off,” Reyes said.
The Wildcats come into the scrimmage with some new faces in junior quarterback Rohyn Price, who is the son of offensive coordinator Daniel Price.
“Right now, this is Rohyn’s team. He has done a good job and he is learning,” Reyes said. “He is coming into a different offense and is getting better every single day. The good thing about coaches’ kids is they have been around it all of their life and they know about the surroundings of football itself. He is a coachable kid and we are excited about having him.”
At running back, they are led by a three-headed monster in senior Dreylon Spurlock, junior Harold White and senior Cannon Fussell.
“I always go into the year with multiple running backs,” Reyes said. “We did lose a good one and he is a great kid. You can’t go through a year with one guy. Each kid will go series for series. We will start off with those three and get the same amount of carries in the scrimmages.”
The biggest question is along the offensive line, as senior Baylynn Williams is the only returning starter.
“We are young with a starting sophomore center, sophomore guard, junior tackle and a junior guard,” Reyes said. “Baylynn is kind of the guy and he has been there for a while. He does well on the field and he has to be the senior leader on the young line.”
Jacksonville is coming off of an 0-10 season under coach Jason Holman in Class 5A, Division II. They are still trying to find a quarterback and have some solid pieces in place in other positions.
Holman lost 26 lettermen from last year’s team and has just six returning starters on both sides of the ball.
Reese Hicks will be a player to watch after accounting for 51 tackles last year at defensive back and 169 yards and three touchdowns at running back.
Reyes said they are not focused on what Jacksonville will show Friday, but just about the Wildcats getting better as a team.
“We are going to put a good product on the field week in and week out,” Reyes said. “We are going to play hard and go into every game with the mindset that we are going to win. We have a very good district and we put our pants on just the way they do and we are going to battle.”
