By Donald Heath
Special for the Effingham Herald
SPRINGFIELD – Effingham County football coach John Ford wants to see who is going to step up once the lights come on.
The Rebels play host to Wayne County in a scrimmage Aug. 8 at Rebel Field, providing a dress rehearsal for ECHS’ season-opener with Houston County on Aug. 23.
“We’d like to get plenty of good work for as many kids as we can,” said Ford, whose squad is coming off a region championship for the first time since 1995.
But the region Player of the Year AJ Butts has gone to Mercer University and the region Offensive Player of the Year Nate Hayes has graduated and is studying at Georgia Tech.
The Rebels lost Jameaz Cope, another key defensive playmaker at outside linebacker, and nose guard Anselm Green to Peru State.
“Wayne will run a bunch of different formations and sets and personnel groups at us and they’ll be well-coached so it’s a great test to see where we are,” Ford said.
Shoring up the defense will be paramount. ECHS surrendered about 30 points a game during the final five games of 2023, including 47 to Lovejoy in a first-round state playoff loss.
Ford said he’ll be watching the battles at middle linebacker where Devaughn Jones, Duff Davis and John Baker are competing for Butts’ spot.
On the outside, Te’Andre Watkins and Jordan Galinovsky are fighting for Cope’s spot.
The defensive secondary will have several new faces as well as Ford continues his practice of playing wide receivers and defensive backs interchangeably.
On offense, junior Tucker Perkins steps into the spotlight at quarterback. Ford said he hopes to get three quarterbacks work.
“We’ll have a new quarterback, center and tight end so we’re excited to see how they’ll handle the live bullets,” Ford said.
Under Georgia High School Association rules, players were allowed to put on full pads on July 27 after completing an acclimation period.
Tuesday morning, (July 30) the second day in pads, Ford said practices have been spirited.
“They’ve been practicing physically and hard,” Ford said. “Day 1 everyone is excited. Day 2 your legs are a little heavy. You’re a little sore. The enthusiasm of Day 1 has worn off so (as coaches) you want to create a lot of mentally stressful situations to force them to lock in and compete at a high level.”
Ford expects Wayne County to be a good test. The Yellow Jackets (7-4 a year ago) finished second in Class 4A, Region 3 behind Benedictine and advanced to the state tournament.
Wayne returns its starting quarterback Jeb Craven (an 1,100-yard passer), but graduated an 1,800-yard running back.
