Carrollton's football boys compete in 7-on-7 matches in Jacksonville
JACKSONVILLE - The Carrollton Hawks are coming off a season in which they overachieved after losing 15 seniors from their state runner-up team in 2014.
Only two starters returned on both sides of the ball and had a completely new offensive and defensive line.
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They only went 10-2, won the WIVC South for the fourth season in a row by going undefeated, and made it to the quarterfinals for the third time in four seasons.
“We’re having a great summer so far and we have some great players to replace again,” Carrollton head coach, Nick Flowers said. “Out of those 11 I think Cole Brannan is a name that is going to be very, very hard to replace. I don’t know if you can replace a kid like Cole so we just hope that we have some younger players to step up and shine in their own ways.”
This past Thursday the Hawks played against the Williamsville Bullets (Class 3A) and the Jacksonville Crimsons (Class 5A) at a 7-on-7 competition at Illinois College in Jacksonville.
“I think we’ve been just as competitive if not more competitive than we’ve been in the past with 7-on-7s. We’re facing bigger schools. We feel like if we can face as much speed as we can in the summer, we get in the regular season we probably won’t see that much speed. You can always adjust down, but it’s hard to adjust up to a faster team.”
The signal caller for the Hawks will be Wade Prough.
The senior is coming off a strong season where he threw for just under 2,000 yards, while throwing 25 touchdowns.
Flowers is expecting more of the same out of Prough and then some.
“We’re counting a lot on Wade (Prough) and coming back as a senior we’re counting on him to get the ball where it needs to be. We feel like if we can place the ball in those open windows we have some kids that can catch it.”
The other big name out of the team is running back and linebacker, Jerrett Smith.
Unfortunately, Smith has been sidelined for some time during the summer with multiple injuries, including his meniscus.
The good news is that he should be ready to go again by the time the Hawks participate in their next 7-on-7.
When he gets back onto the field, Smith will most likely be a handful and potentially some newcomers.
“I think you’ll here his name a lot running the football.” We’re going to mix it up in the run game with Jerrett and a newcomer we have, Byron Holmes.
A sophomore, Holmes (last listed at 5’8”, 155 pounds) played sporadically for the Hawks in 2015, but will probably see a lot of the field from here on out. Coach Flowers labeled him as “very explosive” and compared him to a couple of big time players.
“He’ll get quite a few carries. He reminds me of a lot of Cole Brannan or maybe even some of the elusiveness that Luke Palan had,” Flowers said. “It’s hard to compare kids to Cole or Luke, but if anybody could replace those two it would be him.”
Carrollton returns almost all of their wide receivers from last season that will look to wreak havoc on defenses in the WIVC.
“Jayce (Arnett) was one of our leading receivers early on in the season last year and he hurt his knee against Greenfield. We’re very excited to have him back.”
Another sophomore that Flowers praised was Nathan Walker, who has proved his worth in baseball, but is poised to breakout on the gridiron as well.
“He’s very athletic,” Flowers said. “He will be one of those sophomores that we can put there at any of our receiver spots where he’ll make plays.
Another new addition to the offense will be senior, Jacob Stendeback, however he wasn’t available this time around because he is currently in Europe on a student trip.
“Stendeback is going to be playing some tight end for us. It’ll be nice to have a target like him to throw the ball at. He’s had a great off-season. Very strong with good hands.”
With Stendeback in the mix, Flowers looks to add a new dimension to the Hawks already highly potent spread offense.
“Being able to go with a tight end set, probably a tight end with multiple receivers will help our running game as well. “I’m definitely happy with what I’ve seen so far,” Flowers said.
The Hawks will be in action in Carrollton for their annual Hawk Pride 7-on-7 on July 16 and will be at the Maroa-Forsyth 7-on-7 the following week.
Carrollton will close out July with a week-long team camp and then will re-join for two-a-days starting in early August.
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