By Gene Stanley/Sports Correspondent
If there’s one word that Lee Ozmint likes to use to describe this season’s Glencoe High football team, it’s ‘speed.’
Another is ‘strength.’
Then there’s ‘competitive.’
“We’re going to be pretty inexperienced, which can be a recipe for disaster or for success,” Ozmint said. “It will depend on a number of things, including character, heart and leadership. They’ve got to come together quickly.
“I can instill some adversity in them in practice but true adversity will come from play.”
Ozmint said that the core group of the team has a lot of those little things that can create success.
Almost every position is going to be filled with fast players.
“We don’t have any 4.4 guys but a ton of 4.5 and 4.6 guys,” Ozmint said.
Some of the fast players that he mentioned are senior Logan Guest, junior Hunter Nunnally, Dylan Stone, Thomas Ozmint and Dalton Roberts and sophomores Taylor Daugherty, Andrew Lang, Pace Ozmint and Jacob Bradley.
At quarterback last season, Nunnally threw for 1,193 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Thomas Ozmint was the team’s leading rusher with 976 yards and four TDs.
“We’ve got several players in the backfield who can score from anywhere on the field,” Lee Ozmint said.
Ozmint called Guest “one of the fastest players I’ve ever coached.”
Ozmint also said that he hopes the passing game is improved to the point that foes won’t be able to stack the box against the run.
Then there’s Luke Mackey, a defensive lineman who runs a 4.9.
Junior linebacker Mason Brown led the team in tackles last year with 144 while adding 6.5 sacks. Pace Ozmint had 88 stops at safety last season, while senior linebacker Houston Word had 77 tackles.
Ozmint hopes to control his own destiny as far as the playoffs are concerned.
“Piedmont is always the favorite, always,” he said. “Then there are Saks and Weaver, which are always loaded with talent. Susan Moore, White Plains and Ashville should all be pretty good and in the hunt for a playoff spot.
“We’ve got the potential to do well (with a little luck) and we’ve got the potential to not making the playoffs at all.”
Assistant coaches are Brett Yancey, Charlie Robertson, Will Hill, Wes Weems, Jason Gilley, Tommy Stanley, Chris Sanders and Skylar Deerman.
For the complete 2013 Messenger Football Preview that includes team rosters, photos and schedules, purchase a copy of the Aug. 23 edition of The Messenger.