Morgan County concludes spring practice this week before hosting Walnut Grove for a scrimmage on Friday night.
The Bulldogs and Warriors will square off at 7:30 p.m. in Bill Corry Stadium.
MCHS head coach Clint Jenkins is entering his second year with the program.
He said that his squad is looking a lot more put together compared to this time last year.
“I didn’t get here until April of last year, and the coaches I brought with me from Gwinnett (County) didn’t arrive until the summer,” Jenkins said. “So, this has been our first real offseason. Between our core value meetings are SAQs, our numbers for those events were in the high-80s, which is great for a (Class) AAA school.”
He added that there wasn’t even enough equipment when spring practice started.
“Our numbers are great,” Jenkins said. “A lot of guys are getting more involved. As a matter of fact, we didn’t have nearly enough equipment, which is a good problem. These kids are finally getting to see what we’re trying to do here.”
Jenkins highlighted that having his players go through a full offseason raises expectations.
“We’re pretty big on accountability,” he said. “These kids understand that. As I said, it’s been a great spring, but we’ve still got a long way to go. There are still some areas that we will continue to work on. But the overall feel and attitude of our kids has been great. I am really excited for us to take the next step.”
Jenkins said that the expectations for spring camp are all about getting each player better.
“First and foremost, spring is always about evaluating your players,” Jenkins said. “It will continue into the summer, as far as setting the depth chart, getting in the weight room and going through padded camps in the next few months. Spring launches you into all that. You get 10 days with them in pads to assess things. It gives you a blueprint to work off of in the summer.”
One of the biggest additions in the offseason for Morgan County, in terms of evaluation, was a highquality drone camera. It is manually operated by several different coaches and films every snap of the Bulldogs’ practices.
Jenkins acknowledged that having the drone camera hover over the practices helps the coaching staff and player notice things when they go to watch film.
“We watch a lot of tape, he said. “It’s different for the kids, but it helps them out a lot.”
Over the offseason, the most important characteristic that Jenkins wants his team to improve on is toughness.
He said that toughness is vital for any team to possess in order to succeed.
“I’m going to shoot it straight, we need to be tougher, and that’s an every year thing,” Jenkins said. “I want to be one of those teams that either win, lose, or draw, I hope the other team says, ‘man they were physical and w don’t want to play them again.’”
Jenkins led Dacula to two semifinal appearances and two region titles during his tenure, so he knows success, and wants to carry that over to Morgan County.
He said the Bulldogs have bought into that way of thinking since he arrived.
“That’s going to be our mentality,” Jenkins said. “Obviously, we want to win every game, but we need to get to a point where we are mentally and physically tougher. Those are the things we are looking for in terms of evaluation.”
The Bulldogs finished last season with a 4-7 overall record and a 3-3 mark in Region 4-AAA play. However, they made the state playoffs but lost to Peach County in the first round.
Jenkins and his coaching staff are hoping for a better result in year two.
“We have our core values set and our players know what is important,” Jenkins said. “It goes from body language all the way to technique. We feel like we have a good system in place to evaluate our kids and that’s what spring is about.”