Draft ‘babies’ return a year older
SANDRA BERRY/FOR THE NEWS VIRGINIAN
Stuarts Draft’s Zac Glass is shown during a scrimmage in Stuarts Draft.
Even as “babies” last year, the streaky Stuarts Draft Cougars finished 5-6, pulling themselves together after a four-game losing streak to win their last two regular-season games and earn a Region III bid.
Five seniors graduated.
This year, again led by Coach Rod Bowers, the Cougars sport a roster with 16 seniors.
“We were babies, now we’re young,” he said. “Next year we’ll be old.”
The Cougars will put its offense on the shoulders of a maturing backfield expected to carry the load again for Draft’s physical and run-heavy Wing-T offense.
“In high school you need to be really good at something,” Bowers said. “We’re designed to be a ball-control, time-control team.”
Juniors D.J. Hines and Darius Woodson will be bursting from the backfield, but this year Woodson will be doing so as quarterback.
“We’re satisfied with four yards a carry,” Bowers said. “Our guys have bought into it.”
Seniors Cole Beyeler and Zac Glass, who will play both ways, said the Cougars also bought into off-season conditioning sessions, which saw record-setting attendance. Glass, a 6-foot, 3½-inch defensive end, led by example in the weight room, pumping his way to 237 pounds, while dropping his 40-yard dash time to 4.8 seconds.
“He puts his blinders on and gets focused,” Bowers said of Glass.
Teamwide focus will be key for the Cougars, and right from the get-go, with their opener today at Riverheads, where they’ll face a Gladiators team coming off a 7-4 season.
It wasn’t until the final regular-season game last year that Bowers said his team really came together. The Cougars beat Rockbridge County in double-overtime to secure second-place in the district.
“We’ll come back just as strong as we left off,” Hines said. “A bunch of guys are stepping up this year … everybody’s been picking up the plays.”
They’ve also been coming to terms with their youth and growing experience. Hines said the team watched game tape during the offseason — from the players’ little league football days—back when some teammates went head-to-head.
“We have the potential to be really, really good,” Bower said. “If we never light the fuse, we have the potential to be very bad.”
Reader Reactions
This comment is not directed at Tony for this article, but rather at whoever compiled that information that runs up and down the left side of the page. I know it is early in the season and everybody makes mistakes, but “Good Grief” did you guys proofread ANY of that before you sent it to the presses?
First of all, you have the locations of 3 of the 4 games wrong. Also I seriously doubt if this is the first time ever that Lee and Charlottesville have played one another, but I guess I can’t say that for 100% certainty. And also we all know that all three of the other games didn’t end up 35-3 last year. In fact I know that was not the Draft/Riverheads score (although it was close to that) and I wonder if that was really the score for any of the games.
On a positive note, I like your top 5 poll, and I hope you will come back and make predictions for the games each week, like you have always done. But as we go through the season, let’s also set a goal to look a little closer at the material facts of the games.
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