CARROLLTON, Ala. — Inexperience doesn’t faze Josh Thacker.
If it did, the Pickens Academy third-year head football coach would look at his roster for the 2015 season with wide eyes and see a bunch of 7s, 8s, and 9s under the grade column. All told, Pickens Academy enters tonight’s season opener against Ben’s Ford Christian (La.) with only four seniors and two juniors on a roster that features 18 players in grades seven through nine.
“Raising Pickens” could be a phrase Thacker and his coaches use often this season because the Pirates will have to replace quarterback/free safety Joseph McGlawn and tight end/linebacker Justin Barton, who represented the team on the Alabama Independent School Association West All-Star team. Pickens Academy also will have to find replacements for lineman Austin McCool and wide receiver/cornerback Justin Davidson from a team that went 4-6 and lost to Edgewood Academy in the first round of the Class AA playoffs.
“Any time you have turnaround at the skill positions, it is kind of tough to overcome, but we have filled in with some guys and some guys have stepped up,” Thacker said. “It has been a pleasure to coach these young guys this year.”
Seniors Chance Britt, Ryan Harcrow, Landon Hattaway, and Daniel Powell will be counted on to lead the way. Harcrow scored a defensive touchdown last week in a 17-15 loss to Oak Hill Academy.
Thacker was pleased with his players’ conditioning and their fight in the two-quarter scrimmage, as his team rallied from a 14-0 deficit to take the lead, only to lose on a last-second field goal. He hopes his players will be able to follow a similar plan in that the Pirates won’t “wow people” by scoring 100 points a game, but that they will pride themselves in attention to detail and a gritty attitude.
Thacker acknowledges there will be growing pains because Pickens Academy will rely on five players who have never started in a varsity game. But a year after stressing “the team, the team, the team,” Thacker feels this year’s team has embraced how the Pirates will have to get things done. He said about the senior bunch because they have been together and their families have been friends for so long. That mentality carries down to the younger players, who Thacker said understand the program’s tradition and want to help the program get back to its championship ways. The team won state titles in 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, and 1999.
“They are just a hard-nosed, gritty bunch,” Thacker said of the seniors. “They’re tough. Our motto is, ‘You can’t kill them.’ That kind of trickles down.”
The graduation losses forced Thacker to change the offensive scheme. He said freshman Brant Criswell, who he said had a “phenomenal” junior high career, will take over for McGlawn. Despite Criswell’s youth, Thacker has confidence that the freshman will be able to make the transition. He said he is an intelligent player who was part of a group of players that didn’t miss summer workouts. To show how much Thacker thinks of Criswell, he said he is a “young version of Josh Lewis,” referring to the Pirates’ standout in 2013 who helped lead the team to a seven-win season in 2013, Thacker’s first year as head coach at the school.
Thacker said Pickens Academy will rely on a “don’t stop, don’t quit, keep moving” attitude that he hopes will enable it to win games in the second half.
Hattaway, a halfback/free safety, is in his third year with the varsity team. Powell, a left guard/inside linebacker, is in his fourth year with the varsity team. The veterans want the Pirates to adopt the “keep moving forward, keep growing” mantra that they feel has served as motivation in the preseason.
“We’re undersized with every team we play,” Powell said. “This is the biggest line we have had in a few years. Half the line is over 200 pounds. A lot of teams that we play, their second string is over 200. We have the benefit of being in better shape, so when it comes to the fourth quarter, they are getting tired. That is when we can push them around once they start losing some strength.”
Hattaway said the Pirates showed they could do that in the second part of the scrimmage against Oak Hill Academy. He said the team took a lot of confidence in how they fought back, and felt it would have been a different outcome in a four-quarter game.
That being said, there still will be learning curve. Rather than age, though, the Pirates will rely on mental toughness to push through bigger opponents so they can win with a game on the line.
“It has been about the team way before I mentioned that with this group,” Thacker said. “This group is a very sports savvy team, not that the other groups weren’t because they were. We just had to find ways to make the other groups come together because they were so diverse and from different backgrounds. … With this group, everybody is on the same page.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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