Wildcats return to the gridiron for spring

By Christian Malone

May 06, 2008 12:44 am

— VALDOSTA — Valdosta High returned to the football field Monday afternoon.
The Wildcats began spring practice Monday, practicing a little over two hours after school. The team was glad to be back on the field, after a long hiatus.
“It’s good to be out there. It was fun,” Valdosta head coach Rick Tomberlin said. “This is a real fun group of kids.”
Overall, Valdosta’s head coach, entering his third season with the Wildcats, was pleased with the day, given the fact that it was the first day of spring.
“As far as first days go, today was a very good first day,” Tomberlin said. “Like most first days, though, you come away with more questions than answers. We’ve got some questions. But I thought we moved around pretty good, and made some plays. I think we’re going to be OK. I’m excited.”
Valdosta will practice from Monday through Friday this week and next week. Spring practice will end with the annual Spring Game on May 16 at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium.
Valdosta is coming off a 9-3 season last year, and a second-place finish in Region 1-AAAAA.
The team has several holes to fill, especially on defense, where eight starters have graduated. Tomberlin says the team will be working plenty of kids at each position this spring, giving each of them a chance to show what they can do.
The most prominent question mark is at quarterback, and it probably won’t get answered this spring. Four of the team’s quarterbacks are not practicing right now, including Kyle Rowe and Chad Prain, two of the favorites. Rowe and Prain are key members of Valdosta’s baseball team, which begins the state playoffs on Friday. If the Wildcats advance to the second round, both will miss spring practice entirely.
“I hate it that we don’t have those guys out here, but at the same time, I’m happy for our baseball team, which won the region championship and is now in the playoffs,” Tomberlin said. “The bad thing about spring practice is that no matter when you have it, you’re going to be missing some guys.”
Rising senior Tavoris Belcher will take most of the snaps at quarterback this spring. Belcher was one of the Wildcats’ top receivers last year, but has played most of his career at quarterback, and had a solid spring at the position last year. Michael Thompkins will also take some snaps there.
“Tavoris looked pretty good today,” Tomberlin said. “He’s one of the best receivers in the region, but he also looked mighty good at quarterback.”
One player who stood out Monday was rising sophomore Jay Rome. The 6-foot-6 Rome, who could see time at receiver or tight end in the fall, caught several balls and made a couple of key blocks. His best play was a long touchdown catch on a fade from Belcher, where he reached over the cornerback, pulled it in, stayed on his feet, got away from the defender and sprinted the final 30 yards for the score.
“Jay Rome looked great,” Tomberlin said. “He caught a long touchdown pass and had a couple of good blocks. I think Jay’s going to turn out to be a great football player.”
Tomberlin also praised the work of third-year starters Michael Gilliard, a linebacker, Parker Mathis, a defensive tackle, and Damian Doe, three players expected to be leaders on the defense this year. Doe is moving from defensive tackle to defensive end this spring.
While pleased with the day, Tomberlin still admits there’s a lot of work to do. There always is at this point.
“We took a baby step today,” Tomberlin said. “We’ve got to play Northside Warner Robins in our first region game (Sept. 19), so we’d better start taking some giant steps. But we took a step in the right direction.
“I was real proud of our assistant coaches. They worked real hard. I coached a little less today, and let my assistant coaches do a lot of the coaching with their groups.”
Tomberlin was very happy about the number of players he had on the field Monday. There were 105 varsity players and another 50 rising freshmen in pads.
“I thought (155) was pretty good,” he said. “I hear that numbers are down all over, but our numbers are up.”

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