With exactly 14 days until the start of the regular season, new Cumberland County High School Football Coach Mark Wattenbarger and his staff are hunkered down in the school’s football complex.
They’re watching film, they’re planning practices, working on offensive and defensive strategies that could best fit their team. It’s almost “Go Time” for the blue and gold and things have to get done.
Wattenbarger, who was hired last spring to try and take the Jets back to prominence, has been making a lot of progress with his program. Though he admits there is a lot still to do, a difference is being made.
“I think that scrimmage last week [at Midway] helped tremendously to give us an idea of who should be where,” Wattenbarger said. “I usually use spring to find out who can and who can’t, and who will and who won’t.
“We’re just figuring those things out because of our limited numbers in the spring and we’re just now really learning the kids. It will be more solidified this week. We’ve always said people can play their way onto the field, but people can also play their way off the field.”
Cumberland County will have its second scrimmage of the preseason Aug. 7 when the Jets host Clay County and Whitwell. Festivities will start at 6 p.m.
“We made a lot of mistakes [at Midway], but they’re all fixable,” Wattenbarger said. “I didn’t think we just lined up and got whipped physically. I thought everything we did was just mental mistakes, things we can do better.
“There’s a difference there if you blow a coverage or if you go the wrong way on a block or things of that nature. That’s what we were doing quite a bit of, and that’s just youth and a new system. Hopefully, we can start getting those things fixed this week.”
The coach said he’d like to see a lot fewer mistakes from his team on Friday. He wants to limit blown assignments and he would like to see a little better pace of play.
“We gave up a few plays in the scrimmage just because we weren’t getting lined up in time,” Wattenbarger said. “I just don’t want to waste snaps, which means either we’re bobbling the ball coming out from under center, we got a back going the wrong way, we’re blowing an assignment and just getting hit in the back field, or something along those lines.”
Wattenbarger also talked about the importance of special teams play and the impact it can have on a game.
“We’ve got to be really sound on special teams,” the coach said. “I also want us to be a little aggressive. I want us to challenge the punter. We may not get to any of his kicks, but we want him to think we can. Field position, turnovers, big plays still play a role in winning or losing ballgames.
“Like I said, we’re going to find the ones that can or can’t, those that will or won’t. We will find the ones that can and will, and we’ll let them go be aggressive.”