Working with a ton of new faces, the Durant Lions finished up two weeks of spring football practice last week with a team camp against Class 3A powers Sulphur and Idabel.
The youth-laden Lions got plenty of reps over the course of eight practice sessions and the threehour camp while earning praise for the effort and improvement from head coach Todd Vargas.
“We were pleasantly surprised,” Vargas commented. “We obviously don’t have a lot of returning experience on either side of the ball but they came in with great attitudes and made tremendous progress. They worked extremely hard and showed great energy. I thought it was a great spring overall. We saw a lot of bright spots against some perennial contenders in the team camp.
“Anytime you lose a group of 20 seniors it’s going to take a toll but we did a pretty good job of fitting new faces in key spots. We were able to rotate a lot of kids and got tons of much needed reps. We saw some things we did well and things we have to work on. We’ve got a lot more film to watch but we are really excited about the young kids we have. They ran to the ball well and were extremely physical, which you never know about with young players.”
One of the biggest aspects of the spring practice was incorporating a new offensive system – the Pistol Flex – as the Lions return to a version of the flexbone offense they utilized a few seasons ago while working out of the shotgun most of the time.
Returning skill position catalyst Joseph Flores split time at quarterback throughout spring drills along with newcomer Kayden Fenwick. There’s also solid expectations for Ajay Edgeman, who had a pair of touchdown catches in the team camp, as well as athletic Graham McIlvoy at tight end.
On the defensive side, returnee Aiden Polk led the charge at safety while linebackers Aiden Makke and Tyler Rhodes showed encouraging signs along with Braylon King on the defensive front.
“We are kind of going back to our roots with the flexbone and it’s one that our coaches know pretty well,” Vargas said. “The coaches have been meeting since Spring Break and have been meeting with the kids since April while making adaptations to what we want to do. On defense we want to get the secondary more involved because we know we are going to be a little thin up front. We are excited about our young kids’ potential.
“Flores and Fenwick are inexperienced but have shown they are great decision makers. There is going to be a lot of competition between them to start the fall drills and whoever is not at quarterback will be a slot receiver for us. We have several young skill guys that I think are going to surprise some people. Building depth on the offensive line will be key for us because we are smaller than we have been on that side. We are still evaluating on the defensive side but we had some guys that really showed some promise this spring and executed well. It’s also going to help that we get to start fall camp a week earlier this year.”
Fall drills for the Lions are slated to begin on August 1.
