Scrimmages start tonight

Published 11:20 pm Wednesday, August 13, 2008

It won’t raise the curtain on the 2008 high school football season, but Dalton’s scrimmage against Coosa at Harmon Field tonight will certainly whet the appetite of area fans.

The scrimmage, which starts at 7 p.m., will be the first step in the Catamounts’ bid to successfully defend their Region 7-4A championship.

And, for the first time in three years, the Cats will be working with a new quarterback — Stryker Brown — under center. Brown, a junior who spent two seasons in the shadow of Harrison Scott, The Daily Citizen’s All-Area Player of the Year last season. Tonight will mark Brown’s coming out party, so to speak. He rushed twice and threw two passes for a combined 63 yards last year.

New head coach Adam Winegarden is eager to see his players go against new faces.

“These guys deserve to play someone else,” he said. “You get tired playing against the same guys.

The Cats went 9-2 in 2007, losing their season opener and the season finale to Calhoun and Cherokee, respectively. In between, they ran off nine consecutive victories, including seven straight against region opponents.

Coosa’s Eagles, a Class 2A school, went 6-4 last season but have Lebron Neal, a 6-foot-1, 220-pound running back, returning for his senior season. He rushed for 1,015 yards in 2007.

Neal might see a lot of Dalton linebacker Garren Palmer, who was the team’s leading tackler with 112 stops last season.

Winegarden has a clear idea of what he wants from the Cats.

“It’s hard to get a real measurement from just one scrimmage,” he said. “But the big thing is that I want to see the kids perform with a great effort and great intensity. We’re going to make some fundamental mistakes, but we can correct those.”

On Friday, new coach David Crane will direct his Southeast Raiders in their scrimmage — each school is allowed one scrimmage in the preseason — against Pepperell at Raider Stadium. Action starts at 7 p.m.

“Pepperell is going to be really good,” Crane said. “They have 18 starters back.”

After losing their first two games to open the 2007 season, the Dragons won of the next 11 before losing to Dublin, 27-13, in the Class 2A quarterfinals.

Crane brought a high octane spread offense with him from Presbyterian College in Laurens, S.C. Prior to that Crane was the quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator at Greenville (S.C.) High School.

Like Dalton, Southeast will have a new quarterback this season after last year’s starter, Blane Beaver, transferred to Calhoun High School.

Crane has tabbed junior Tanner McCutchen as the team’s starting quarterback. He hasn’t played football since the eighth grade, but Crane likes his strong throwing arm and ability to mentally handle the fast-paced offense.

Also on Friday, Murray County will travel to Ellijay to face Gilmer in a 7:30 scrimmage.

The Indians of second-year coach Josh Lowe, back in Region 7-4A after two tough seasons in Class 5A, will unveil the spread option offense of offensive coordinator against Gilmer.

Gilmer, a Class 3A school, went 2-8 in 2007 and the Bobcats lost the final five games, giving up an average of 35.2 points.

Northwest Whitfield wraps up the scrimmage season next Thursday when the Bruins play Chattooga County at Finley Stadium in Chattanooga at 7:30 p.m.

The Bruins went 9-3 last year and advanced to the second round of the Class 4A playoffs where they lost to No. 2-ranked Tucker. The Indians of coach John Starr were 7-4 in 2007 and lost to Macon County in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs.