I couldn’t be happier to be writing about high school football right now, even if it’s only about a spring game. There really is nothing quite like watching the game in Florida, even if the game in question features zero juggernauts.
I drove out to Strawberry Crest last Thursday to catch the Chargers and the Plant City Raiders in action. The stands were packed on both sides of the field. Last year wasn’t the best in Chargers history, so to see that many people there — not only there, but totally hyped up — was great for the athletes.
As is custom for Friday (in this case, Thursday) Night Notes, here’s what caught my eye during the game:
Plant City fans probably want to know if quarterback Corey King has developed in the offseason, now that it looks like he won’t be sharing half of the offensive snaps with anyone else. From what I saw, the soon-to-be junior really is starting to look like a different signal-caller (and, no, not just because he switched from number 14 to number 2). King looked confident, even when everyone was visibly shaking off the spring rust and things weren’t going exactly as they were drawn up. He also showed off his speed with a few nice runs, including one in the red zone that went for a late touchdown.
Some of the problems that plagued the Raiders last season were still present. You may recall last year’s team drew a lot of penalties, mostly for making mental errors. It often had to rely on a huge game from Markese Hargrove to find the path to escaping with a win. With that in mind, there are two things to know about this coming season: those mental-error flags are still being thrown, as of Thursday, and teams are actually going to know who Hargrove is and why paying attention to him is a big necessity. Head coach Greg Meyer has said that working on fundamentals will be a priority this offseason, and it looks like the team still has some work to do on that front.
The last time Strawberry Crest QB Tate Whatley got to line up full-time, he was busy leading the Plant City Dolphins to success. Now that Tristan Hyde has graduated, Whatley appears to be the guy to take Hyde’s place. And, you know what? That might not be something to worry too much about. Whatley looked poised in the pocket, especially for a sophomore who had to stare down some of the best linebackers in the area.
Another thing working in Crest’s favor — though Raider fans may just chalk this up to it being a spring game — was that the offense was moving the ball better than I’d seen the unit move it in some time. The team still needs to find ways to put points on the board (and I’m still not 100% sure that the answers to last season’s wideout questions are now there), but it was good to see them move the chains. There are three months to go until the season starts, and I expect the Chargers will improve.