High School Football Previews: Macon East & Holtville
Macon East
The Macon East Knights finished the 2022 regular season with a 7-3 record and then fell in the first round of the playoffs to Clarke Prep.
Head Coach of the Knights, Will Graham, is excited to see the hard work the team has put in over the offseason pay off on the field this fall.
“We’ve had a lot of guys showing up every day for summer workouts. It’s kind of hard to get them there over the summer, but we’ve had a good turnout. You know we’re looking forward to it,” says Graham.
The team anxious to get the season underway, but they also know that they are going to need a lot of people to step up after losing several starters from last year’s team to graduation.
“We replaced a lot from last year and we’re looking at a lot of guys to come in and fill some bigger roles than they had last year, so we’re excited to see them grow and to develop in our program,” says Graham.
“We have a lot of potential, granted, we are losing a lot of guys, so people are going to have to step up and work as hard as we can all season. No matter the outcome on Friday, we’re just going to get back out there on Monday and work hard all week,” says Jameson Bryom (senior/ offensive line/ defensive line.)
“I feel like our season this year will be good. Granted, as they said, we are losing a lot of people, there’s a lot of spots to fill, but the people behind us should be able to handle the load pretty good since they got a lot of reps last year at practice,” says Thaddeus McKinney (junior/ running back.)
The Knights will kick off the 2023 season on August 18th on the road at Lowndes Academy.
Holtville
The Holtville Bulldogs finished the 2022 regular season with a 3-7 record and then lost in the first round of the playoffs to Central-Clay County.
Head Coach of the Bulldogs, Jason Franklin, says a big point that he is focusing on this fall is the importance of teamwork and brotherhood.
“Our motivation so far is to love each other, be a brotherhood, work together, and be more about we instead of me. I think we had a lot of guys that at times that were more worried about themselves than the whole team concept. That’s really what we’ve been driving home this summer is, worrying about the guy next to you, don’t necessarily worry about what you’re doing as far as personal accolades. Make sure we’re getting team accolades and then the personal accolades will come later,” says Franklin.
Naturally, the goal of each team every year is to win the State Championship, but Franklin explains that his team won’t be looking that far down the road this season, they’ll be taking things one game at a time.
“We’ve got to take things week by week. Let’s take care of week 0 and be productive and successful there, and then we’ll start focusing on the next week. Sometimes if you start looking too far ahead, you skip the one that’s in front of you. It’ll be a week by week basis goal. We want to take care of every game and treat it the same,” says Franklin.
The Bulldogs will kick off the 2023 season on August 25th on the road at Fultondale.
