CRESTVIEW — Tim Hatten’s first two years as Crestview High School’s football coach have been tough.
The Bulldogs failed to make the playoffs either year, but they did upset Niceville in 2013.
“First and foremost, we have to strive to have a winning season,” Hatten said. “We have to win more games than we lose before we can do anything else.
“We have to take success in this program and then build off that success. That’s something we’ll definitely have to do.”
When Crestview takes the practice field for the first time this spring on Friday, it will be the start of a three-month push to the 2015 season.
“The biggest thing we want to do, from May 1 until the end of May, is to get some things done with the helmets and shoulder pads on,” he said. “And then June and July are your big months as far as getting ready for the season.
“We just look forward to getting all of our kids together. We are not able to put them all together (during the regular season), but during the spring we will just have JV kids and varsity kids working together. So we will have everybody together this spring and we will get to look at the whole unit as a team.”
The Bulldogs have had beneficial off-season strength training and conditioning, Hatten said.
“I think you do what you can with high school kids,” he said. “They are 15 to 18 years old — 14 in some cases. They are going to get bigger, faster, stronger because of the growth pattern of a young adult. You want them to get bigger, faster and stronger.
“We’ve done that with our kids that are not involved in other sports so we are feeling really good about it.”
The Bulldogs head into spring practice with two quarterbacks who have seen plenty of playing time.
Rising senior Corey Armstrong started the first half of the 2014 season at quarterback before rising sophomore Rusty Moorer took over at the position.
Hatten likes both players and believes each should be improved this year as they enter their third year in his offense.
“I don’t think anybody is going to press those two guys on the varsity level,” he said. “I think they are pretty solid in there with their roles on our team.
“They are still learning (the intricacies of the offense), but I’m able to talk to them a little different than I was two years ago and explain reads to them and talk about double reads and complex reads. You are just able to expand on a very, very good player — especially with Rusty and Corey. Their football IQ has really improved over the last two years.”
The next four weeks will be busy for the Bulldogs before they wrap up spring practice by hosting Niceville in the spring game May 28.
“We need to get in there and get the two-deep depth chart,” Hatten said. “We need to make sure we are solid with the base things we do and expand on what we did at the end the year with our play sheet and our call sheet.
“We will expand on that as much as we can to get them headed in the right direction.”
Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Crestview Bulldogs strive for winning football season (VIDEO)