CRESTVIEW — It was a typical first day of spring football practice for Crestview High School's football team on Friday.
Coaches barked orders as players tried to be in the right place at the right time while running plays.
When rising senior wide receiver Marquis McClain made a twisting, diving catch of an off target throw, his Bulldog teammates and coaches cheered his efforts.
Crestview spring football photos>>>
A few minutes earlier, when a defensive back missed an assignment and tried to tell defensive coordinator Thomas Grant where he was supposed to be, Grant shot back, “It’s my defense, I’ll tell you where you’re supposed to go.”
With 142 varsity and junior varsity players on the field at times, the Bulldog coaches might have felt more like traffic cops than anything else as they directed groups of players from one drill to the next.
For the most part, head Coach Tim Hatten was pleased with the first day of practice.
“We were OK,” Hatten said. “They are knowledgeable kids, but we’ve got to get knowledgeable in some areas. But we will be fine.
“When you have 142 people, you have to really plan so as not to have people standing around. That’s our biggest challenge right now: to do stuff to keep moving and get something out of moving fast.”
Hatten is entering his third season at Crestview, which leads to a certain comfort level that comes with familiarity.
“We are athletic and we can run around,” he said. “We have to get our athletes on the field. It’s a variety of things.
“We have some great athletes. We just have to put them in position to catch balls and to run balls and to be effective with our motion offense. We’ve got to build on our team, our character and our leadership skills and we will be fine.”
Hatten said he doesn’t foresee anyone emerging as a surprise player on the team this spring.
“We’ve had them all year in class so there were no surprises,” he said. “We know the potential that we have and we just have to maximize it.”
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 football team seeks to maximize potential (PHOTOS, VIDEO)