H.S. Football: Westwood moving on to season-opener

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August 29, 2012

H.S. Football: Westwood moving on to season-opener

By JUSTIN RAINS Palestine Herald-Press The Palestine Herald-Press Wed Aug 29, 2012, 08:31 PM CDT

Every football coach heads into a season knowing their staff will have to deal with opposing blitzes, deep passes and the occasional shaky special teams possession.

Very few probably envision having to deal with what WHS coach Roger Mays and his staff have endured over the past week.

The Panthers lost two two-way starters last week when Nick Hicks and Anthony Mrdjenovich were arrested in conjunction with a robbery at Mr. D’s convenience store on Aug. 19.

“Obviously, you deal with distractions in life. We talk to kids all the time — on a daily basis — about handling adversity and making good decisions,” Mays said. “You worry about your kids all the time, and this has served as a wake-up call to us. It was devastating at first...but I’m so proud of this group of kids right now. They’ve been through so much adversity in their high school career.

“I think it’s brought us closer together as a family and as a team,” he continued. “We’ve looked past it and we’re moving on.”

But, Mays, his staff and his team are now moving on as they get ready to face a rugged Mineola team, which comes to Panther Stadium for a 7: 30 p.m. kick-off Friday.

The game features an intriguing matchup of strength-versus-strength, as the potent Westwood rushing attack will try and get past a stingy Mineola linebacking corps, led by TCU-commit Dac Shaw.

Tasked with containing Shaw and company will be a Westwood offensive line that boasts only one starter with varsity experience.

“Those two inside linebackers are great football players, they’re the heart and soul, not of the defense, but of the whole team,” Mays said. “Our offensive line, we’re playing some young kids. They’re going to have to come together and gel pretty quick.

“I saw some good things (in the scrimmages), but I saw a lot more bad things that need to be worked on.”

Westwood also will be breaking in a new quarterback Friday, when senior Chris Thompson debuts under center.

Thompson didn’t play football last year, and was a receiver before that. But, Mays sees more and more confidence in him every day.

“We need his skills under center and I feel like he’s stepped in and done a great job,” Mays said. “You can tell he’s carrying an air of confidence that we worried about early, but he’s getting better with the more experience he gets.”

When Mineola has the ball, Shaw will again be the focal point for Westwood.

Shaw ran for almost 1,400 yards a year ago and, with a new quarterback, the Yellowjackets may count on him even more.

“We have to shut down their running back. He’s their go-to guy, their I-back,” Mays said. “They’ve got an inexperienced quarterback, so I think they’re going to go to their bread-and-butter, which is to run the football with Shaw.

“Coach Jones and the defensive staff have done a great job coming up with a gameplan to try and stop the running game.”

———

Sports editor Justin Rains can be reached via email at jrains@palestineherald.com

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