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Huntsville head football coach Shane Martin believes junior tailback Henry Ford, above, can step in and contribute the same kind of production provided by 2010 graduates Shaquille Ross and Joseph Maxey. A slick and speedy runner, Ford may have to use a different style than Ross, a bull who sparked a six-game winning streak that included a playoff victory over Buda Hays late last fall. Tom Waddill/The Huntsville Item

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July 31, 2010

Upbeat Hornets report for practice Monday

By Tom Waddill Sports Editor The Huntsville Item Sat Jul 31, 2010, 10:34 PM CDT

HUNTSVILLE — Tick tick tick. Tick tick tick tick.

It won’t be long until the alarm goes off early Monday morning, signaling the start of high school football practice in Huntsville.

Freshmen hit the field at 8 a.m. Monday and Hornets head coach Shane Martin can’t wait. Huntsville’s defensive coordinator the past two years, Martin has been waiting seven long months for the first day of serious summer workouts.

Martin and his entire varsity coaching staff will be on the field with the freshmen for three hours or so Monday morning, then they’ll return late in the afternoon for a lengthy workout with the junior varsity and varsity teams.

“We’ve got some long days ahead, but it’s a lot of fun,” Martin said Friday. “Working with the freshmen gives us coaches a chance to know those kids. We want to get them on as fast a track as we can.

“As a staff, we’re ready to go,” Martin added. “Basically, this is our third year working with the same schemes both offensively and defensively. Our kids know it, the coaches know it. We all believe there are some exciting times ahead for Hornet football this year.”

Martin has sure liked what he’s seen this summer. The Hornets, young and old, have shown up on their own to the Joe Clements Field House to lift weights, run and play around a bit. A smattering of players have participated in past voluntary summer workouts. This year, Martin has been overwhelmed by the numbers he’s witnessed.

“We’ve had great participation this summer,” Martin said. “Kids are down there on the field throwing the ball — 20 to 30 kids, not five or six — with some waiting to get in the game. It’s been really exciting to see the group effort from all of our kids, the kids who are freshmen to the ones who are seniors.”

A week ago or so, one of the assistant principals at Huntsville High came bursting into Martin’s office asking about all of the boys who were wearing out the practice field.

“He said there are kids all over the field and I told him, yeah, those are our kids,” Martin said with a smile. “They have really put forth an effort to get better and get prepared to start this season.”

Outright champions of District 18-4A in 2008 and co-champs along with Brenham last fall, Huntsville’s football program appears to be moving in the right direction.

The Hornets, who last fall ended an 18-year drought without a playoff victory, lost most of their defensive starters to graduation, plus they have to replace their starting quarterback and two running backs.

At the end of the spring semester, Martin said he had a bunch of talented players who can probably step in and contribute early in the upcoming season. He’s anxious to take another look at what he’s got.

To get ready for the first week of summer workouts, Martin and his coaches hosted a three-day camp last week for incoming seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders.

The guy who got his start in coaching at Mance Park Middle School, Martin said the young Hornets who showed up got everyone at the high school pumped for the upcoming four or five months of football.

“We really had a great week,” Martin said of the summer camp that he compared favorably to ones he’s worked at SMU and Texas A&M. “Coaches showed up at 6:30 every morning. When we come in and start talking football it gets everybody excited.

“We had 75 kids at that camp, incoming freshmen and seventh- and eighth-graders. It was exciting to see that. Our camps just keep growing and I hope that continues.”

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