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Morgan City High School’s football team still may be battling a numbers’ problem, but the Tigers are ahead of where they were a year ago when Chris Stroud took over the program.
Stroud, who was hired in the summer of 2018 after the resignation of Ferrante Dominique, put the Tigers through spring workouts this year after Dominique had elected to take the extra days of work in the fall a year ago.
The Tigers' 2019 spring work concluded Thursday with an intersquad scrimmage at Tiger Stadium.
“We’re way ahead of where we were last year, because we got a spring football game,” Stroud said. “We’re going to have a whole summer in … but we’ve got so many new players. I’ve got only 12 returning players off of last year’s team. I had 24-25 seniors, so I have only 12 returning players. I had five or six others who could have returned that chose not to play football again.”
Thursday’s scrimmage featured 7-on-7 and linemen work, some special teams work, a 12-minute live quarter and play blocks for the first-team offense and first-team defense.
In the live quarter, the Tigers were split into Green and White teams, with the White team winning 14-6.
On the first offensive play of the live quarter for the White squad, sophomore-to-be quarterback Kane Sanchez connected with senior-to-be Devonta Grogan on pass in which Grogan caught the ball over a defender before heading to the end zone for a 60-yard touchdown pass play.
Grogan scored again on the White team's second offensive possession on a 45-yard run, while the Green offense also connected on a touchdown on its second drive as senior-to-be quarterback Khai Hartley completed a 34-yard touchdown pass to fellow senior-to-be Adrian Garrison.
“Our quarterbacks had a good day, both Khai Hartley and Kane Sanchez both had a pretty good day,” Stroud said. “I was very pleased with them.”
Helder Hernandez, who kicked for both teams, finished 2-for-3 on extra-point attempts in the live quarter.
During the play blocks, the Tigers scored another touchdown with their first-team offense as Sanchez competed a 13-yard touchdown pass to Garrison.
While there were some challenges with the Tigers scrimmaging themselves, Stroud said one thing that can be judged is fundamentals.
“We’ve got to become better blockers,” he said. “We had a couple of holds on certain plays. We’ve got to become better tacklers, but the big thing is we’ve got a numbers problem. We don’t have enough young men out (for) football.”
While Stroud said he will have some help from some incoming freshmen, he said the 32 kids (sophomores to seniors) he has right now isn’t enough to play 4A football.
This summer, the Tigers will focus on weight lifting and 7-on-7.
“We’ve got practices every Wednesday morning, and if they can come consistently, we’re going to put a fair product on the field even though we’ve got a small squad,” Stroud said. “If they don’t come consistently, we’re going to be out of shape. We’re not going to be acclimated to the heat. We’re not going to have the depth we need to play four quarters with 35 kids.”