Tri-County
anxious to tackle new challenge
Southern
Sports & Travel
David
Blount has rebuilt the Tri-County football program from the ground up in his
four seasons at the Flora, Mississippi school and in doing so posted one of the
most successful four year runs in recent MAIS memory. Now, as the head coach enters
his fifth season, the challenge changes but Blount welcomes it and also sees an
opportunity to use the statements of naysayers as motivation for his squad as
the opening night kickoff against St. Andrews draws near.
“I
enjoy seeing all the talk on the internet,” said Blount. “Everything I see I
store into memory or write it down.”
Tri-County
moved to Class AA under the recent re-alignment and when the move up was made
official it wasn’t long before chatter spread across internet sports boards
predicting the doom of the Rebel football program, the same program that posted
a 51-3 mark over the past four seasons and made three consecutive state
championship appearances while capturing two straight state titles in Class A.
“I
tell our kids every day that there are lots of people who don’t think we can
compete at the AA level,” said Blount. “I’ll certainly use it as a motivational
tool and hopefully we can prove them wrong.”
Lost
in much of the internet chatter is the return of two critical spokes in the
Rebel offense from last season, senior quarterback Trey Bozeman and junior
running back Ryan Cothern. Bozeman, who has valuable field generalship
capabilities, will be expected to rely on that experience to manage the game
but the fuel that propels the Tri-County offensive engine is without a doubt in
the rushing talents of Ryan Cothern.
Cothern,
a 5’9”, 180 lb. speedster led the MAIS last season rushing for over 2,100 yards
and 35 touchdowns as a sophomore and is widely considered one the premier backs
in the MAIS.
Tri-County,
ranked 5th in the Southern Sports & Travel Class AA preseason rankings,
will only go as far as Cothern can take them. “I expect more of the same from
Ryan,” said David Blount. “The competition is going to be better but at the
same time he’ll be playing more minutes than last season when he would
routinely play just one half of football but I think he’s good enough that he’s
still going to gain a lot of yardage and do some good things for us.”
Tri-County
will run a multiple set offense with some pistol sets featuring Cothern and
with nine starters returning on defense the Rebels have the ability to show
different looks and capitalize on their experience.
Defense
has been at the forefront of Tri-County’s enormous success since Blount’s
arrival four seasons ago. In his first season the Rebel defense allowed 11.9
points a game and since then that number has dwindled considerably. In the past
two seasons Tri-County has allowed just 5.3 and 4.7 points a game respectively,
both were state championship years.
Tri-County
has good reason to believe 2013 will be a successful season. Blessed with great
overall team speed and the motivation sparked by naysayers could translate into
another title run but the key to the Rebel’s hopes may also rest in an
undersized and inexperienced offensive line. “We have some young guys who will
have to prove themselves,” said Blount.
Tri-County’s
move to Class AA has put them in District 2-AA amongst some quality squads. “I
think top to bottom it’s probably the strongest district in Class AA,” said
Blount. “They all have good coaches and they’re all quality programs. I think
the strength of our district compared to the overall strength of some of the
other districts puts ours the strongest.”
Tri-County
will open the 2013 season on Friday by taking the short drive to Ridgeland where
they’ll take on MHSAA 3A St. Andrews. “They struggled a little last year but
they were real young,” said Blount. “I think they’re going to be a lot better
this year, they have good size and speed at the skill positions. It should be a
good challenge for us to open the season.”
