Leeds Hosting Sylvania

By Michael Mee/The Leeds News

The defending State Champion Leeds Green Wave playoff run will get underway tomorrow night with another visit from former Leeds coach Alan Clayton and his Sylvania Rams. Kick off will be at 7pm from Homer Smiles field.

Leeds head coach Keith Etheredge talked about his team’s 2009 playoff run.

“We hope we can make another run,” Etheredge said.

Sylvania sets up in the wing-T and the spread mostly. Last year Leeds defeated them 38-2 in the second round and this year Etheredge hopes another win will propel his team to the next round.

“They played hard. We did a good job with them with our defense last year,” he noted. “Their coach is a good coach. He’s one of the ones who coached me in high school here at Leeds. They do a lot of things to give you trouble.”

Etheredge is referring to misdirection when the Rams set up in the wing. They have an offense that can grind our short runs and get up the field. “They can pose some problems,” Etheredge said.

Etheredge talked about his team, who are young, but have again proven themselves playoff worthy. “I think they’ll do well. We’re young. We’re not graduating many guys. We’ve got a lot of guys who are getting into the groove of things,” he said. “our guys play hard every week. Sometimes we come up a little short sometimes, but they’re going to play hard every week. With us being so young, we’re going to make some mistakes; but we’ve got to find a way to overcome those and get the ball into the endzone and settling for field goals.”

By that he was referring to last week’s game when Leeds’ Keatan Glass was held to three field goal attempts and two made it through the uprights. “I’d rather have him kicking extra points,” Etheredge said with a grin.

Some of the strengths that have developed over the past 10 weeks on offense include shifting positions because of injuries, a key depth element for a team that lines guys up on both sides of the ball.

“That’s one of the things we’ve got to work on,” Etheredge said of his offense’s struggles with injured players. “We’ve had to replace some guys with Cody Ashley going out for the season and Drew Hicks turning his ankle at practice the other day.”

Wesley Hudson was moved from tackle to center and Kendarius Abernathy has been moved from guard to fullback and back to guard as the season has progressed. “We’ve just sort of had to patch some guys in there. Hopefully this week, since we’ve got Cody coming back off his injury. If he is able to play, then that solves a lot of problems up front.”

That would free some players up to compete for spots, something that a head coach likes to see before heading into the playoffs. A time that many fans know can be miniature seasons from week to week.

Trevon Strickland has been at guard and Etheredge said that being able to have him there as a defensive power player can only help in the playoffs. Kyle Mann has played well at guard this season and Drew Hicks has thrived at tackle.

“It’s going to be up in the air for who fills the slots,” Etheredge said of Friday night’s starting line. “We’ve got some good competition this week at practice. Normally we’ve got five guys who are playing key spots and this week we’ve got seven competing. I think that’s what makes it good: when you’ve got competition between players.”

But Etheredge said he has told his players that they are about to enter a five-week season. “We’re going to go one week at a time and see where we land,” he said.

Text Only