Football training camps about to begin for Fort Mill and Nation Ford high schools

Jackets, Falcons ready for football season

By Mac Banks

Correspondent

FORT MILL – While the countdown to the start of football season has been on for many coaches already, the 2018 season will officially open this Friday.

Practice can officially begin Friday, July 27 and both Fort Mill and Nation Ford are eager to get the ball rolling. Both schools, like others in the state, have been holding summer workouts over the break from school and have been attending 7-on-7 camps.

In doing so, coaches are hoping that come August, they will have a well bonded team of athletes ready to charge head forth into the season.

“I feel good about the kids work ethic,” said Nation Ford head coach Michael Allen. “We got a lot of things accomplished this summer.”

Allen said instead of doing more high profile 7-on-7 sessions with athletes like the Carolina Panthers’ quarterback Cam Newton, Nation Ford has kept things low key this summer.

“We worked more on our whole team,” Allen said. “We feel like we came together as a unit. It was more about coming together as a whole family. It has been a collective effort all summer.”

One aspect Allen said he feels has benefited from the closer workouts is both the offensive and defensive lines.

“We feel as good as we have felt in a while,” he said. “We are pretty athletic and really hard nose.”

One thing that Nation Ford has decided upon through the summer is who their quarterback will be. At 6’5” and 205 pounds, senior Carson Carruthers will be leading the Falcons offense under center to start the season.

“Carson is our guy, but we always have a plan B, C and D,” Allen said. “It is his position to lose.”

Nation Ford will open the season Aug. 17 at Spartanburg.

While there might not be a quarterback controversy at Nation Ford, at Fort Mill, new head coach Rob McNeely said he wants there to be a controversy at every position.

“I want there to be a right guard controversy,” he said. “I don’t want anyone confident they have a starting position.”

The two leading candidates for the quarterback job for Fort Mill is senior JT Marr and junior Dylan Helms. McNeely said that both have attributes he likes.

“Both guys bring tangibles and intangibles to the position,” he said.

This summer for Fort Mill has been about a review of what the team learned during spring practice as McNeely is installing a new offense for the team.

“I was really impressed coming out of the spring in how we picked things up,” he said. “In the spring, we threw a lot at them.”

McNeely said he has been impressed with some of the players on his team but reiterated that if players can’t get the job done on the field, he won’t hesitate to pull them.

“At some point they have to take responsibility,” he said.

Fort Mill opens the season on the road Aug. 17 at River Bluff.

Mac Banks: mbanks@comporium.net, @MacBanksFM