Bradwell Institute opens the season at home by hosting the Glynn Academy Red Terrors tonight at 7:30 at Olvey Field. Tiger head coach Jim Walsh said the team spent the week cleaning up their offense and fine-tuning their execution.
The Red Terrors are not in the 3-AAAAA but are a strong opponent for the Tigers, who are looking to start the season against physical teams to prepare for region action.
The Tiger's record against the Red Terrors is nearly a split with back-to-back wins from 2001-2004 and three consecutive losses from 2005-2007.
But this year, the Tigers are a bit bigger and a lot faster. The difference in size allowed the coaching staff to shift the defense to a five-man front instead of three men down. Darvean Herron, Dominique Jernigan, Ja'Shan Thomas and Shaquille Russell are the line and linebackers to watch for hard-hitting tackles up front as well as the quickness to sack the Red Terror quarterback.
Twins DeMario and DeAnte Day, along with Manuel Crum, have explosive speed to shut down the passing game in the secondary.
The twins also will provide the speed on special team returns and the offense. Wilson Brown will get his opportunity to lead the Tiger squad as the starting quarterback. After missing all of last season with a knee injury, he proved he was healed as he led the Tigers in a scrimmage against the Statesboro Blue Devils two weeks ago. He has the capability of making the toss or breaking through the pile. Helping round out the offense are the strong legs of Sheldon Barnes and the catching skills of receivers Alec Velasco and Ronald Joseph.
"The key for us this year is we are going to have to execute and play some physical football," Walsh said. "This week we've been working on fixing some things and cleaning up our game."