The more things change the more they stay the same.

While Region 6-AAAAA is vastly different from previous seasons, Milton head coach Scott Walker sees the pecking order remaining largely unchanged, especially at the top. When asked how he thinks the new region will play out this season, he holds his hand out flat at eye level and says, “Roswell.” He then drops his hand to shoulder height and says, “Everybody else.”

For Walker, that assessment is all about sustained success.

“North Forsyth had a great year last year. We had a great year two years ago. We didn’t earn anything. We had one good year,” he said. “Roswell’s in it every single year, so to me that’s the way I look at it. Year in and year out, even when their talent level may be down, their down years are 7-3 or 6-4. They’re still in the hunt or still in the playoffs.”

Walker’s M.O. from his first day on the job at Milton has been to create sustained success, but thus far he hasn’t been able to achieve it. He went 8-3 in 2008 and started 4-1 last season. But the Eagles closed the season on a five game losing streak.

If the Eagles are going to earn their first playoff win since 1953, or even get back to the playoffs at all, they’re going to have to rely on the one trump card that they’ll have over almost every other team they play – depth.
Up and down the lineup the Eagles are two deep with players that Walker feels confident putting on the field in any situation. That’s particularly important on defense, where Walker is honing a blitzing, pressure D that relies on being able to play fast on every down.

“We’re able to ask a bunch of 280 pound kids to play fast every play because we can keep them in for three plays, take them out and put the next guy in,” Walker said. “We’ve never been able to do that. We’ve always just played four guys. And then when you blitz every play, you’re about to pass out by halftime. I think that showed a lot last year. Our depth will keep us fresh and allow our kids to play fast throughout the course of the game.”
That trend of depth begins on the defensive line where returning starters Brandon Nix and Josh Manley will start at the end positions and will be backed up by Matt Mannino.

In the middle, Brad Benjamin, Taylor Smith, Kenny Adetayo and Chaz Bearden will rotate at the two tackle spots.
In one of the team’s more wide open position battles, Zack Toups, Kyle Wyckoff, twin brothers Garrett and Justin Antolik and Ben Hirschland are all vying to fill the three linebacker positions.

“We’ve got a lot of competition going on [at linebacker],” Walker said. “Which is good for us because competition is a better coach than we’ll ever be. They know if they don’t go hard on every play, we’ll put someone in there who will.”

Chase Coleman and Lavelle Summerlin will start at the corner positions, with Myles Taylor rotating in. At safety, Simon Dobbin, Brian Drake and Josh Money will all see significant time. “We try to find three for two when we’re practicing stuff,” Walker said. “We try to find three guys for two positions. If we can get there we feel like we’ve got the depth we need to go into the game and not feel like we’re going to get stuck.”

Offense

When the final curtain dropped on the 2009 season, so did the green flag on the competition for the 2010 starting quarterback spot. In the past nine months junior Colin McElroy and senior Joe Vance have settled nothing. Neither has staked a definitive claim to the starting spot, and Walker, at least partially blames his defense.

“I’m getting very frustrated over the last couple of weeks because I’m wanting to make a decision and I go watch film and practice, and I’m watching all this stuff, and we’re getting sacked every other play,” Walker said. “The reality is, it’s not that anything is holding either one of them back other than, we’ve got to get our protection sound.”

He said when he put the second team defense in to get a good look at the QB’s, “both of them were throwing darts out there.”The competition will likely spill over into the regular season as the Eagles will have four non-region games to continue their evaluation and make a decision heading into region play.“Either way I wouldn’t lose a bit of sleep if either one of them was playing quarterback for me on Friday night,” Walker said.

Tailback Wesley Gaston returns for his senior season after rushing for over 1,000 yards a year ago. He’ll be ably backed up by freshman Treyvon Paulk, who transferred in from Centennial, and sophomore Brandon Thompson.
Walker is particularly high on Paulk. “He will get his fair share of touches. He’s got a chance to be special,” he said. “He has tremendous balance and tremendous vision. He does things that you shouldn’t do at that age.”

Senior A.J. Canara will be the go-to man in a receiving corps that will include Spencer Conrad, Parker Smith, Mike Martin and Ryan Jenkins. Noticeably absent from that group is former two-sport star Dai Jon Parker, who opted to forgo the football season to focus specifically on basketball.

Tackle Justin Bates and center Daniel Smith will anchor the offensive line as the only returning starters. The guards are a pair of promising sophomores with size. Corey Helms and Josh Harris both tip the scales at close to 290 pounds.Duncan Farnsworth will start at the other tackle spot.

Todd Nixon, Tai Adetayo and Michael Doudna continue to battle it out for time at tight end.
“We’ve got three guys that have all shown the ability to run routes, catch, block and do all the things that we need them to do,” Walker said. “We just need one of them to do it all, all of the time.”