The Charles Henderson Trojans football team closed out the first spring under new head coach Phillip Jones this past weekend with a spring game against Russell County. 

Things were a bit different this spring as Jones held combined spring practices with the varsity and middle school teams.

“Not only did we have to get one team ready but we had two teams to get ready this spring, so that was a lot on our coaching staff,” Jones said. “That’s no excuse, we try to be one unit around here. We’re just trying to get everyone bought into what we’re doing. There’s a learning curve but I’m up for the challenge and our staff is up for the challenge.”

Jones said the spring was about finding out who the coaches could count on in crunch time.

“The thing about spring is it’s where you find out who can play and who can’t or who you can count on or who you can’t,” he said. “That’s what spring is all about for me.” 

Against Russell County, Jones saw some good and bad from his Trojans in the spring game.

“We have a lot of work to do on defense,” he emphasized. “We moved the ball from time to time on offense. We’re putting in a new offensive scheme and I think we had some good moments with the offense. We have a lot of holes to fill on defense, though.”

Charles Henderson is implementing a pure spread offense under new offensive coordinator Jeremy Johnson, who was a star quarterback at Auburn along with playing professional football for a number of years.

“I think it went pretty well,” Jones said of Johnson’s implementation of the new offense. “We’re going on just 15 days, so I think it went well for having to cram everything in during that time. Jeremy Johnson did a great job with that. He’s doing really well. He’s here to prove himself and he’s done really well with the offense. I’m pleased with his work ethic. He works hard and is all about developing the kids.”

Jones and the Trojans now set their sights to offseason workouts in the summer to get ready for fall.

“We want to hit the ground running,” he said. “We have a lot of work to do and we have to get bigger, faster, stronger and build our confidence. That’s our main thing right now so that we can be ready to play fast. Once you build confidence you can play fast and strength comes along with that. We have a lot of development to do.”