BEARVILLE — With the opening week of practice in the rearview mirror, Pierce County turns its attention to correctible mistakes and Glynn Academy.
Head coach Ryan Herring and his staff are correcting mistakes from last week’s scrimmage against Groves of Savannah. The coaches are also treating this week like a normal game week culminating with a walk-through Thursday and how to board the buses and pregame warmups Friday at Glynn County Stadium ahead of 7:30 p.m. start.
“I want to introduce game week to those new players who have never experienced ‘Football Friday’,” said Herring. “We started Sunday with coming in for film sessions. We’ll go through Wednesday with practices and Thursday’s walk-through. Friday it will be our pregame meal and boarding the buses to Brunswick.”
This week’s practice schedule will be affected by Hurricane Debby, with rain expected to last through the middle of the week with a better than 90 percent chance of rain predicted early dwindling to around 40 percent at midweek.
Winds are expected to be in the 15-25 mph range with gusts up to 40 mph and could reach the 70-mph range.
Pierce County has never faced Glynn Academy on the gridiron. The Class 5A Red Terrors are coached by Rocky Hidalgo, who is entering his 11th season at the school. The Red Terrors, who went 8-3 a year ago, return six starters on offense and four on defense. “I saw them (Red Terrors) at a padded OTA (McIntosh County Academy) against Ware County,” Herring said of the final camp before the five-day acclimation period began the last week of July. “Coach Hildago does a good job there. They (Terrors) will be sound on both sides of the ball.
“I was impressed with their quarterback (senior Jayden Ellis) and running back (senior Greg Peacock, 5-10, 175). That will allow us to see where we are at on the defensive side of the ball. Offensively, we’ll be challenged in trying to move the ball. I’m looking forward to this matchup because it will let us know where we are at on both sides of the ball.”
The fleet-footed Ellis moved to the quarterback postion from tailback midway through the season with Glynn Academy switching from the I-formation to an option scheme attack.
Pierce County will have an open date Friday, August 16 before entertaining Alabama Class A Coosa Christian School of Gasden, Ala., August 23. The Conquerors have lost in each of the last two state championship games.
