This year’s North Summit High School football team doesn’t plan on falling behind by two or three scores, but if it happens, second-year head coach Devin Smith has all the faith that the Braves will respond.
“I know our kids are ready to play,” he said. “They’re competitors. If they get down, they’re not going to quit. That may not mean they’re always going to win, but they’re not going to lay down for anybody.”
With the Braves scheduled to kick off their 2012 season Friday, the team faces a grueling start to the campaign. North Summit hits the road for the first three weeks, traveling to Beaver Friday, then to defending 1A state champion Duchesne and then to 2A powerhouse Millard.
In Smith’s first year at the helm, the Braves took care of business against the less-talented teams in the 2A North and South regions but struggled mightily against the big boys. In order to compete with the state’s elite, the coaching staff thrust the players into the weight room.
“None of us can control how big of kids we get, but they can control their own strength. Our kids, for the most part, have bought into that,” he said. “I think a lot of those games from last year, that was the biggest difference — we were out-strengthed. Now, hopefully this hard work will pay off. I know other teams are lifting, too, but hopefully we can balance the scale a little bit.”
Returning to the Braves offense this year will be senior quarterback Ben Stephens, a 6-foot-2 sprinter on the North Summit High School track & field team, who Smith said added 25 pounds to his frame in the off-season. That should bode well for a triple-option offense that could use Stephens’ blazing speed as an asset.
“We threw Ben to the wolves twice last year against Millard and San Juan and he did a really good job in both of those games,” Smith said. “He’s gotten very fast. He made it to the state finals in the 100-meter dash. He’s really developed physically.”
Stephens and fellow seniors Austin Scholes, Cameron Smith and Landon Richins will be team captains for North Summit this year. Scholes has imposing size and will be a force as a fullback on offense as well as the middle linebacker in Smith’s defensive formations.
Smith will start at right guard and defensive tackle, while Richins, a 6-foot-5, 200-pound talent, will be the Braves’ starting tight end and an outside linebacker/defensive end hybrid.
“He is extremely fast,” Smith said of Richins. “He’s going to be tough.”
Replacing last year’s running-back corps will be seniors Brandon Thiriot and Trenton Killian and junior Trevor Hale, according to Smith.
“None of the three are exceptionally fast,” he said. “They’re just hard-nosed kids.”
Entering his second year as head coach, Smith said he hopes to learn from his inaugural year as head coach at his alma mater.
“I know a little bit more of what to expect,” he said. “Hopefully I’m a better coach this year than I was last year — in all aspects, not just X’s and O’s, trying to get the most out of the kids and helping them have a great experience. That’s just as important in my mind. Hopefully having that year under my belt will help me feel more comfortable and be better.”
Health, much like last year, will be a key issue for the Braves this season. A slew of North Summit’s top players were injured in the middle of the 2011 season when the schedule got increasingly difficult. Smith said if the core group of starters can stay healthy, the Braves can find themselves in the mix in the 2A North region.
“It’s stacked again,” he said. “Obviously, we’d like to contend for the region title first and get ourselves in a good position in the playoffs. As long as we stay healthy, we are going to be very competitive, but our region is extremely tough.”
The quest for 2A supremacy begins Friday in Beaver as the Braves try to survive an early-season gauntlet.
“All we can do is take one at a time,” Smith said. “Obviously, the only one of those three games that matters in the standings is (region opponent) Millard, but we want to win those first two as well. Right now, we’ve got to worry about Beaver. I know they returned a lot of guys. It’ll be a good challenge for us.”