Madison County Red Raiders

Reprinted from the Madison County Journal May 3, 2007 edition

by BEN MUNRO

Legions of former Madison County head football coaches would have loved to use the words spoken by current coach Randell Owens Monday as spring practice began.
“As far as numbers go, we’re there,” Owens said. “We’re not looking to improve the numbers anymore.”
On the heels of two-straight trips to the state playoffs, the Raiders have thoroughly shored up participation level four years into Owens’ tenure. In fact, Madison County has approximately 95 players in grades 10-12 suiting up for spring practice.
Raider coaches are to the level where they’re just now searching for talent.
“At this point, we’re looking for quality,” Owens said.
Owens had to say say “no-thanks” to late-arrivers wanting to sign up on Monday morning.
Considering the spring roster doesn’t include nearly 50 rising ninth graders that attended last week’s separate spring session for rising freshmen, Madison County could have up to 150 bodies filling uniforms for the 2008 season.
“Realistically, I would expect about a 20 percent attrition from that by next fall,” Owens said. “About the 120, 130 range.”
That level of participation would have been incomprehensible 10 years ago when a sputtering program managed to suit up only 30 players on its varsity roster.
Participation numbers stabilized in the beginning of the decade, but have soared since Owens arrived in 2004.
So why are the Raiders inundating sporting goods suppliers with larger jersey orders each year?
For starters, Madison County is enjoying more success in the past three seasons than every before in the program’s 50-year existence—three straight winning seasons in region football and two trips to the state playoffs—certainly hasn’t hurt interest.
But secondly, Owens’ staff adheres to the philosophy to never run a player off; you never know the kind of player he might grow into.
Owens cites a few examples.
The coach said he never dreamed when looking at L.J. Martin, Chris Jenkins or Anthony Taylor as 10th graders that they’d end up starting as seniors on defense for last year’s 8-3 squad.
Nick Ginn didn’t play football until his 10th grade year, but wound up starting last year at defensive end.
“It’s amazing the difference a year makes of weightlifting and Mother Nature and testosterone doing its normal development and it’s been that way as long as I’ve been in it.” Owens said.
The participation boom stems largely in the younger levels. A successful sub-varsity program, which includes a thriving ninth grade program, allows players a longer time to develop without going through the rigors of practicing against the varsity as freshmen.
Owens notes that there’s a huge sophomore class coming through right now who played as freshmen last year.
“Now, you’ve got a lot of guys who are transitioning from the ninth grade locker room,” he said. “Just teaching them how to work their locker combination is a challenge now.”


Spring Football: The Run Down
Three Goals for Spring
No. 1 Evaluation
Raider Head Coach Randell Owens want to evaluate the team’s talent and where stands athletically.
No. 2 Cover the Basics
Coaches want improvement of fundamentals across the board.
No. 3 Simple X’s and O’s
Offensive and defensive coaches will implement the basic schemes.
How the Raiders do Spring
“We do things a little bit differently than a lot of folks,” Owens explains. Practices don’t involve much contact since Owens feels the players aren’t in condition yet. Practices only run two hours whereas they normally last three hours in the fall.   “You don’t want to go out three and urn them off or beat them up,” Owens said.
Madison County also looks at everybody on just one side of the football. “We look at Spring as a beginning point, a foundation,” Owens said.
On Winning a Starting Job:
Players can move up to the top of the depth chart in the spring, but there’s miles of practice to go before the season opener. “Yeah, it’s a starting point, but it won’t be over,” Owens said of player evaluation.
There are a lot of starting job to be had this year. The Raiders are seeking replacements at quarterback, free safety, rover, middle linebacker, full-back, center, left tackle, two spots wide receiver, three of four secondary spots and two on the defensive line. “We’ve got a lot of gaps to fill,” Owens said.
What Else?
“Truthfully this is a time for them to show off how much they’ve progressed in the weight room,” Owens said.
The Spring Game: Friday, May 11 at 5:30 pm

The game will resemble a regulation game “as much as we can make it,” according to Owens. Fans might see modifications made in special teams and the length of the scrimmage.