As the calendar continues inching closer to the August 18 opener against Danville, the Greencastle football team continues perfecting its offensive and defensive schemes under first year head coach David Stephens.
The former Owen County offensive coordinator and 1997 Greencastle graduate has been working with the Tiger Cubs through the offseason and has seen quite an excitement and buzz surrounding his program.
Furthermore, he admits he has watched a lot of last year's film to get a feel for where the team was at.
"As this is my first year, we watched a lot of film coming in to get a feel for where the team was at. I felt like there was some athletic potential that was there but it just wasn't coming together in a cohesive team on a consistent basis," Stephens told The Putnam County Post.
The Tiger Cubs finished last year on a three game skid en route to a 4-6 campaign that ended with a loss to Cascade in the sectional tournament. Gone from last year's squad are Chase Carrington and Ryan Beauchamp, two players Stephens said played a "huge role" for the Tiger Cubs.
"We are working hard to have a program that really has a next man up approach to replacing departing talent. We have had several players step up in those particular positions," Stephens said.
As a result, Greencastle embarked on a strong offseason and Stephens admits he has seen significant gains from multiple players, making it hard for him to single out individual players.
"So many guys have made huge growth to really single any players out. I am very pleased with the development of our entire defense from April to now and also with the development of our passing game," Stephens said.
Greencastle will look run a spread offense and get the ball around, according to Stephens.
"Offensively, we run a spread offense and we will definitely spread the wealth. I am particularly excited about the emergence of Owen Huff at receiver. Lamar Moore at running back has been really explosive this summer. Brayden Monroe has had a breakout season at tight end and defensive end this summer," Stephens said.
As he continues to move closer to the season opener, Stephens acknowledges there are challenges, but the Tiger Cubs will remain focused.
"Our goal is to focus on ourselves and control what we can control. As long as we take of our own business, we should be able to compete in our conference and our sectional," Stephens said.
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