Herons will scrimmage Charlton Co., Rutland
CANEY BAY — Two months under a new regime will be on full display Friday night when Brantley County participates in a threeteam scrimmage in Folkston under first-year head coach Matt Hickox.
The Herons will scrimmage August 7, the first of two, against host Charlton County and Rutland High School from Macon with action scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.
Brantley County travels August 14 to Alamo to scrimmage host Wheeler County and Butler of Augusta at 7:30 p.m.
The home-grown Hickox takes over the Herons’ program after David Shores resigned and moved on to a coaching position with the Camden County program.
BCHS is coming off a winless campaign, its first since posting consecutive 0-10 seasons to begin the 21st century. “The biggest thing I’ve had to try to implement is the start of the new standard,” said Hickox, who played for former head coach Sean Pender. “That’s kind of been our motto this year — ‘The start of the new standard’. I’ll be very blunt ... I’m not going to say it’s a better standard, it’s just a different standard than what they’re used to.
“We’re (coaches) trying to get the players to understand how they’re supposed to work, and hold themselves accountable, and then also hold each other accountable. The main focus has been teaching the players how to work, teaching them how to lift, how to transition, how to get in and out of the huddle, do it with excellence in everything that they’re doing.”
The second thing, according to the new coach, has been teaching and improving the football IQ of the players.
“We’ve (coaches) got to develop football IQ in these players so they understand the big picture ... so they understand their role in what we’re doing,” Hickox said. “It’s a cool moment when the bulb goes off and they start to understand the big picture. Right now, we’ve (coaches) got to turn on some of those light bulbs fast.”
Hickox and his staff have taken BCHS to several OTA’s (Organized Team Activities) at both Frederica Academy and Atkinson County.
“We threw against Frederica and Pinewood (Christian) in June and really had some eye-opening experiences,” said Hickox recalling the first OTA. “There were a lot of good things to happen at that camp. I got to see some guys compete. We (coaches) got to to see guys get after it and make plays. It was also a great mirror test. We got to look in the mirror and see what we knew, what we didn’t know.”
Hickox said the first trip to Atkinson County was another mirror test.
“This was another chance to to see how we’re going to respond to competition,” the first-year coach said. We had some kids melt and we had some kids explode. The coaching staff came together and corrected issues.
“The team responded over the next two weeks. We went back to Atco and performed a lot better. We (coaches) saw some really good things. Again, it was another mirror test.”
Hickox wants to see how well his offensive unit performs with a new offense and his defensive unit performs with a tweaked scheme.
“It’s a growing process,” he said of both sides of the ball. “Offensively, it was up to us to form an offensive system around the players we have. Our (coaches) goal is to put the ball in the hands of our best athletes and to get them in space.
“Defensively, it’s a similar style to what they ran last year. But at the same time, as much as it’s alike it’s that much different as well. Right now we are very basic. We’re sticking with base packages and and basic stunts and blitzes and coverage.”
Hickox says the game plan over the next two weeks heading into the August 21 season opener at Bacon County is to scale back and focus on what the team can execute.
“We (coaches) want to see offensively what we were good at under fire,” he said. “Our identity is going to be evolving based on what the players are good at. I want us to become more physical as the season progresses.
“Defensively, we want to make it simple so the guys can play fast. Once we’re able to pick up on the more basic stuff, we can get a little more complex. But right now, the main thing is just making sure the players not only know what to do and do what they’re supposed to do, but do it every play.”
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