Packers, new football staff open spring practice

May 3—MOULTRIE — Sean Calhoun will see his first Colquitt County football team in full battle dress for the first time on Wednesday in the opening session of the Georgia High School Association-allotted 10 days of spring football practice.

The Packers new head coach and his staff have made some headway in getting to know the group of Packers they will send out for the 2022 season.

But having seen the players in competition mode only on video, Calhoun and his assistants will seek answers to football's age-old questions over the next two-and-a-half weeks.

"We won't be in full pads again until August," Calhoun said. "So we want to know: Can we tackle? Are we as physical as we need to be? And are the kids in the right positions?"

The first nine days of practice and the spring football game scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 20, at Cairo, will go a long toward answering those questions.

Calhoun was hired in January to replace Justin Rogers, who resigned to take the head coaching job at Thomas County Central after leading the Packers to a combined 26-7 record over the three previous seasons.

It didn't take long for Colquitt County officials to settle on Calhoun to take over the reins of the program.

He had been a head coach over the six previous seasons: five successful seasons at Carrollton and last year at Vestavia Hills in Alabama.

But he was also well-known in Colquitt County football circles for being one of architects of the Packers' ultra-successful offenses that fueled back-to-back 15-0 and state championship seasons in 2014 and 2015.

Calhoun's first group of assistants has just three holdovers from the 2021 staff — John Cooper, David Hill and Dextra Polite.

But five of the new additions are familiar to Packer fans: former players Quin Roberson, Kiel Pollard, Bryce Giddens and Bull Barge and former assistant Jeremy Rowell.

Other newcomers are Terel Toomer, Brian Simmons and Stan Luttrell.

Rowell will be the defensive coordinator and handle the safeties; Polite will again coach the cornerbacks; Luttrell will coach the linebackers and handle strength and conditioning; Barge, the linebackers; Simmons, co-defensive coordinator and special teams.

Cooper, who served as Calhoun's offensive coordinator at Carrollton, will have the same job in Moultrie and will coach the running backs. Roberson will coach the inside receivers; Hill will coach wide receivers; Pollard, the tight ends; and Giddens, the offensive line.

Barge, who is still at Thomasville, and Toomer, who is still coaching track at Macon County, have not joined the staff yet, although Barge could make some spring practice sessions.

Today's spring practice session will begin at 3:50 p.m.

The rest of the spring schedule includes May 6, 6:10 a.m.; May 9, 3:50 p.m.; May 11, 3:50 p.m. May 13, 6:10 a.m.; May 14, 10 a.m.; May 15; May 16, 3:50 p.m.; and May 18; 3:50 p.m.

Calhoun said spring drills will be held on the field next to the indoor facility.

Practices can moved inside if necessary.

Much emphasis will be placed on the defensive side of the football, where nine of the players who started the last game of the 2021 season were seniors.

The Packers gave up 272 points last year, including 31 to Camden County, 52 to Lowndes and, two weeks later in the first round of the playoffs, 41 in a playoff-opening loss to Walton.

Offensively, however, the Packers return a cadre of talented skill players, including quarterback Neko Fann, who completed 129-of-217 passes for 2,104 yards and 29 touchdowns as a sophomore last fall.

Leading receiver Ny Carr, also a rising junior, caught 40 passes for 856 yards and 13 scores.

Tight end Landon Thomas, also a sophomore last year, caught 31 passes for 516 yrds and seven touchdowns.

Running back Charlie Pace, who rushed for 1,138 yards and 12 touchdowns, is back for his senior season.

The Packers return three offensive line starters, including two-year starting tackle Turk Daniels.

Calhoun and his staff will be looking to begin building offensive depth this spring.

The Packers also will return primary place-kicker Brett Fitzgerald, who was 7-for-10 in field goal attempts and converted 50-of-52 extra point attempts as a freshman last year.

Calhoun also has built a summer schedule that will include 7-on-7 competitions at the University of Georgia on June 23 and at Collins Hill High on June 24.

There will be what Calhoun termed an "old school" padded camp at Bleckley County on June 15-16 in which the players will stay overnight in either the school gymnasium or in a local church.

"That will be good for team-bonding," Calhoun said.

There also will be padded camp at Colquitt County High School July 15-16 with teams from Cairo, Coffee and Dougherty high schools attending.

The Colquitt County rising ninth-graders will being nine days of spring practice on Thursday.

Calhoun said varsity coaches will be on hand for seven of those nine sessions.

The ninth-grade team's coaching staff will include holdovers Zack Stanaland, Cory Harper and Trey Perkins.

One addition to the staff will be former Packer Ian Brinson, who is a veteran of the 2014-2015 state championship teams and who went on to an outstanding career as an offensive lineman and team captain at Lenoir-Rhyne.

Calhoun said he is in the process of hiring one more coach for the ninth-grade staff.