VALDOSTA —
Overall, Valdosta’s football coach was pleased with his team’s performance in last week’s scrimmage.
Valdosta routed Ware County 35-10 last Friday in a preseason scrimmage at Memorial Stadium in Waycross. The Wildcats scored touchdowns on each of their first four possessions, which helped them build a commanding first half lead.
Valdosta amassed 381 yards of total offense against Ware. Valdosta quarterback Shelby Wilkes completed 18 of 21 passes for 207 yards and a touchdown. Nelson Herring led the team with 68 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 12 carries. The Wildcats’ defense limited Ware to 244 yards of total offense and one touchdown. The Gators’ ground game managed 105 yards on 33 carries (3.2 yards per carry).
“(There were) things that I thought we did well,” Valdosta head coach Rance Gillespie said. “I thought defensively we played hard, we flew around, we played fast. That’s really a good place to start. It really is. Offensively, I thought we made some plays. They threw some different fronts at us, they threw some blitzes at us. I thought we did a much better job than we have the past two years of recognizing those things, picking those things up and not blowing gaskets over those types of things. I thought we showed some maturity in that part.”
However, Gillespie admitted that there are plenty of things his team needs to improve on.
“But there’s still a lot to work on. There’s some certain areas where we were a bit sloppy that we just want to clean things up. (We want to) be the football team that we can be. We want to reach our full potential as a football team, which is what every coach in the state is trying to get their team to do right now,” he said.
Valdosta has more than two weeks between last Friday’s scrimmage and its season opener on Sept. 1 against North Augusta (S.C.) in Suwanee. The Wildcats plan to take advantage of that time.
“This is a good (off) week for us, because it gives us a couple of days to correct some things that we saw from the scrimmage. It gives us some days to still have some physical practices, which we wanted to do (on Tuesday). And it gives us a couple of days to get ready for (North Augusta),” Gillespie said. “We’ll spend tomorrow concentrating a little bit more on North Augusta. Then we’ll get one more good day against each other.”
“We’re fixing to play a team that’s (going to be playing) their third game,” Gillespie added. “They played T.L. Hanna last week, they play Midland Valley this week and then they play us. We need all the (preparation time) we can get. ”
On Tuesday, the Wildcats practiced at Bazemore-Hyder Stadium because rain had soaked their practice field and made it difficult to practice at the school. Gillespie indicated that the ’Cats had a good practice.
“I feel like we accomplished some things today,” Gillespie said. “(We were) pretty physical. We hit each other pretty good. We had a pretty good day.”
——
Tickets for Valdosta’s season opener are being sold at the Valdosta ticket office at the Valdosta City Schools Central Offices on Williams Street.
The Wildcats will travel to Suwanee on Sept. 1 to face North Augusta (S.C.) at North Gwinnett High School. The game begins at noon. It is the first game of a Saturday tripleheader at North Gwinnett. Tickets for the game are $10, and are good for all three games.
Some of the proceeds from the tickets purchased at the VHS ticket office will go to the Wildcat football program. Valdosta will not receive any money from tickets sold at the game.
Local Sports
Related Photos
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Valdosta defensive back Josh Norwood (4) tackles Ware County’s Jarquez Bolds (9) during last Friday’s scrimmage in Waycross. Bo Carter | Waycross Journal-Herald
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Valdosta quarterback Shelby Wilkes (4) looks for a receiver during practice. Wilkes passed for 207 yards and a touchdown in the Wildcats’ 35-10 win over Ware County in a scrimmage last Friday in Waycross. Christian Malone | The Valdosta Daily Times
Discussion
’Cats working during off week
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