One football program that won’t be affected by the possible loss of spring football practice is Blessed Trinity.
The Titans, who will move into Class AAAAA this fall, have won three consecutive state AAAA championships, despite staying away from spring football. Coach Tim McFarlin wants his guys to be active in the spring, just not on the football field.
“Our philosophy is we want to free the kids to play multiple sports and they enjoy that,” McFarlin said. “We go watch baseball and lacrosse and track and our guys enjoy doing all that. Then, in the summer, we go three days a week. We just felt like spring was not necessary.”
It’s been that way since McFarlin arrived at Blessed Trinity nine years ago. Seems to be working. Since he arrival, McFarlin’s team have won three state titles, finished second once and won six region championships. His teams are Blessed Trinity are 104-19-1.
Much of the renovation work will begin on the line of scrimmage.
“I don’t know that we expected to do quite what we did last year, but it was on the backs of our linemen,” McFarlin said. “They’re moving on. It was a great group of guys, so we’re going to have to replace a significant number of kids on both defense and offense.”
Right guard Johnny Ryan, right tackle Ty Furnish and left tackle Landen Byars all bring experience, but there’s a big hole to replace in West Point signee Jackson Filipowicz, an all-state center who started 45 games and made all the line calls, and tight end James Bryant, who signed with Air Force.
An interesting battle at quarterback is expected to emerge between returning starter Duncan Reavis, who was expected to start in the secondary last fall, was thrust into the quarterback role at the last minute and led the team to a championship. Reavis will face a challenge from J.C. French, a junior who threw for 2,902 yards and 32 touchdowns in helping Wesleyan reach the Class A Private championship game.
Carson Harof, the team’s top receiver also returns, but running back Elijah Green graduated and is playing at North Carolina.
The defense is led by middle linebacker Ryan Dupont, a three-year starter, and defensive end Michael Mitchler, who led the team in sacks in 2019.
“We’ve got a good group of young kids and we’re excited to see what they’re going to do,” McFarlin said. “We’ve got a lot kids that will be sophomores and they’ll get a chance to play at help.
Blessed Trinity will be in the new-look Region 7-AAAAA. It includes Calhoun (which won a state title in 2017) and Cartersville (state champions in 2015 and 2016), along with improving Hiram, Cass and Woodland Cartersville.
With only six teams in the region, the Titans had to find five non-conference games and McFarlin didn’t make it easy on himself. Blessed Trinity will play AAAAAAA Alpharetta, private school rivals St. Pius and Marist, five-time defending Class A Private champion Eagle’s Landing Christian and powerful Charlotte Catholic.
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