The lack of spring football may be less hurtful to Veterans than most schools. The Warhawks, who will start their third season under coach Milan Turner, have already established the program’s winning culture. And when the staff sends workouts home, they’re confident that most of the players are following those plans.
“I really feel for the guys who took a new head coaching job or who have new coordinators and were making schematic changes,” Turner said. “We’re fortunate we didn’t have that here.”
Veterans has established itself in Turner’s first two years, going 8-3 in 2018 and 9-3 in 2019, when the Warhawks lost a hard-fought game to Carrollton in the second round of the playoffs. Turner said he’d never been prouder of a team in a losing effort and said, “it spoke volumes to where this program is and where our kids expect to be.”
Back-to-back playoff seasons – coming off a 2-8 campaign before Turner’s arrival – has created great enthusiasm.
“I think we’re in a good place,” Turner said. “We’ve got our system in and we’ve established our culture. The kids understand what we’re doing and what our expectations are. We’d like to be in spring ball, but that’s not possible so we’re doing the best we can.”
Veterans began its off-season weight program after Christmas. The players finished mat drills at the end of February. The staff had begun its quarterback school and defensive meetings when school was cancelled, eventually for the rest of the year.
In the meantime, Veterans has started conducting its meetings through the Zoom platform. That’s how the coaches have their staff meetings and how the position coaches connect with the players. Turner has even started having weekly meetings with various college staffs to pick their brains and look for something new.
The Veterans offense will be in good shape, with eight starters back from a year ago. The offensive line returns nearly intact and there are three senior wideouts who return, among them Justin McCarty and Nate Boehm. They’ll be led by quarterback Blake Ethridge, who threw for 1,300 yards as a junior, and two-way threat running back Lebron Fields (1,129 yards, 10 touchdowns rushing; 17 receptions).
The defense has more work to do. The defensive line and linebacking crew were almost depleted, leaving the secondary as the backbone.
The special teams is in good hands with Daniel Gibbs, one of the state’s top-ranked kickers. Gibbs puts most of his kickoffs in the end zone, is a long-distance threat and also serves as the team’s punter.
The Warhawks have a difficult schedule. They are in a revamped Region 1 that includes Warner Robins, Ware County, Wayne County and Coffee. The non-region schedule features Northside, Jones County, West Laurens, Houston County, Perry and Oconee County. Nine of those teams made the state playoffs and two reached the final.
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