[5/3/03]Last season Vicksburg was predicted to be No. 1 in the state in many preseason publications. With eyes on the State Championship, the Gators may have overlooked several opponents as they finished with an 8-4 record and a first-round playoff loss.

This spring Vicksburg looks to regroup as it returns with another strong team consisting of 31 seniors. The team returns seven offensive starters and eight defensive starters.

Coach Alonzo Stevens is optimistic about this year’s crop of players.

“There’s always high expectations,” he said. “But we feel that we have the potential, if we continue to work, to have a pretty good football team. For most of these guys it’s their third year playing. We have a good nucleus.”

Gone from last year’s team is quarterback Justin Henry, who threw for 1,653 yards with 19 touchdowns and three interceptions.

Stevens is looking at a quarterback battle this spring between senior James Jackson and junior Eugene Morgan.

The Gators also lost bruising running back Phelan Gray to graduation, but they return with a pair of quality backs in seniors Michael Rainey and Maurice Taylor, who also played wide receiver last year.

Also coming back on offense is senior Ben Shelton, who led the county in receiving last season with 41 catches for 652 yards and seven touchdowns.

The Vikings’ record of 18 consecutive playoff appearances will be on the line this season as they enter spring practices with a young team.

Warren Central is busting with talent, but lacking in experience.

“We’ve got major rebuilding to do with our team,” coach Robert Morgan said. “We lost 21 seniors, and in that we lost eight starters on offense and eight on defense, so that’s a pretty big chunk.”

Morgan said he expects the strength of his team to be the offensive line, which returns two starters from last season.

The Vikings also have a quarterback battle brewing among senior Amos Chase, junior Chase Douglas and junior Christian Hales.

The defense will be built around linebackers Vaughn Mims and Jesse Pedyfoot.

Senior kicker Will Clark also provides a strong leg that helped Warren Central win several games last year.

Morgan looks to use the spring to evaluate his players and decide which positions best suit their abilities.

“We don’t know for sure where anybody’s going to be just yet,” he said. “But we’ll get there.”

It was a disappointing season for Porters Chapel in 2002 as it lost starting running back Wesley Purvis with a broken leg halfway through the season.

The Eagles look to bounce back this spring with a young, promising team.

Sophomore Gerald Mims will start at quarterback following a productive season of 649 passing yards with eight touchdowns and six interceptions.

Kenny Simms, also a sophomore, will pick up the duties at tailback behind a strong offensive line that returns four starters.

Coach Bubba Mims said his defense will be improved this season as they return eight starters from last year’s squad.

“It’s kind of hard to tell how we’re going to do,” he said. “We’re losing some pretty good players, and we’re in a very tough district. But we’ll be competitive if we work hard over the summer.”

St. Aloysius came out of the gate strong with six straight wins to start 2002, but it couldn’t finish the race, dropping its final four games including a first-round playoff loss.

Head coach Jim Taylor said St. Al is returning a good core of skilled players this spring.

Senior Drew Mazzanti will pick up the offense where Chad Cox left off at quarterback, with a pair of senior targets in Austin Golding and Anthony Rector.

“We’re going to do some different things on offense based on personnel,” Taylor said. “We hope to throw the ball more because we don’t have a lot of power or proven backs.”

On defense, Taylor said the Flashes will be fine at linebacker and defensive back, but he is concerned about the defensive line.

“It’s tough right now because we’ve got kids in other sports,” he said. “We’ve only been working on fundamentals with no pads.”