For the first time in 12 years, a new football coach was barking out orders at Vicksburg High School when spring football practice began Monday.

Tavares Johnson Sr. opened his first spring session with his new team and his wasn’t the only new face. The Gators had nearly 90 players dressed in shorts and helmets.

Johnson replaced 11-year coach Alonzo Stevens, who retired in December. Johnson comes off a successful five-year stint at East Side in Cleveland. In 2011, the Trojans went 14-1 and advanced to the Class 3A semifinals.

Johnson said he was raring to go.

“I’m very excited,” Johnson said. “We want to get the program turned around. I don’t know what they’ve done in the past, but this spring will be pretty intense. Intensity and understanding are going to be the two big things for us. We’re going to practice with a high intensity, but we are also going to be doing a lot of teaching and that’s where the understanding part comes in. That’s why we’re going to wait a bit before we put on pads. When we’re in skulls (shorts and helmets), that’s the time to teach the correct posture for blocking and tackling.”

The Gators finished 4-7 in Stevens’ final year with just 53 players. The team suffered heavy graduation losses as co-Vicksburg Post Players of the Year, quarterback Cameron Cooksey and wide receiver A.J. Stamps, headed to East Mississippi Community College. Cooksey passed for 3,245 yards and 38 touchdowns.

Also gone are the team’s other two top receivers, Lamar Anthony and Clyde Kendrick, and its top two linemen, tackles Norman Price and Jeremy Hill. Kendrick, Price and Hill are signed to play junior college football next year while Anthony will play baseball.

The good news for Gator fans is Cooksey’s replacement, Tavares Johnson Jr., is Mississippi’s top returning quarterback, according to Max Preps. The rising junior tops the list in all four of the major statistical categories. As a sophomore at East Side, Tavares Jr., completed 201-of-307 passes for 2,836 yards and 28 touchdowns.

The big question for the Gators will be who will protect him and who will be catching passes for the new leader of Coach Johnson’s version of the spread?

Rising senior defensive back/wide receiver Jonathan Tenner is one of the few returning starters, but he has bought in already to Johnson’s approach.

“It’s going to be exciting,” Tenner said. “We have new equipment and it’s a brand new atmosphere.”

Johnson said the Gators will have 15 days to work to put in most of his packages. The lessons include an odd-front look on defense.

“We’re going to play more of an odd-front, like a 3-4,” Johnson said. “I feel like the kids are eager to learn it.”

Vicksburg will conclude spring drills with a four-team jamboree on May 19 at Memorial Stadium against Amite County, Jefferson County and Wilkinson County.