Summer of symmetry?

Summer of symmetry?

Marion opens fall camp after eventful offseason

Sports Editor The Marion Patriots hope to see some parallels when their kickoff their 2016 football season this fall.

The Pats opened fall camp away from home at the same place that the team would presumably like to play their game this year: War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, the site of every Arkansas High School state championship game.

“Yeah, I don’t think we’d mind ending our season there where we started it,” says third-year Marion head football coach Jed Davis prior to his team’s first workout on its home turf on Friday afternoon.

“We feel like we had a good summer for the most part, but now we’re really excited to get busy in the fall.”

Davis has always sought to create a nice balance between football work and team-building exercises as a football coach, dating back to his days at Mayflower.

That hasn’t changed this year as his Pats have just returned from their annual “Band of Brothers” retreat, which was the reason that the team practiced in Little Rock. They also have a father-son retreat scheduled for this weekend, as well as an event where the team dresses up and treats their mothers to a night out as a way to show appreciation for their contributions. Despite those outings, Marion also took part in a number of 7-on-7 tournaments this summer, including the Sonic Air Raid tournament, one of the biggest events in the state of Arkansas.

“For us, I feel like the 7on-7’s were really important this summer as we’re trying to replace our quarterback from last year,” Davis explains while referring to 2016 graduate Tyler Holmes, a two-year starting signal-caller for the coach. “We understand that nobody is going to win a state championship ring for winning a 7-on-7 summer tournament, but you can still learn a lot about your team. You work on your schemes on offense and defense, kids run routes and get better that. I love the competitive nature of them too. It’s hard to learn that at practice against your guys.”

At those tournaments, Marion lined up against state football powers such as Bentonville and Springdale, while also claiming a win against last season’s Class 7A state champion Fayetteville, as well as Class 6A contemporary Russellville, who the Pats actually defeated three times.

“Some people think that the only good football is played in Northwest Arkansas, so it’s nice to show some of these other coaches that we know how to play and coach a little football in this part of the state too,” Davis says. “We may not have the $7 million practice facility or elevators in our press box, but when we put the ball down on the field, we can play with anyone.”

The biggest decision that Davis will be asked to make this offseason is picking his starting quarterback in 2016.

That call will likely come down to a pair of juniors in Jacob Green and Peyton Walker, each of whom played roles on last season’s 5-7 team.

“The biggest deal for us is that Peyton starts on defense for us too,” Davis says of Walker, who quarterbacked the 2014 Marion Junior Patriots to a co-district championship with Jonesboro outfits MacArthur and Annie Camp. “So they’re both gonna play at times, but they’re both the same style of quarterback, which helps us coaches, because we don’t feel like we have to install different or new stuff to put them into a position to succeed.”

Marion will play its sanctioned benefit scrimmage against Gosnell on the road on Tuesday, August 23 and that will begin at 6 p.m.

The Pats will open their 2016 season in Wynne on Friday, September 2 at 7 p.m. and their home schedule kicks off on Friday, September 9 at 7 p.m.

against Jackson, Missouri.

By Chuck Livingston