HI G H S C H O O L FO OTBAL L PREVIEW
LITTLE AXE INDIANS L
uck was hard to come by for the Little Axe Indians during the 2020 season. Little Axe caught no breaks between Class 3A’s competitive District 2, a myriad of injuries, key transfers and COVID-19 canceled games that all led to an 0-9 record in Ethan Feuerborn’s first year as head coach. “We even lost our two preseason scrimmages and first scheduled game of the season due to COVID protocol,” the head coach said reflecting on the 2020 season. “So really the first time we had a chance to see our kids play in a real football game was in week two of the season. Between contact tracing and injuries, we ended up starting 15 freshmen and sophomores over the course of the season. “All in all though, we came out really ahead because we had a bunch of kids who can’t even drive yet get valuable experience and we expect a lot of those young guys to make strides over summer and into this season.” Quarterback was a position Feuerborn expected to see some growing pains after the Indians saw their first two players on the depth chart transfer, but he says they were set back even further when Kody Dellinger (Sr, 6’1”, 195) was lost for the year prior to last season due to a season-ending knee injury. “Kody was going to be our guy,” he said. “We had to start from square one after he went down because all of the sudden we didn’t have a guy on the team who had ever taken a snap. He’s someone who worked his butt off in rehab and, with us getting to do spring ball, team camp and seven-on-seven tournaments with him, he’s already gotten better. That’s a credit to him because he’s taken those steps, and now we are starting to see him be more vocal as a leader like he needs to be.” Dellinger will get the reins of the offense with a new style of play and a new coordinator in 2021. Little Axe will move from the dive-option attack towards a balanced spread option attack as Bishop McGuinness offensive assistant, Stroad Lanham, takes over the play-calling duties.
“The new system is going to be more spread-oriented.” Ethan Feuerborn
58 | August 2021
“The new system is going to be more spread-oriented, but we’re still going to be concentrated on running the ball and play action,” Feuerborn said. “We will just be running everything out of the shotgun now as opposed to under-center.” The 2020 leading rusher for the Indians and first-team, all-district back, Corey Shackleford, graduated. Now the Little Axe offense will look at a trio of backs in Robbie Hughes (Jr, 5’9”, 165) alongside Jesus Kirkes (So, 5’7”, 136) and Elijah Edwards (So, 6’1”, 205).
