Spring drills open with optimism

By TODD HVEEM
CHRONICLE CORRESPONDENT
The Cy Creek Cougars have won 15 of their last 16 District 15-5A football games.
Yet, head coach Greg McCaig was surprised when the Cougars were ranked among the top five teams in the state by the early edition of Dave Campbell's Texas Football Magazine.
Don't believe all that stuff,'' said McCaig, who has guided the talent-laden Cougars to back-to-back conference championships. A lot of the guys they are basing that stuff on have graduated.''
And a lot them haven't.
Cy Creek returns two of the top skill position players in the Houston area in running back Jermichael Selders and quarterback Chucky Keeton. The two combined for more than 3,000 yards rushing in 2009.
Jermichael was the leading rusher in the district and Chucky was the second-leading rusher in the district (last year),'' McCaig said. Chucky is unbelievably athletic.''
Cy Creek also returns seven of its 11 starters to the defensive side of the ball, including nosetackle George Woods, who is receiving a ton of Division I attention.
We have quite a few kids back and some of our younger kids are more athletic and quicker than we were last year,'' McCaig said.
But, with that being said, they still have to prove they can play at the varsity level.''
Cy Creek, which has completed two weeks of spring football practice, will have two more weeks of workouts before it concludes spring drills with its annual spring game on May 28.
When we get to spring ball, the one thing I want to find out is who my team is going to be in the fall,'' McCaig said. I don't want to go into the fall thinking about who is going to play where. We want to have that established and come back in the fall and start preparing for the season.''
Cy Creek's JV team was 9-1 in 2009.
We had some good freshmen teams last year, too,'' McCaig said. We've kind of got a little roll going right now. But in our league, I think all of these things are very cyclical.''
McCaig said he plans to concentrate on three or four things over the next two weeks of spring practice.
We have to teach our young kids how to practice,'' he said. We also want to develop some depth and get guys slotted in the right positions. Those are all very key heading into the season.''
Cy Creek's only district loss over the past two seasons came against Cy Woods in 2009.
We have had two very good years,'' McCaig said. We have been blessed with really good players and coaches who have done a great job.''
But the Cougars have something to prove after losing to Leander in the first round of the 2009 state playoffs.
We were very disappointed in that,'' McCaig said. You have to give their guys credit, but I felt like we underachieved in that game. We don't want that to happen again.''
Cy Creek will open the season against Klein Oak on Sept. 3. It then will play nine straight conference games.
It will be a 10-week grind,'' said McCaig, who has more than 200 players out for spring football.
But it is fun. That is what we play for.''