Cane Bay football with holes to fill this summer

Summerville – Faced with major losses in key personnel from last year’s team, Cane Bay head football coach Russell Zehr says he and his coaching staff have been working diligently to identify capable replacements for the 2024 season.

Cane Bay is in the midst of June offseason workouts, coming out of spring practice with some answers but remaining questions.

“We evaluated a lot of personnel, trying to plug in the right guy in the right spots,” said Zehr, who led the Cobras to a 6-5 record last season. “We had to work a lot in preparing our younger guys to step in. There’s a big difference between being a jayvee player and a varsity player at the AAAAA level. We are working to acclimate those guys to the varsity level.”

Zehr admits to having a good idea of what he and his staff had to work with as spring drills concluded. However, some of the plans have been affected by some players transferring to other schools and several have not been showing up in early June workouts.

“We have had to sort of start the process over in some areas so that’s been disappointing,” Zehr said.

One major void is at quarterback where the Cobras must replace a very solid and productive player, Mark Stewart, who has graduated. Looking to fill his shoes is junior Colby LaRocca, who was the backup a year ago. Sophomore Coran Houpe is up from the junior varsity and will get reps during the summer.

“Colby has a good grasp of the offense but obviously he doesn’t have the game experience yet. But we feel he can do the job,” Zehr said.

While the offensive line returns just one starter, center Mason Judy, the backs are experienced. Seniors Bryson Johnson and Austin Seabrook were starters a year ago and will be key players in the run game. Tyler Myers and Cameron Smalls also figure into the mix.

Defensively, Zehr is counting on a crop of junior varsity players to have an impact this season. Two offensive returners, twin brothers Jayden and Jaylen Smith, are moving to the defensive side of the ball and will play along the line.

Linebacker Brody Thacker, a junior, is up from the jayvee where he was a leader on that defense. Junior Cameron McCoy also could be a key factor at linebacker. Dominic Russell is the lone varsity returner at linebacker.

“The biggest concern is with the secondary where we lost a lot of experience,” Zehr said. “We’re getting those guys a lot of reps in the summer with the passing league stuff. We have the bodies. They just need to learn what to do.”