New talent revealed during spring workouts in Gentry and Gravette

Lions stay competitive

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

— Spring workouts were cut a day short for Gravette’s football team, but coach Bill Harrelson didn’t take things easy on his players during those nine days.

“We wanted to make it as competitive as we can so we see the kids in a competitive situation,” he said after the Lions wrapped up spring drills with an Orange-Black game Thursday night. “We get a chance to see everybody. We had 53 kids dressed out (Thursday) and they all got quite a few snaps.

“We got film on all of them and that’s what we tried to get so we can make evaluations from there.”

Harrelson knows what to expect from the 23 seniors on Gravette’s roster this spring, but some younger players did find places to shine.

“We saw a lot of good things out of our young kids,” he said. “We’re impressed with some of the sophomores that stood out this year, and we had some juniors that did a good job, too.

“I think our offensive line has done a good job this year. Cody Johnson is going to start on the offensive line and play some on defense, and he’s done a good job all spring. Brandon Webb is another one that has had a good offseason and been out every day on the offensive line. We get to see them on both sides of the ball in the spring and that’s encouraging.”

Sports, Pages 11 on 06/01/2011