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Beware of Bulldogs: North's defensive prowess on display in spring game
By Andrew Snyder, asnyder@starlocalnews.com
Spring cleaning is over for the McKinney North football team, which spent the past month doing what it could to polish its roster in preparation for the summer and a new football season waiting on the other end.
Tuesday's annual Orange vs. Navy spring game was a chance for the Bulldogs to put the 2012 spring to bed on an enjoyable note and give the parents, friends and fans that will fill the stands come August an early preview of what they'll see there.
“The spring game is for [the players],” said Mike Fecci, North head coach. “For all intents and purposes, we've got to see what we wanted to see. It's for them to go out and have fun and get after each other in front of mom and dad. They were able to do that tonight, and nobody getting hurt was critical and crucial for us, because we're going to need everyone that we've got. All in all it was a good spring.”
Defensive tackle Preston Spears was among the most impressive players during the spring game. The incoming junior, who earned District 10-4A Defensive Sophomore of the Year honors last season, was an active pass rusher and a disruptive force in the middle of the field for Orange.
Spears spent much of the game in pursuit of quarterback Ben Dutze, who has been pegged as the Bulldogs starting quarterback next season. Dutze saw very limited playing time last season, attempting just three passes behind starter Hunter Walling, who led North to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.
“He's a great leader, what you want in a quarterback as far as leadership goes,” Fecci said. “He's a bigger kid so he can run the football for us, and he's got a strong arm. He's a smart kid. He's got a big upside to him and he's only going to continue to get better.”
Hensley and Gabe Constantine also played at quarterback during the spring game.
“We're going to try to have as many quarterbacks as we can get out there in the program,” Fecci said.
While the scrimmage was mainly a means of rewarding players for their effort during the spring, Fecci didn't miss the opportunity to teach a few extra lessons. Two players had to take a brief pause from the action and do a few up-downs when they caught a little too much of his attention.
Suffice it to say, the Bulldogs are still a work-in-progress. One of their current areas of focus for is offensive flow. Inconsistency abounded in the spring game, with promising drives fizzling out or ending in turnovers.
“That's from being young,” Fecci said. “That's from having a couple of guys over there understand the importance of that. I don't know that we ran to the ball as well today as we've been running on defense. I think a little of that is being tired and a little bit of that is hoping to just get through it and make it, but it's all stuff we can improve on.”
Coming off a 6-5 campaign in 2012 that saw it eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs by Frisco Centennial, the bar has moved higher for the Bulldogs. They'll be moving to a new district next season alongside Denison, Greenville, Lovejoy, Royse City, Sherman, Wylie and Wylie East – a fresh set of opponents in between North and a second consecutive playoff appearance.
The spring may be over, but the Bulldogs have only begun to work.
“I think that it's critical and crucial that these kids come in and get in shape [during the summer] so that when we start on Aug. 13 we're not worried about getting them in shape – we're worried about getting better,” Fecci said. “We can just go from there, because we'll blink and Newman Smith will be here and we'll be playing.”
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