With the aid of head coach Tim McFarlin, Blessed Trinity has managed to improve its record for the past two seasons and had made the playoffs two straight years for the first time in program history, according to GHSFHA.org. In 2012, the Titans made it to the second round of the playoffs before falling to Cartersville 24-23.
For the upcoming 2013 campaign, the No. 9 Titans certainly have their work cut out for them considering the plethora of starters lost on both sides of the ball. McFarlin realizes that he and his team have an uphill battle to overcome, but also looks forward to the challenge.
“The challenge for us is that we lost 29 seniors,” said McFarlin. “We lost a huge senior class and probably more importantly out of 22 starters, 11 on offense and 11 on defense, we only have seven guys coming back. We’ve got four guys on defense and three on offense.” Several of the team veterans will most likely play both ways.
With a young team, the Titans must mature at a fast rate if they want to taste the postseason for a third consecutive season.
“This group is going to have to mature, physically, emotionally and in every way you can think of,” said McFarlin. “The team is going to have to go through the maturing process because we are going to be playing a bunch of young kids.”
Even though Blessed Trinity lost quite a few seniors, the Titans possess a solid group of sophomores and juniors, 15 of which will be starting for the first time in their careers.
The guy that seems to be a rising star for the Titans is running back Milton Shelton. As a freshman Shelton carried the load for 894 yards with an impressive 5.81 ypc. McFarlin mentioned that Shelton will be the focal point of the team’s I-formation offense and will tote the rock for about 25 times a game. The team will need Shelton to continue to shine because the Titans will be starting a new quarterback this season. McFarlin brought up the fact that there will be a QB battle at stake between senior Chris Keegan (who started at safety in 2012) and sophomore Connor Davis that will run its course through the summer and possibly into August.
Of the four returning starters on defense, McFarlin spoke highly of two of the team’s linebackers, who will be leading the Titans’ 4-3 defense.
“Defensively, we have two linebackers coming back that we’re excited about.” said McFarlin. “One was our leading tackler, Patrick Jasinski, and Carter McManes. Both are very good players and they’ll be our emotional leaders on the defensive side of the ball.”
With a young team at hand, Blessed Trinity is fortunate to have a great leg in Marc Nolan who will handle both kicking and punting duties. Nolan has been shown interest by Maryland as a punter.
As far as the Titans’ schedule, they want to treat each game the same.
“Our first goal is to get in to the playoffs,” said McFarlin. “We really don’t lock in on just one team; we really are going to have to work hard this year to get back to the playoffs and once you get there anything can happen.”
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