Junction City ready for busy summer

As the calendar gets further into June, things are ramping up on the summer slate for Junction City.

After wrapping up spring practice, the Dragons have several 7-on-7’s they will be participating in before fall practices get underway with David Carpenter returning as the head coach.

Carpenter said he was happy with how spring workouts went.

“It went real well,” Carpenter said. “We focused more on doing not the conditioning type of work, but more of technique going into it versus running the plays and all of those type things with the backs learning how to read the linemen and what they were going to do as they were lining up against different defensive fronts and the receiver reading the secondary.

“Just going over all of those things that you have to go over with because it’s been a while since last fall, so getting that part of it back down because we’re going to start 7-on-7 and team camps and all of that and wanting to have a better understanding of what we’re trying to do than just lining up and running plays.”

Carpenter added that he was pleased with the Dragons’ numbers as well.

“We had 34 guys and ended up with 33 guys, so I thought we did pretty good,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said the Dragons will head to Magnolia for a team camp, but the bulk of their summer will be playing in 7-on-7 tournaments.

“We’re not going to do a lot of those. It’s not a good time for that,” Carpenter said of the Dragons not doing more team camps. “The 7-on-7’s, we’ve always played a lot of those. On that part of it, it’s more for the offense than for the defense.

“We call it multiple defense that we run in 7-on-7 because a lot of things that we just don’t do because of the alignments and the way that we throw the ball and all of that type of stuff. That’s part of it.

“Man coverage and all of that is vital to us, but it’s more for the offense and it’s also great conditioning to get those guys constantly running.”

Junction City will also be spending plenty of time in the weight room when they aren’t on the field.

“The main thing is the commitment,” Carpenter said. “We have X-amount of lifts and workouts you’re supposed to get during the summer. Also with the 7-on-7, getting a lot of the simple learning things down with the quarterbacks and receivers getting their timing, the quarterback reading the defense and how they’re lined up.

“Folks don’t play a lot of the same type of stuff that they do during the regular season, but when your quarterback reads his safeties and (line) backers and corners, all of that is best for them to get that done.

“With our linemen, we haven’t done the last couple of years because of COVID. We would do a 7-on-7 at our place and have a lineman challenge down in the indoor where all of those guys would get some work done, just different competitions with them. That’s what we’re looking forward to.”

Carpenter said there were two groups that have stood out during the Dragons’ workouts to date.

“Right now, our receivers are ahead of schedule,” Carpenter said. “I thought they came along as good as any group that we’ve had. Coach (Xavier) Diamond is doing an excellent job with those guys getting them to read and see what’s going on and to be able to adjust to what we’re trying to do. That was a big plus.

“Our young linemen are really coming on. They’re getting better every day. The sophomores are going to have to play for us this year because of the small senior class that we have, so those guys are making good progress.

“Now, there’s a big difference between summer progress and fall camp progress when somebody is over there beating on your head, so we’ll see a little bit more later when that comes about.”