TDL: Two-A-Days - DeRidder Dragons

DeRidder, LA (KPLC) - After falling in the second round of the Class 4A playoffs to eventual champions Carencro, the DeRidder Dragons will have to replace 16 starters as they look to make another postseason run.

“We’ve got a lot of new faces in the lineup,” said DeRidder coach Brad Parmley. “Super excited about the young guys that are coming up and we think they have a high ceiling so we are excited to see what they can do.”

Offensively, the Dragons will play up-tempo and look to run the ball out of mostly split-back formations.

“[The offense is going to be] Fast-tempo, ground and pound just get after it,” said offensive lineman Dominique Wright, “quick speed, all that.”

That Parmley run-game should open up the passing lanes.

“We have a few names that we are going to look at hard this preseason is Ronnie Crosby, Alex Archeild and Darian Castille,” said Parmley. “Those are going to be our three workhorses throughout the year and depending on who’s got the hot hand, we’ll see what happens.”

Defensively, the Dragons will look the same schematically. DeRidder will be led by the linebacking duo of Kagen Jacobs and Xavier Sanders.

“It’s going to be similar to last year as far as structure goes. We’ve got a whole new defensive line coming this year and we moved some guys around at linebacker. We are very excited about Kagen Jacobs coming in at Middle Linebacker and I think Xavier Sanders is a name everybody should know,” Parmley said. “We are excited about the group we have, now how fast they’ll grow and develop, time will tell.”

Jacobs and Sanders will be the voice of the defense and are pushing the underclassmen to fill the shoes of that large senior class.

“The front seven this year we are going to be really aggressive this year we’ve got a lot of young guys but with the people we have we are going to be really aggressive,” said Jacobs.

“They’ve worked hard this summer to step up and fill in gaps that the past seniors left,” said Sanders.”

Parmley says having a normal off-season was a big help for his team this year.

“And High School Football has the ability to provide that structure and we are hoping this year, we can have the same routines and kind of grind it out and get in that rut which is a good thing in my opinion because they want to see that discipline and that consistency throughout the entire football season.”

Being able to benefit from a normal routine this season also allows DeRidder to better evaluate their roster develop younger talent.

“The goal is to always maximize your talent,” said Parmley. “At the end of the year if you can look back and you can tell your kids that we put them in the right spot they did everything that was asked of them to do and that’s all we can ask them.”

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