There will be big changes for Pinecrest Academy football this fall, but coach Charles Wiggins plans to approach this season very much the same as before.

“We’re known to be a physical, hard-hitting team, and that’s one of the things that we mandate,” Wiggins said after Pinecrest wrapped up spring practice recently.

“Because we’re such a small team, we’ve got to be in better shape, we’ve got to be more physical, and we’ve got to think about what we’re doing every time we play because one little mistake can cost us [more than it would a deeper team].

“That's something that I’ve been pushing since I’ve been here and it seems to have been successful for me, and I’m not going to stop.”

When the new season starts, Pinecrest will be taking that hard-hitting approach into a brand new setting, as the Paladins join the Georgia High School Association.

Pinecrest Academy is leaving the Georgia Independent Schools Association after six seasons of GISA play.

One thing Wiggins looks forward to is shorter road trips. Instead of multiple trips to south Georgia each year like his team faced in GISA, the Paladins will face a slate of Region 5-A opponents who play in and around Atlanta.

The flip side, he points out, is that those teams should bring more fans to the Pinecrest campus for home games. The Pinecrest stadium has been outfitted with new bleachers for this season, increasing seating capacity by 200, to about 750.

“All of our teams are pretty good in our region, and we’re looking forward to seeing where we stack up against the GHSA,” Wiggins said.

The coach noted that many of the Paladins’ new region opponents already play against Pinecrest at the middle school level. Pinecrest offers instruction in all grades.

“Basically we’ve been able to compete at the middle school level with everyone and we’re looking forward to playing them at the varsity level. Some of the boys ... they’ve known [the opposing players] since they were small, so we’re looking at going at it with them,” Wiggins said.

But those games are months away, and Wiggins is still unraveling what he saw during spring drills.

With 14 players graduating from last season’s state semifinalist team, and three rising seniors who opted not to play this season, Wiggins has plenty of holes to fill on his small roster.

The coach says the offensive line — with just one returning starter — is particularly inexperienced.

The defense returns eight starters, with the linebacking corps hit hardest by graduation.

Sophomore move-in Zach Guard (6-foot-1, 200 pounds), who played at Cincinnati’s Elder High School, has caught the coach’s eye in the preseason. Wiggins said Guard will plug the middle linebacking hole and play on offense as well.
Joe Neiner, Bryce Haynes, Shawn Ingram and Preston Stafford all return from All-Region 2009 seasons, while rising junior Jacob Carr will seek an encore from a 500-yard rushing season last year.

“My defense is strong and in spring that’s normally the case anyway. I’ve got some good returning starters on offense that, if I can get them to ball, we’ll be alright,” Wiggins said.

“I have a good nucleus of All-Region players that are returning from last year’s team that will help us.”

More than anything, Wiggins seems eager to prove his team can hold its own in the state’s largest athletic association.

“We hope that we’ll make our county proud of us. Because of all the big schools around, we want to [do well]. Now we’re in with the big boys and hopefully we can do the same things that we’ve done in GISA ... The Lord has blessed us and I don’t see why He wouldn’t bless us any further [after the move].”