Holy Spirit Prep Moves Into New Football Conference

This year, Holy Spirit Prep will leave the Georgia Independent School Association to compete in the Georgia Football Conference, where they hope to be more competitive.

Holy Spirit won only one game last year but with eight players back who were two-way starters, this team is bigger, stronger and a lot more experienced, making head coach James Falcetti a lot more confident about posting Ws this year.

Falcetti said his team went into the offseason with one glaring need, a quarterback who could effectively run the Wishbone offense. It's a complex offense for high school players to learn and to execute. It puts a lot of pressure on the quarterback. In addition to being a team leader, the Wishbone quarterback has to be able to read defenses exceptionally well, be a good decision maker and a good open field runner.

Falcetti thinks he has his man in George Maranville. Maranville demonstrated in the off season that he has what it takes to lead his team.

Maranville will start behind an offensive line that returns three starters from a year ago in tackles William Opperman and Sam Grisham and guard Ryan Casey. In the Wishbone, the fullback has to be a bull of a runner and exceptional blocker as well. Falcetti thinks Andy Moots has the tools to get the job done. William Jacons will be counted on to cover a lot of real estate from his running back position.

Wishbone quarterbacks run more than they pass, but Maranville will have a couple of reliable targets in wide receive Jonah Raus and tight end Todd Jones.

Something else Falcetti says he found in the off season is a team with an attitude.

"We're going to play with a certain chip on our shoulders this year," Falcetti said. "We've got a lot of younger guys, a lot of freshmen and sophomores who will have to step up and compete at the varsity level. But what we learned about them is that they are a lot hungrier than we thought they were. They want to go into this new league and make a name for themselves as a tough team, a team that will compete the whole game and take their opponents all the way into the fourth quarter."

The defensive strength should be at linebacker where Holy Spirit will have four returning starters in Moots and Casey who will play inside backer and Jones and Luke Voss who will line up at outside backer.

Maranville and Patrick Higgins should provide a solid pass rush from their defensive end positions and Opperman should be able to plug up the middle from his nose tackle spot.

But Falcetti will have to find some capable cover guys as Raus will be the only returning defensive back.

Falcetti said the young football program at Holy Spirit has had its ups and downs over the years, but with a veteran team returning with an attitude, he fully expects 2011 to be one of the up years.

"A lot of returners leave us optimistic for the 2011 season," he said. "We have a lot of experienced veterans who have proven to be reliable leaders and solid performers on the field. Our linebacking core is going to be all tough seniors and when you have a handful of guys playing physical from kickoff to victory kneel, you can go a long way in high school football."