VHS, St. Al begin workouts; WC set to start next Monday.

While the Vicksburg High spring sports teams are enjoying great success, it won’t slow down the Gators football program.

Coach Alonzo Stevens’ club opened spring practice Monday afternoon. Across town, St. Aloysius coach Jim Taylor welcomed 20 Flashes out for spring drills.

Warren Central will wait until next week to begin its drills, while Porters Chapel is still involved in the Academy A state baseball playoffs.

For the Gators, the emphasis this spring will be on defense. Assistant coach Toriano Wells takes over the defensive coordinator’s role after the departure of assistant David Tadlock.

&#8220We’ve got a lot of teaching to do this spring because we need to do some things on defense, especially with our linebackers,” Stevens said.

The Gators are coming off a 7-5 season which saw them shut out archrival Warren Central for the first time ever at Viking Stadium. They later lost a first-round playoff game at three-time defending Class 5A champion South Panola.

&#8220We lost some playmakers off that defense like Harold Knight, Gerald Mims, Quartez Ashmore, Willis McGowan and Raymond Reed,” Stevens said in reeling off much of his team’s defensive leadership.

Knight and Ashmore were the Gators’ two leading tacklers in 2005. Knight is headed to East Central Community College.

&#8220We need to find some linebackers, but I think we’ve got some good candidates. The offense is pretty set,” Stevens said. &#8220We’ve got a good offensive line back, a lot of our skilled players are back and so is our quarterback.”

Returning quarterback Stanton Price is still playing baseball along with receivers Vernon Wolfe and Delmon Robinson. Stevens said rising sophomore Les Lemons will get most of the reps during the spring.

Returning tackle Mark Cabatay, projected to be one of the state’s best players next fall, said he was looking forward to the spring workouts.

&#8220It’s a way to get back into shape, get some reps and smash some people,” Cabatay said. &#8220Most of all, we just want to work hard and get better.”

Cabatay will be one of 65 or so players out at Vicksburg. The team is scheduled to practice 14 times and then conclude the workouts with a jamboree on May 12 at Mendenhall.

&#8220We’ll have three or four days in shorts and the other 11 will be in pads,” Stevens said. &#8220We go to Mendenhall on the 12th where we’ll play Pearl, Magee, Hazlehurst and Mendenhall in a spring jamboree.”

At St. Aloysius, Taylor said the Flashes will work on the basics.

&#8220We’ll spend a lot of time on fundamentals, but it won’t be a long workout because we’ll only have 18 or 20 kids,” Taylor said. &#8220It’s going to be a progressive type of thing, mainly see how we go. We are going to work a lot in the passing game.”

St. Al didn’t have much time to work last year because Taylor had the golf team. This spring, head basketball coach Drew McBrayer took over the St. Al linksters, giving Taylor time to work on football.

&#8220It’s helped me get more involved in our off-season program,” Taylor said. &#8220We’re going to be a much better football team this year. We’ve got good skilled people back and a good line.”

St. Al will not have a spring game.

At Warren Central, assistant coach Robert Morgan said the Vikings expect between 80 and 90 players to begin spring drills. They will conclude work by May 21 with a Red-White scrimmage.