MARTINSBURG, W.Va –Spring Mills is no longer the sleeping giant and its head coach is no longer an unknown. As the interim head coach a year ago, Marcus Law led the Cardinals to the second playoff win in school history with nine wins along the way.
Entering his first season without the interim tag, he credits those that were with him on day one for getting things started.
“With the seniors last year, they really did help shape what we’re looking for and I always give those guys tribute to the success we had last year. You look at the coaching staff and I always said that having a guy like Buddy (Hesen) on staff with 30-some years of experience, there’s probably much he hasn’t seen,” Law said.
Keying the Cardinals on both sides of the ball will be senior Max Anderson who will man a safety position on defense while returning to the quarterback position for the fourth consecutive season. Law is hoping to see improvement in the finer details of Anderson’s passing game this season.
“One of the things we’ve been harping on is anticipating those throws. A lot of times, you look at quarterbacks, they want to wait until that guy’s open. You can do that until you see a team like Jefferson that can close that window very, very quickly,” he said.
Anderson has weapons aplenty once again with targets including his younger brother Xavier, senior slot receiver Keyon Mills and junior breakout candidate Hope Bokwe. In the backfield, returner Kam Taylor is expected to share carries with Musselman transfer Blake Sanders in a timeshare Law has high hopes for.
“I’ve always been one that I’m going to ride the hot hand,” he said, “I tell the kids all the time, ‘give me a reason not to take you out of the game.’ We talked yesterday that it is going to be a committee thing. I don’t care who starts.
Leading the way in the trenches is an offensive line that returns three important pieces along with Abel Meza, a key reserve in 2023, and North Hagerstown transfer Travis Correia. Meza joins starting left tackle Prophet Guillaume as a two-way contributor while the younger Anderson fills out the other spot on the defensive line.
A trio of new linebackers will man the middle of defensive coordinator Buddy Hesen’s vaunted 3-3-5 stack with an experienced group of defensive backs behind them. Taylor, Bokwe and Isaiah Wang return as experienced quarterbacks while Max Anderson and Mills are back as safeties with more than a handful of snaps under their belts.
“It’s actually a pretty experienced group there and they got all the work during 7 on 7. They have great communication between that back four so I think they can help us. It’s probably one of our strongest suits,” Law said.
One irreplaceable part of the Spring Mills defense from 2023 is linebacker Nico Loeber who passed away in an accident over the summer. The Cardinals opening night game against Jefferson has been dedicated as “A Night For Nico” and Law says Loeber will be missed dearly on and off the field.
“It’s hard to replace Nico. I think what he brought to the table was tremendous for us, not just the physical piece of it, the attitude piece of it, never wanting to quit. It’s really hard to replace a kid like that and we don’t have a kid like that on our roster right now,” Law said.
Spring Mills faces Jefferson at 7pm on Friday with the radio broadcast available on the Panhandle News Network.
