Lions look to build, improve

Building and improving are two items on the radar for the Cannon County Lions High School Football team this season.

The team finished 2-8 during the 2016 campaign which was a step up from the 0-10 season the team suffered through before.

The experience of the offensive line will be one of the main keys if the Lions are to improve in the win column.

Assistant Coach Mike Atwood likes their chances as the entire line received significant playing time with most starting last year.

"Our offensive line has Remington James at right tackle. Brian Washington at right guard. Cole Hill at center. Alex Ramsey at left guard and Noah Logsdon at left tackle," Atwood said.

Cannon found a lot of their success came last season when running the ball on the right side of the line, especially behind Washington, who is an athletic 300-pounder. Hill also is experienced at center, which is valuable with some new names in the backfield.

The starting quarterback is junior Charlie Parrish. Parrish has some experience as he played for the Jr. High team.

"He's stepped right in and taken leadership of the team," Atwood said. "He's still got the baseball throwing motion that we're working on getting him out of but he leads the offense good for us."

In the backfield along with Parrish is wide receiver turned tailback Cort Litchford. He is expected to be the workhorse and produce much of the offense for the Lions this season.

Joining Litchford will be fullback Brady Cunningham and also Pearson Hughes will see playing time at running back.

The wide receiver positions will have a good mix of speed in Ty St. John and height in sophomore Wade Love. Love stands at 6'4" and is an ideal wideout. The Lions should be able to utilize Love's height and exploit mismatches as opposing teams secondary defenses will have trouble defending him.

The tight end is also very athletic and tall with great hands. Jacob Raines returns to the team to man that position.

The defensive line is still not set. Remington James will be the key however in the middle of that line. Cole Hill will split time as a defensive end and at linebacker. Linebacking core looks to be Brady Cunningham, Dalton Morris along with Hill. When Hill is on the defensive line, look for Alex Clark to help out in the middle.

Cort Litchford anchors the Lion secondary at cornerback. Litchford has extensive experience in the secondary where he has started for the past two seasons. Ty St. John will anchor the other corner.

T.J. Daniel returns as head coach, entering his fifth season. Coach Daniel will also serve as the defensive coordinator. Mike Atwood is the offensive coordinator and has been involved in coaching for 20 plus seasons. This will be his third season on the staff.

Other coaches include Jeff Bane and John Robinson.

The Lions team welcomes back a familiar face in Ken Lockhart. Lockhart returns to Lions football after a long stint as head coach of the Westwood Jr. High program in Manchester. He is the coach of the Jr. High Lions and also will be helping with the Lions high school program, coaching from the booth upstairs during the games.

The opportunity to keep improving is realistic. The Lions have to go to Red Boiling Springs to start the season and can get a win there.

The two teams have traded wins back and forth the past few years with Cannon winning last year 34-14 in Woodbury.

The Region proves to be competitive with Sequatchie County expected to be among the teams at the top. Smith County should also be improved.

The Lions could be right in the middle of the rest, however, as this season might be the year the Lions get some victories against region opponents which would break a consecutive region loss record which now stands at 12.