Published: May 13, 2008 09:53 pm            

Huskies ahead of schedule

Spring practice may only be one day old, but Edmond North football coach Jeremy Dombek already likes what he sees from his team. After spending last spring learning the second-year head coach’s system, the Huskies appear to have a good jump on the upcoming season.

“Its night and day,” Dombek said about the difference he has seen this year. “You can tell it in our pace of the practice, we’ve been able to get more reps in, more looks, everything just seems sharper, and their retention from last fall is very good.”

One of the keys for North’s steady progress has been the implementation of an offseason power lifting program. Dombek said the program helped the team not only gain strength, but also kept the players motivated and competitive in the offseason.

The Huskies should have several players ready for a breakout season, but one that stands out the most is quarterback Cody Crabaugh. After a strong showing with the junior varsity squad in 2007, the six-foot-six senior to be is ready to grab the reigns this year.

“I’m excited and I’m ready for it,” Crabaugh said. “We already know the offense, so things have been going very smoothly.”

“Cody is at midseason form, his arm is strong, he’s going to do a lot of good things,” Dombek said. “He was phenomenal at JV last year, every coach we played told us how good he was, but we had a good quarterback last year in Casey (Goben).”

Dombek said Crabaugh’s physical skills should help the Huskies open up the offense this season.

“Cody has the ability for us to do more things, he can make every throw and that allows us to open it up a little bit more and throw it even more,” Dombek said.

While Crabaugh is set to step in for Goben at quarterback, the Huskies have plenty of other big shoes to fill this fall. One of the biggest will be at tailback, where North will be without Roy Finch, who moved to Florida. Last year the sophomore led the team in rushing with 744 yards and was second in receiving with 517 yards. The most likely candidates will be Joe Aska, who ran for 145 yards and two scores last year, and senior to be Brad Morton.

North will also need help at receiver. The Huskies lost their leading receiver in Mookie Salaam, Ryan Schweighart and starting tight end Wade McLanahan.

On the defensive side of the ball the Huskies will need to replace hard-hitting middle linebacker Zach Paty, who was among the leading tacklers in Class 6A with 163.

Dombek will have plenty of players to choose from this year. So far the turnout has been very good, and the team should have about 107 players for the fall.

The Huskies continue practice through the end of the month, and wrap up the spring schedule with the Blue/Gray scrimmage at 7 p.m. on May 30.

        

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