Junior quarterback Nick Winston throws the ball during the first week of Dexter High School football training camp on Tuesday, August 12, 2014 in Dexter. (Katie McLean | The Ann Arbor News)
DEXTER -- The Dexter football team isn't starting training camp behind the eight ball this year.
Last year, Dreadnaughts coach Ken Koenig didn’t officially get the head coaching job until May.
It put his staff at a disadvantage for installing the offense and defense, so when camp started last season they spent most of their time going over the basics.
“I kept very detailed notes of when I implemented stuff, and it’s a huge difference from last year,” Koenig said.
With a full offseason of workouts, and meetings, the team opened camp Monday ready to fine tune Dexter’s game plan instead of just installing it.
“Our goal is to get the kids confident in their alignment, and assignment then they play fast,” Koenig said. “We are at a point where we have a great grasp of the offense and defense. We have the knowledge base this year.”
Serious competitors -- Junior Nick Winston and senior Tristin Staebler are competing to start at quarterback for Dexter.
Winston started for the Dreadnaughts’ junior varsity squad last season, while Staebler was the backup on varsity.
Koenig said Staebler is the more athletic of the two quarterbacks, but Winston has a distinct size advantage.
“Nick is clearly thicker,” Koenig said. “He’s not going to blow by anybody, but he can knock you over and get some yards.”
Nick’s approach on the field has already earned him a nickname with the coaching staff.
“He’s got a good head for the game, good arm and is just very smart,” Koenig said. “We call him Eli cause he’s very Eli Manning-like. Doesn’t smile a lot, but comes out, and just gets the job done (laughs).”
Back at it -- Koenig identified fullback Erick Leon as one of Dexter's key returning starters on offense.
The Dreadnaughts run a Wing-T offense, that they are tweaking this season to give Leon a little more freedom in the backfield, and prevent him from taking as many hard hit as he did last season.
“He’s going to give us a really good attack,” Koenigh said. “He has great vision for the ball, and it’s huge having that second year of experience. We ran a little bit more of a physical type of offense (last year), and didn’t have that kind of offensive line to do it. He got kind of beat up.”
Michael Niziolek covers local sports for MLive Ann Arbor News. Email him at mniziole@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Google+
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