COXEY—Barry Daniel has high expectations for his lineman this season.

But then again, why wouldn’t he, considering he has the majority of them coming back from last season.

However, that’s only part of the good news for Daniel. The other part is that he’ll have most of them back again next year for their senior season.

“These guys have all been through two springs and a fall, so the high expectations are there,” Daniel said. “ They may not be the biggest and the strongest, but they’re talented. With them already having some experience it allows us to expand what we can do. As a coach, when you have guys with the experience like they have, it helps ease the mind a bit.”

After last year’s heartbreaking loss to Plainview in the first round of the Class 2A playoffs, Daniel was worried that it would take a while for the initial sting to go away. Instead, the group caught him a little off guard.

“Starting that next Monday, they were ready to go again,” Daniel said. “It actually caught me by surprise. They had some success the year that I was gone, and then last year we made the playoffs again. This year their goal is to make it to the second round and win, but right now, we’re just talking about day-to-day stuff. If we can do that, then everything else will fall into place.”

One thing Daniel encouraged the group to do over the summer was to attend a two-day camp at the University of North Alabama. And although the group easily could have spent that time in the weight room, they decided to go and use the opportunity to help better themselves for the season.

“The coaches really pushed us hard,” Andy Stanford said. “I really feel like it helped prepare us for this season.”

Stanford added that the first day of practice was a long time coming for many of them, but now that it’s here, they’re ready to go.

“Our plan is to just work hard and work together,” Stanford said. “Because if one player lets down then the whole team lets down. I really feel like our experience will help out a lot because we know what's going on and we know how to communicate and don’t have the conflicts between players. We’re looking forward to that first game. We get excited the closer it gets.”