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The Bearcat football team has hit the field for the first time since Jay Walls was hired as head coach. Bainbridge is holding spring practices and using the time to gear up for a home spring game against Brooks County on May 10.  

Walls said he’s been very pleased with the effort he’s seeing in practice. The team is emphasizing blocking, tackling and physical play in the spring sessions, along with regular conditioning and in-game simulation. 

He explained that the practices can be pretty tiring, especially in the South Georgia heat, but said the team’s more experienced players haven’t let it affect them and that the young guys they’re developing are getting used to it.

“The guys that have been in the program, the guys that have played, I see effort. I see physicality. And it’s pretty consistent,” Walls said. “The guys that are new to the program, maybe really young, only been in a year or so, I see inconsistency, and that’s something that we’ve got to work on.”

As a first-year head coach, he has the task of balancing how much of his new system he wants to install and how much of the old system he wants to keep in place. Walls said, luckily for him, a lot of things in place in Bainbridge are things he’s been accustomed to. 

“When this job came open, I already knew it was a great job,” Walls said. “I know what kind of coach Coach Littleton is, and the staff here are… The culture here has been hard work: prepare, practice, train, develop at a high level. Those are certainly things that I’ve always believed in. I’m just trying to come in here and continue that.”

What Walls brings is a new mindset: being “uncommon.” He explained that being uncommon means going above and beyond, doing what others won’t or can’t. 

“For example, our work in the weight room,” Walls said. “We don’t want to just work out, we’ve got to out-work. We’ve got to try to get stronger and improve every day. And we’re going to work out every day, you know? We’re not going to work out once or twice a week or anything like that. We’re working out whether that be weight room, [plyometrics], speed training, we’re going to be doing some type of training every day. To me, that’s uncommon.” 

The new head coach also brings two position coaches with him: Cody Kremer and Sean Moorer. Kremer assumes the tight ends coach role, and Moorer is coaching safeties. 

Moorer coached at Niceville High School for 10+ years and worked as a quarterback analyst at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. Kremer has experience coaching at Lee County High School and Worth County High School.

The team’s preparation comes to a head as they face off against Brooks County High School on Friday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m. The game will be in Bainbridge with a $5 entrance fee.