By Adam Robinson
sports editor

With summer practices now over and the start of fall practice upon them, the W.S. Neal Eagles are gearing up for their 2013 season.
“I think we have had a pretty good summer,” W.S. Neal Eagle head coach Doug Hoehn, who is starting his third season with the Eagles, said. “The kids have worked extremely hard.”
The Eagles lost 13 players from the 2012 squad that went 9-3. Of the 12, the Eagles are replacing quarterbacks Dylan Godwin and Christian Purvis along with the bruising running back combo of Marquese Banks and Josiah Nettles. Quinton Samuels will be the go-to running back for the Eagles as he returns for his sophomore season. Banks had over 200 carries last year and finished with over 2,000 yards rushing and 22 touchdowns. Nettles had around 100 carries and rushed for over 900 yards with 12 touchdowns. Samuels had over 60 carries and was just shy of 900 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2012.
Malcolm Hawthorne, Lane Chavers, Miles Powell and Antwan Jones are all working at the quarterback position this summer.
“We are excited about the quarterback position this year,” Hoehn said. “We have four kids working at quarterback this year and I think we are going to have our best year at quarterback this coming year. All four of them are throwing the ball really well and that is something that we have not had a lot of. They are picking up the offense. We have changed our offensive things a little bit. We are a little more spread out and wide open. Right now it is going well.”
As for the summer workouts and running, Hoehn said he has been proud of his team in that aspect as well.
“We have been going three days a week working out,” Hoehn said. “We have been going on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. We come in at 7:30 a.m. and we get done around 11 a.m.
The Eagles had 62 players on their spring jamboree roster this year.
“We are pretty consistent from where we were in the spring,” Hoehn said. “We are sitting right now at 58 players.”
Hoehn said the Eagles started fall practice Monday—the date set by the AHSAA.
“We have already had our physicals and our meeting with the parents and kids,” Hoehn said. “We will go two-a-days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday we will go one time a day.
“We will do that until school starts on the 19th. We will do that until our fall jamboree against Elba.”
W.S. Neal will host Elba in a preseason game on Thursday, August 22 at 7 p.m. The Eagles will travel to Holtville on Friday, August 30, to start their season.