DAILY Photo by Jonathan Palmer West Limestone freshman tight end Ross Leonard, left, receives instruction from assistant coach Clint Legg.

Upbeat attitude
W. Limestone ready to show improvement

Twenty-second in a series.

By Bradley Handwerger
DAILY Sports Writer
bhandwerger@decaturdaily.com · 340-2462

SALEM — Jeff Prince believes West Limestone can be a power in football.

Forget the fact that the Wildcats play in tough Class 3A, Region 8 with perennial state power Colbert County and regional powers Colbert Heights and Sheffield.

For Prince, West Limestone's second-year head football coach, he has seen success in Salem with his own eyes. He was on the coaching staff in 1988 when West Limestone went to the 3A state finals, the last time the Wildcats have ventured so far into the playoffs.

To get back to that point, though, West Limestone at least needs to make the playoffs. It's been a long time since that happened — 1999, to be exact.

Since then, the program has fallen on rough times. The Wildcats have won no more than two games — and have done that only twice — in the past five seasons.

"I've been here 24 years, coaching basketball for 18," Prince said. "I pretty well knew what we were up against when I came in. I was an assistant for eight years in the '80s when we went to the finals."

But Prince is a positive thinker.

"It's been a long time since we've been back up," Prince said. "I think that can change."

It might still be a year before that change happens, however.

West Limestone has only four seniors on the team and must rely on a sophomore quarterback (Wesley Hughes) who has five games under his belt.

Prince, though, has the team believing anything is possible — well, at least winning more games than the one they won in 2005.

"We're definitely going to win more games than we did last year," senior offensive guard LaDale Coffey said. "Even if there are games that we lose, we're going to still be a whole lot better than we were last year."

To begin turning around the program, Prince said, more time and emphasis had to be put on lifting weights.

So far, so good.

When Prince took over the team fewer than three months before the 2005 season, only four players benched more than 205 pounds. Now that number is up to 23. In addition, the entire offensive line is squatting more than 400 pounds.

Still, the offense will have growing pains. Prince has called this year a rebuilding one, a full season to give Hughes time to grow comfortable at quarterback. This will be a season to allow Hughes to build an on-the-field relationship with junior receiver Tommy Reyer and junior tailback Rickey Tribble.

"(Hughes) is going to have a lot on his shoulders because we don't have a lot of speed," Prince said. "We're going to have to throw it occasionally."

The defense as a unit will have to step up and improve greatly from last year, said Prince, who added that the team gave up nearly 33 points a game a year ago.

"We're going to have to be pretty decent up front and we're going to have to play a lot better defensively," Prince said. "We've got to stay in games. We didn't stay in games last year."

It all starts on the defensive line. Sophomore Austin Gilliam will play tackle at 6-foot-1 and 260 pounds. The Wildcats return leading tacklers Chris Wilbanks at linebacker and Tyler McClung at free safety.

Everything is heading in the right direction if you believe McClung.

"This year we've had a lot more work ethic," McClung said. "The coaches really got into us a lot more. They've got us working a lot harder than we have before and anywhere else around here."

Prince agrees.

"Our attitude is better. Our attitude and work ethic," Prince said.

"Everything is better. It's taken a long time teaching and harping on it to get it where it's at now."

The difference, though, might be that the Wildcats believe in themselves. After going 1-9 or 2-8 in each of the past five seasons, that's a huge change.

Winning is possible, McClung said.

"Everything is there. We've just got to make sure it happens," he said.

West Limestone schedule, 2005 results

Sept. 1 at Holly Pond

Sept. 8 Colbert County*

Sept. 15 at Colbert Heights*

Sept. 22 Elkmont*

Sept. 29 Ardmore

Oct. 6 at Sheffield*

Oct. 13 Lexington*

Oct. 20 at Lauderdale Co.*

Oct. 27 Clements*

Nov. 3 at Good Hope

*-Class 3A, Region 8

vs. Clements L, 25-13

at Lauderdale Co. L, 40-0

vs. Colbert County L, 48-21

at Elkmont L, 28-21

at Ardmore W, 28-7

vs. West Morgan L, 36-0

vs. Madison Acad. L, 44-0

at Rogers L, 45-18

at Sheffield L, 49-13

vs. Priceville L, 28-24

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