End Zone High School Football Preview 2023 | Page 18

the playoffs . Senior Brady Britain was a first-team selection at quarterback and defensive back .
Senior Jack Pope was a first-team selection at running back and linebacker . Pope set a school record last season when he ran for nine touchdowns in a single game .
Senior center Daven Denney earned second-team honors on defense last season , while sophomore linebacker Damon Spurlock and sophomore defensive back Owen Pittsinger made the second-team defense .
Barnes has big plans on offense for the 6-2 , 234-pound Spurlock . He ' s been pushing Britain for the starting quarterback position but Barnes wants to find ways to keep both players on the field at the same time .
" We ' ll put the best six players on the field for the situation ," he said .
As for Pope , " he will carry a lot of weight for us ."
Other players who should help the Eagles include senior Jacob Pletcher , sophomore Kristofer Kelsey and sophomore Jaden McFadden .
" We just want to re-establish the root of our past championships and re-cultivate a championship mentality and expectation to win ," he said . " During our championship seasons we had freshmen and sophomores practicing daily with all-staters . We had freshmen practicing daily with Nathan Strand , Brandon Fauley and Tanner Barnes . We need to get back to creating intensity and competition in practice . That will produce winners . But we have a long way to go and a short time to get there . We know what it takes to win at GCS and we ' re going to re-establish that culture ."
The Eagles went 5-2 last year to finish third in the District 3-III six-man standings behind 7-0 Longview Christian Heritage and 6-1 Rockwall Heritage .
Longview Christian Heritage returns four starters on offense and three on defense off a 12-2 team that went on to win the state title .
Rockwall Heritage returns three starters both ways from a team that wound up at 8-2 . " As we ' ve said before , good things are happening at Greenville Christian ," said Barnes .
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