They say there are 4 seasons in Texas. Football Season, Recruiting Season, Hunting Season, and Summer. That means that as April looms, spring practice has already started. The games might not start until August 24th when the Trojans will play in the 21st annual Taco Shack Bowl against McCallum, but the preparation starts now.
Practices are being held every morning at 7:45 A.M. except Wednesday. Coach Hatcher said that spring practice “is going great, [there are] between 65 and 75 [players out there] every day.” Getting those numbers up is extremely important after losing such a deep senior class.
The first depth charts are built during spring practice, and many underclassmen are in line to start next fall. “Spring ball gives the younger guys a chance to work with the older guys,” Coach Hatcher told me. While these guys may have stood out on the sub-varsity teams, it’s Hatcher’s first chance to evaluate them at the varsity level, and that’s huge in regards to finding the best players for next season.
The biggest difference for the team this upcoming season is going to be the defense. Anderson graduated nine defensive starters this past season and will need plenty of new players to make impacts. Co-Defensive Coordinator, Coach Maldonado said that “Spring practice has been [off to] a smooth start.” Maldonado also spoke of the influx of new and young faces this spring, and how that’s important for next fall.
The new personnel looks to consist of some returning varsity players and many class of 2026 players. On the outside, Anderson returns rising junior cornerback Colin Haines who started most of the games down the stretch last season. “We’ll be a young team,” Haines said, “we’ll definitely have to work hard and focus on the little things this season.”
The hole IV Webb left at linebacker will be filled by his younger brother Gage. The middle Webb brother spent his sophomore campaign with varsity, backing up IV, who’s headed to SMU next fall. He’ll start alongside J. Soto in the second level of the defense.
Coach Maldonado mentioned rising sophomores such as Liam McMillan, Calvin Ballinger, and Ben Hatcher as other players that will play big roles next season. Rising junior Noah Saldivar is expected to come up and play next season as well.
Spring practice is a time for the team to start learning plays and their assignments, as well as to begin working well as a team. One of the most important things to work on in the spring is communication, according to Maldonado. Consistent communication is key to the success of this team. It’s no secret that teams like Westlake and Lake Travis have the offensive firepower to take advantage of any mistake the Trojan defense makes, but if they make few mistakes, they’ll have a much better chance in those games.
Defense aside, I spoke to Co-Offensive Coordinator and Offensive Line Coach Zoumbokos to get an idea of the offensive side of the ball this spring. While the Trojans lost leading rusher James Idunate, they retain senior Dayden Williams. Zoumbokos said he’ll be a “big part of the offense” and called him “a strong runner who will be tough to be brought down by a single defender.” Right now he’s looking to be the featured back for Anderson, but I’d expect the Trojans to have a committee backfield, and supplement Williams with a speedier change-of-pace runner like Hatcher.
Coach Zoumbokos told me that through “the first week [of practice, it] has been exciting to see guys step up.” He wants the offense to focus on their fundamentals and learn their assignments to start. He said that he’s “very optimistic” about the potential the offense has this coming season.
When I spoke to Coach Hatcher in January, he told me that Anderson is going to be a faster team this year. What they lack in size, they’re going to make up for in speed, and in the base spread formation that the Trojans run, they’ll have plenty of that. Receivers Ed Small and Zayden Sharp are both extremely fast and will force opposing defenses to give more of a cushion if they’re able to haul in a few deep balls early. Sharp told me that “speed is certainly a strength of our offense,” and that “we can use our speed to surprise a few teams this season, and pull off some big plays.”
When looking at the young talent that has the potential to contribute to the offense this year, the one name that stands out is Austin Eckerman. The rising sophomore will also contribute to the overdose of speed on that side of the ball and is likely to be the fourth starting receiver this fall.
While it’s still way too early to make a call on how Anderson is gonna do this year, the start of spring practice is looking promising. The Trojans are going to be young and fast next season, and I think they’re going to surprise some teams. They graduated a great senior class this season, but the up-and-coming players are already making names for themselves this spring.
