Pinellas Park football is expecting an even better year than their 10-2 campaign from 2013. They made it to the regional semifinals before losing to East Lake.
The Patriots will be relying on their experienced run game to get them back to the state tournament.
"We have good senior leadership," said head coach Ken Crawford. "Our backfield is very deep. We have a lot of returning guys."
"We have five guys who rushed for a bunch of yards. We have a 1,000-yard rusher coming back, actually, 1,200 (Donte Maxon). We have a 700-yard rusher in our fullback (Kal-el Williams) and Oscee (Calhoun) rushed for over 600 with a bunch of touchdowns. They've done a great job and that's probably our most experienced area."
The spring practice session has also exposed some of the Patriot's weaknesses. Crawford says there are questions surrounding the offensive line, secondary and in their passing game.
The Patriots will put everything to the test Thursday in their spring game. They host Evans from Orlando.