Vikings welcome Indians in spring game

By TRAVIS DOWNEY

Northwest Florida Daily News
315-4476 | travisd@nwfdailynews.com

There should be plenty of nervous energy pulsating on the sidelines at Steve Riggs Stadium tonight.

Fort Walton Beach, last year's District 2-4A champion, hosts arch nemesis Choctawhatchee at 7 tonight in a spring game where both Mike Owens and Greg Thomas hope to walk off the field with a clearer picture of how next year's team will be pieced together.

For Thomas, his second spring with the Indians has found the Choctaw coach looking to not only find a new starter at quarterback but also fill gaping holes along the offensive line.

Meanwhile, Owens, who will begin his 10th season at the helm of the Vikings' program, has been faced with similar vacancies throughout his team's defensive front seven.

Each is eager to see how potential replacements fare under the lights tonight.

"Effort is the No. 1 thing," Thomas said of what he hoped to see during the scrimmage. "We want to see them compete. It's a lot different than going against your own guys. I'm anxious to see how our kids will react against another team."

With starting jobs along the offensive line and at quarterback still very much up for grabs, Thomas said tonight's competition is two-fold.

"I told our kids that we're evaluating them based upon what we see on film, they're all fighting for starting positions," he said. "Not only are we competing against Fort Walton, we're competing within ourselves and that's a good thing going into the summer."

Owens spoke similarly of his own team, citing the Vikings' ongoing search for a No. 2 quarterback and establishing a pecking order among the list of players available along the defensive front as two of the bigger keys to tonight's spring game.

Matched against a Choctaw team that returns running back Freddie Gray and favored a strong-willed running game a season ago, Owens believes the Indians could provide a good barometer for just how far the Vikings' defensive front has come since opening spring practice at the start of the month.

"(Our defensive linemen) haven't seen a lot of (running) because we're so spread offensively," Owens said. "You don't really game plan a lot (for a spring game), you just go out and play. It will be a good wrap up to spring, but it's been a good spring regardless of what happens."