Sloan, new staff, players hard at work as football looms

Jeff Sloan hit the ground running when he was hired as head football coach at Lamar County Feb. 13. He has assembled a new-look staff and closed out spring practice Thursday.A busy summer offseason lies ahead for the Trojans who had great numbers out for spring workouts which included agility training for players in grades six-12 during April. With new offensive and defensive coordinators in place, May was spent on installing the offensive and defensive schemes LC will employ in the fall.LC native and former Trojan player Josh Coffey will serve as assistant head coach and offensive coordinator. He also coaches quarterbacks and running backs. His attack will reportedly be RPO oriented and his quarterbacks were slinging the ball all over the field last week.Greg Busby will serve as defensive coordinator. He was most recently head coach at Windsor Forest in Savannah and was head coach at Montgomery County prior to that. He is the son of legendary coach Buzz Busby who won a state title at Statesboro and won a state title in Alabama prior to that.Buzz Busby closed out his career at Pike County and is now retired there, training bird dogs and hunting extensively.There are two other newcomers on Sloan’s staff. Brent Thornton is coming from Westside in Macon to coach the offensive line. Joseph Pitman came over from Woodland High in Henry County to serve as strength and conditioning coach.The staff will conduct summer workouts Monday-Thursday each week from 8-11:30 a.m. The team will also go to contact camps at Fayette County and Bleckley County this summer.In late July, acclimatization preseason work will begin. LC will host Manchester for a scrimmage Aug. 9 and travel to Putnam County for a second scrimmage Aug. 16. The season opens Aug. 24 when Mt. Zion comes to Trojan Field.The regular season home slate includes games with ACE, Spencer, Heard and Temple. LC travels to Greenville, Pike County, Jordan, Callaway and Bremen.