VINEMONT, Ala. – After coming up just short of a playoff berth last fall, the Vinemont Eagles are preparing to bounce back and make another run at the postseason in 2020. The Eagles are losing a lot of production from last year’s squad in Dallin Dinkle, Lucas Miller, Teague Whatley and several others so there will be plenty of new names and faces to look for on the field this fall.
Eagles Head Coach Stephen Robinson is entering his fourth season at Vinemont and just a couple weeks into fall camp, he already felt good about this year’s team and its preparation.
“We feel really good about where we are compared to other years. We’ve had a really good fall camp and a really good summer,” Robinson said. “We had great attendance, we’re right around 43 or 44 kids so we’ve had a really productive time with the boys.”
Vinemont, along with every other team in the state, has been working within health and safety guidelines throughout the summer to be able to prepare for the upcoming season. Robinson admits that there have been some unique challenges to deal with this fall but has seen his players adjust on the fly and continue to work hard.
“I don’t think it affected our production, its affected our time before and after practice. Just to do all of the cleaning and sanitizing stuff and our guys have been really good about doing whatever we’ve asked them to do with the masks and cleaning and anything. Everything is rolling along pretty good actually” Robinson said. “We gave them the stipulations on what they’ve got to do, and they’ve jumped right in there to help us out with it and have done a great job of staying apart when possible and everything. The weight room I guess is the biggest obstacle cause when we’re outside it’s all a little bit easier, but it’s been great. We’ve cut our groups down into smaller sizes and its gone really well.”
With guys like Dinkle, Whatley and others gone from the 2019 team, there are some spots and touches up for grabs on the offensive side of the ball this fall.
“Colby Miller is going to be somebody that we’re looking for some production out of and Brodie Curvin is going to try to fill that role at tailback that Dallin left. We’ve got some other positions that are unknown still, but we’ve got a lot of guys competing for them to replace a guy like Teague. We feel good about what we’ve got,” Robinson said. “We’ve had a lot of young guys really step up and work hard in the weight room to get to where they can compete with these older guys so that’s a good thing. Tanner Brown we think is another one that’s going to be able to help us and give us some production this season.”
There are some big shoes to fill at the skill positions on offense but up front, Vinemont is returning a lot of experience from last season.
“Everything is definitely easier when you’ve got those guys coming back off the offensive line. Everybody we’ve got that is either a starter or is competing for a spot on the O line played significant amounts of time last year,” Robinson said. “So, we’ll probably have four seniors on the O line and its possible we could have five. So, it’s definitely easier to fill out those skill positions when you’ve got most of the O line guys coming back and being solid players.”
The Eagles were just barely on the outside looking in when the playoffs began last fall and their goal is to change that this time around. Vinemont held the halftime lead regularly in 2019 but couldn’t find a way to finish and secure the win. Finishing is the biggest step forward that Robinson wants to see the Eagles take this season.
“We feel like that’s the next step for us. We were right there last year, sitting at number two in the region and had some injuries and things happen that didn’t bounce our way and that’s on us. We didn’t finish the season like we wanted to so that’s our next thing is to finish; finish games, finish drives, finish the season and to put ourselves in postseason play because we feel like that’s where we can be, especially with this year’s team,” Robinson said. “It’s the most experienced group we’ve had since I’ve been here, so we feel like that’s the next step and we’ve talked about it with the guys and they want to make it happen.”
The Vinemont Eagles will kick off the 2020 season at home against Hanceville Thursday night.
2020 Vinemont Football Schedule (3A Region 6)
8/20: Hanceville
8/28: @ Fairview
9/4: @ J.B. Pennington*
9/11: Carbon Hill*
9/18: @ Tarrant*
10/2: Winfield*
10/9: Susan Moore*
10/16: Oakman
10/23: @ Holly Pond*
10/29: @ Cold Springs
2020 Vinemont Eagles Football Roster
1 Colby Miller
2 Jarrett Friedrich
3 Kix Johnson
4 Toby Quick
5 Isaac Moody
6 Ayden Thomason
7 Brodie Spear
8 Tanner Brown
9 Jules Baker
10 Carson Greer
11 Gabe Friedrich
14 Brodie Curvin
16 Ezekiel Olinger
17 Marcus Callingwood
18 Kyser Campbell
20 Andres Garcia
22 Justin Marotz
23 Ryan Stewart
24 Preston Williams
25 Dylan Crider
32 Dawson Wilhite
40 Kylan Richards
42 Nacho Salgado
44 Yair Jiminez
45 Jose Perales
50 Toby Hill
51 Luke Gay
52 Braden Boner
55 Dalton Thomason
56 Keith Slaton
57 Alex Salazar
60 Tai Shurtleff
61 Tyler Mayfield
62 Rigo Martinez
63 Ethan Martin
68 JP Johnson
71 Symon Joiner
72 Chayce Sandlin
74 Isiah Young
75 Matthew Barnes
76 Jed Wilson
77 Caleb Butler
81 Connor Gibbs
Coaches:
Stephen Robinson – Head Coach
Cody Harris
David Stokes
Erik Runge
Rusher Clemons
Ed Webb
Tavoris Patton
Michael Williams
Billy Conquest
2020 Vinemont varsity cheerleaders
Emily Cheatwood – Captain
Madelyn Oden – Co captain
IdaLee Greer
Macie Dyer
Berkley Gable
Mabry Thompson
Ashton Kelley
Ellie Eagle- Elyssa Mead
Elton Eagle- Madison Watson
Alexis Holmes
Brylie Teichmiller
Savannah Mann
Callie Millwood
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