ROCHESTER — When AJ Easley had a positional breakdown drill of his 50-plus guys on the roster, well over half of them went to running back. Now for a program that hammers the ball down the pipe with the Power-T, to the naked eye, it’s a lot of bodies.
Heck, even Easley had to parcel it down.
“You got a bunch of guys who are bought in,” the Rochester High School head coach said. “We have a lot of options. It can be really hard to pull a guy in who has played running back his whole life and say if you want to play on Friday night, it is going to have to be at guard.
“That helps you build that depth.”
The stars of 2025 may be gone, but the Warriors aren’t looking in the rear view mirror. One of their standards is to go one step further than the previous group. And the Round of 12 stunner versus Omak still lingers.
To guys such as Maddox Rodgers, Jackson Allman, Easton Singleton, Owen Simpkins and others back in the fold, they don’t plan on feeling that way again.
“Every time I think about last year, that’s what gets brought up in my head,” Singleton said. “It is a huge motivation.”
Rochester did plenty of offensive and defensive work over the course of a two-hour practice on Thursday afternoon. Here are three takeaways from the session.
Allman goes from OL to RB
One of the camp position movements was Allman, a first team all-league lineman and a potential favorite for Lineman of the Year, has shifted to running back. He got some carries towards the end of the Linfield camp the Warriors went to this summer.
Allman turned some heads. He’ll join Rodgers, Simpkins and others in a deep ball carrier room.
“As long as he keeps practicing and (being) more familiar with it, he’ll get it down,” Rodgers said. “It is a big switch. He is completely capable.”
Singleton making strides under center
An aspect of the offense is getting in and out of the huddle quickly and snapping the ball early. During team drills, Easley aimed for the first team to be three seconds from post huddle clap to snap.
Now in his second year, Singleton has gotten the timing down at a faster rate. He scored three touchdowns last season, two of them on the ground.
“It helps being quick to the ball and it does mess with the defense,” Singleton said. “We’re working on it, we’ll get there.”
Emphasis on conditioning, endurance
There were times where the Warriors looked dead in the fourth quarter. Turnovers in losses to Montesano and Omak happened in critical moments down the stretch.
It’s a reason why returning defensive star Josh Long has seen an uptick in his teammates' gas tank through the spring, summer and now into fall camp.
“We’ve been working on (having) more physicality,” Long said.
