With system completely installed, Monica looks for squad to improve as season opener approaches

BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

LAPLACE-Another week of fall camp down and the coach is apprehensive

Not a good sign, but there is room for improvement.

Spending a week in Covington installing his offensive and defensive systems for the upcoming season, St. Charles Catholic Head Coach Frank Monica said his squad still has a lot of room for improvement.

“With this wrapping up, the experienced players are showing that they know more than the inexperienced players,” Monica said. “The inexperienced players have a long way to go.

We can install things at a faster rate when guys know more of what is going on. We have been very slow I think in retaining things that we installed in the spring.

“This problem can be solved, but there are a couple of areas of concern that people have to step up for. Basically, most of those holes are on the offensive side of the ball, the entire offense; we have to replace people on the offensive line, we have to replace some receivers and we have to replace our entire backfield. It is not just one position. We have many holes right now that are big question marks.”

Monica said there were some things that he was happy about on the offensive side.

“We moved a couple of people over from the defensive side,” Monica said. “That has added a little bit of depth and that has been encouraging. We also had a couple of position changes and they have shown that they can help us during a tough schedule.”

Monica did say that the move of defensive players to the offensive side of the ball was not an act of desperation to help a failing offense at the expense of the defense.

“We are not to that point yet,” Monica said. “It is too early to tell that. We are wrapping up our week of two-a-days here in Covington, but technically I just think that we have installed our entire offense and when we do install everything things begin to slow down because then you have circuit overload.”

“We throw it all at them and then when we get back home (to St. Charles Catholic), we will decipher the things that are the most important.”

The biggest weapon and perhaps cure for the offensive woes of the Comets will be senior Casey Robottom, who will be starting for his third consecutive season.

“We already know what we have with Casey,” Monica said of his star receiver/return specialist. “This is his third year starting for us, he knows the entire offense and we know what he can do for us. Then again, he is also very valuable as a specialist.

“As far as his progression is concerned, Casey is Casey. He is the same guy every day, no more, no less. He is very consistent. We hope that we can get the ball to him.”

While Robottom will be looked for a tremendous amount of the offensive production, Monica said his squad must be balanced offensively if they are to be successful.

“A receiver can not just take the game over by himself,” Monica said.

While there are several things that worry him about his squad,” Monica is still happy about numerous things.

“The biggest thing that we accomplished thus far is that we have put everything in,” Monica said. “We installed the system. We have taught them how to practice, we have taught them how-to do as far as procedures, special teams and other things.

“That is the biggest thing. We have everything in. We haven’t been able to use pads yet, but at least we have our system in and that is what we wanted to do when we went to camp. Now we just have to refine it and get ready to go.”