PORT ARTHUR — While the pads haven’t come out yet, that doesn’t mean the Port Arthur Memorial football team isn’t putting in good work through the first three days of practice this season.

    Memorial head coach Kenny Harrison has liked what he’s seen from his squad so far.

    “The information the kids have retained from spring ball,” Harrison said. “I’m very pleased with that, I’m also pleased with their overall effort. Our kids are working extremely hard and seem to be excited for the season.”

    One unique area that makes the Titans retention different than some of the area teams is how many sophomores and juniors are playing prominent roles this season. On the surface, that might mean the retention for those players would be more critical, but Harrison points out his longevity as Titans head coach has helped with that.

    “In going into my fourth year, the system is in place from middle school on up,” Harrison said. “We’ve got really good middle school programs to implement our program. Then, they come to ninth grade and are able to run the system, so we’re getting ninth and 10th graders who can run the system from right when they get here because of that.”

    The Titans will practice again Thursday, both in the morning and afternoon before opening up padded practices Friday. Memorial will host a scrimmage against Atascocita on Aug. 24 at Memorial Stadium.



Coaching moves

    Memorial had some staff shuffling this summer, like many area teams did, involving one new coach, one promotion and one new job title. The new coach is David Hill, who was hired this summer to take the place of Mark Crooms as inside linebackers coach. Hill is a former Jefferson High School coach and takes over that spot after Crooms left to take a coaching job at C.E. King under new head coach Don Price.

    Corey Roy, a subvarsity coach last season, has been moved up to offensive line coach while Phillip Mattingly shifts over to become the special teams coordinator.



Injury updates

    A handful of varsity players sat out spring practice after suffering injuries last season. All of them were cleared earlier this year (some even in the spring), and Matthew Romar, John Leday, Devin Cockrell and Darius Lemora were all back at practice this week.

    Harrison said all of them looked good and are working themselves back into the system.

    “All the guys who were injured looked great,” Harrison said. “John Leday is 100 percent. Devin Cockrell and Darius Lemora have all looked great. They’ve made our team that much better.”



Lemora ready for contact

    Though Lemora broke his leg during the Titans’ playoff run last season, he is completely recovered and looking forward to strapping his pads back on in a couple of days.

    “It feels great,” Lemora said. “I just have to get back into things, but otherwise, it’s just going through the motions. It’s not hard, because I’ve played the last two years. But, I’ve just been having fun, going out there with the team. It’s an exciting thing.”

    The versatile player will be showing quite a bit of his athleticism this season as he moves into a sort of hybrid role in this defense. Lemora played safety in the Titans 4-4-3 look last season, but also dropped down as one of the four linebackers at times due to injuries.

    As the Titans transition to a 4-2-5 look to capitalize on the depth they have at defensive back, Lemora will see some changes in how he’s used this season.

    “I’m a defensive back, but I’m going to have more of a linebacker role,” Lemora said. “But, when we go into different packages, I’ll be back at safety. Therefore, I’ll be a versatile player, like a linebacker and a DB. Basically, I’ll be a strong safety.”

    He’ll also see some time on offense at running back, something he did at times last season, too. On offense, though, he’ll go from being the guy who doles out hits to getting hit.

    “It’s an opportunity to show I still have my talent,” Lemora said. “I’m not really focused on my leg, because it’s football. It’s going to happen. I’m going to protect it, but I won’t really pay much mind to it.”

Number switch

    At picture day on Wednesday, one thing stood out as the Titans walked around in game jerseys. Namely, it was the names on the back of their jerseys. Guys like Dante McMillian and Nate Holmes were suddenly back on the field, as last year’s player names hadn’t been removed from the game jerseys just yet.

    Even with that, it’s notable that new starting quarterback Ricky Fisk was wearing Terrence Singleton’s No. 7 this season after wearing No. 13 last season. Harrison confirmed that Fisk will wear that number this season.

    Speaking of Singleton, the former QB who switched to defensive back at Baylor looks to get some playing time this season for the Bears. Singleton will be on the depth chart on special teams and may play some on defense too, according to Singleton’s Twitter account.