Hurley opened the spring 2021 season with a 36-28 win over Rye Cove, but the youthful squad ended the season on a six-game losing streak. The Rebels did gain some valuable experience during a tough campaign.
“It will help tremendously,” Justus said. “We are still young. We had 16 kids with zero varsity experience. I’m not saying they had never played football before, but some hadn’t played since Little League and some just had Little League and JV experience.
“With all the craziness from COVID and quarantines, it put our younger athletes behind due to not being able to do normal activities such as weightlifting or work on individual drills. Throw in the zero scrimmages and two weeks only of preseason practice and it makes things difficult.”
Center/defensive lineman Logan Hopkins, offensive lineman/linebacker Tanner Adkins, tight end Sheldon Matney, wide receiver/defensive back/return specialist Kevin Looney, wide receiver/punter Payton Hurley, running back/linebacker Alex Duty, quarterback Caden Mullins, defensive end Chris Rife, defensive end Canaan Shafer and defensive lineman Wade Vance were non-seniors for Hurley who earned all-district accolades in the spring, whether it be first team, second team or honorable mention.
“The kids made improvement as the season went along and hopefully, they will use what they learned this spring in the fall,” Justus said. “I’m glad the fall will be normal with two-a-days and scrimmages. We have 19 kids returning with a majority of them being 10th graders. We have about four seniors, four juniors, 11 10th-graders and four ninth-graders. … There will only be 125 days passed between the last regular-season game and the first scrimmage. We are still going to experience some growing pains. Maturity doesn’t happen overnight, but if we keep working and pushing the kids, then maybe we can see some significant improvement.”