The Verbena Red Devils were the first of the county teams to play a spring game when they went on the road to play Victory Christian in Pell City on May 11.

Despite losing 14-6, Verbena head coach Tyler Kelley saw plenty of positives to take away from the game.

“For the amount of young players we had starting for us and lack of experience we had all over the field, we had a good showing,” Kelley said. “It definitely gave us something to build on going into the summer.”

According to Kelley, the quarterbacks and receivers consistently completed passes and had very few incompletions or dropped balls.

The lone miscue by the passing game was an interception with about a minute left in the contest with a majority of junior high players at that point.

Running the ball resulted in much of the same consistency, but was unable to produce any game-changing plays.

On the other side of the ball, the defense held its ground on several occasions. However, mental mistakes wound up leading to big plays for Victory Christian.

Those mistakes will likely be worked on throughout the offseason and heading into the fall.

Kelley will be entering his second season as head coach in the fall. After being with the team and around the program for almost an entire year, there is an added sense of expectation.

“The kids have bought in, and they’re more comfortable with the way we do things now,” Kelley said. “I know the kids and what they can and can’t do.”