By CAROL STUART
For Brentwood Home Page
All three Brentwood high school football teams are looking for quarterbacks among other needs as spring practice begins, but BHS was unable to make it onto the field for the first day yesterday due to weather.

Ravenwood began its spring practice dates on Monday under new head coach Joe Rietveld, who is traveling back and forth from his current Indiana teaching job for the spring drills. But both RHS and BHS had spring football practice interrupted Wednesday with all after-school activities cancelled by rain and other severe weather.

BHS, three-time defending District 11-AAA champion, had to delay the start of practice scheduled for Wednesday and already has 35 kids participating in spring sports. Brentwood Academy begins its spring practice next week.

“We have a lot of holes to fill and it’s difficult due to the number of kids we have in spring sports,” Bruins Coach Ron Crawford said. “I wish the TSSAA would just give us five extra days in the fall, allow us to work with our kids in June and just do away with spring practice.

 “The ones we have practicing this spring will obviously have a leg up on those who don’t, since we can’t do any football instruction until July 11th.”

The quarterbacks looking to replace BHS 2½-year starter Clay Webber are all on the baseball team – junior Carson O’Neal, sophomore Austin Winfree and freshman Aaron Maher. “So we will be trying to find a couple to fill in for spring and see if they develop,” Crawford said.

The Bruins have two of three starters returning on the defensive line, but two compete in track and field.

Only two returning starters are back in the offensive line, Logan Teichmann and Jacob Poag, and most of the wide receivers and running backs graduate. The Bruins do have back 2010 leading rusher Chudi Echetebu and also Austin Sanders, who missed five games with injury.

“Our entire secondary will have to be replaced as well,” Crawford said.

The graduating senior class helped the team go to the state finals as juniors and lost in the playoffs last fall to Class 6A runner-up Smyrna under a controversial playoff system that has been tinkered with again for 2011.  

At Ravenwood, Rietveld will also be looking for a new quarterback to replace Keegan Leyrer as the Raptors practice under their third coach in four seasons – four coaches if you count Del Smith’s short stint this offseason.

Brentwood Academy, like RHS, also had a one-year starter graduating in QB Matthew Hamby. The Eagles also have to rebuild their secondary where they lost all four starters.

“Our top priority on offense is to find a quarterback,” BA Coach Ralph Potter said.