Cedar Grove Saints Ready For This Season's "Challenges"
For the fourth time in six seasons, the Cedar Grove Saints will begin the year as the team to take down after winning the Georgia High School Association Class 3A state title in 2021. Last season’s championship win also marked the second time in three seasons that the Saints won a state title under the direction of a new head coach, as John Adams took over the programs.
As teams have returned to the practice fields following the dead period, the Cedar Grove Saints are too, back ono the grind and once again, are facing the challenge of having “a target” on their backs, something they grown accustom to having won four state titles in the last six seasons. And as he heads into his second year as head coach, Adams says he’s not only challenging his players, he’s challenging himself.
“It’s a different year. I try to challenge myself a little bit more,” Adams said adding that he and his staff consistently remind their players that with a more “challenging schedule”, the Saints will have plenty to prove. “So just going out, staying focused, trying to get better each and every day, working on the little things, that’s what I’m preaching,” Adams said of the message to the Saints players.
And as Cedar Grove begins their transition into more full team related activities, Adams says that now is the time for some of his younger returning players to step up to the plate to help contribute and continue the winning culture the Saints have become known for. However, Adams did note that they do have some pretty big shoes to fill as players like Christen Miller (Georgia), CJ Madden (Georgia) and Rashod Dubinion (Arkansas) have moved on.
“We’ve got a lot of young guys I feel like can handle their own that’s stepping up into those roles,” Adams said, adding that he is “pretty impressed” by how hard the players have been working over the course of the summer. Adams would continue to say that players like Miller, Madden and Dubinion helped lay a good blueprint for the younger players, showing them what it will take to not only help the team succeed, but for them to achieve their goals as well. “They’ve seen how they carried themselves, they’ve seen how they worked”.
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