All-City Preview set for tonight

I’ll get my first taste of the All-City Preview tonight when I head out to Douglass’ Moses F. Miller Stadium or Taft Stadium tonight. I think I’m probably going to start at Douglass, then go check out a game over at Taft. I want to check out the Capitol Hill-Northeast game (6 p.m.) because I think both coaches are interesting stories.

Tim Thomas took over Northeast last year the day two-a-days started, with a limited number of players and concerns over whether the Vikings would even have a season. The Vikings went winless last year, but just fielding a team for a full season was an accomplishment for a school that suffered massive defections after talks the school would close.

Montana Lyons is in a similar, though not quite as dire, situation at Capitol Hill. He took over the Redskins after they had one year under Darrell Peterson (who replaced three-year coach Pascal Jones just before last season). If nothing else, Lyons is an impressive speaker, as I found out at Tuesday’s coaches luncheon. Lyons is passionate about improving the environment for football players at Capitol Hill and having that not only translate into better performances on the field but in better high school experiences for the players in general.

And there’s reason to believe there will be better on-the-field performance. In last week’s scrimmage, Capitol Hill’s defense had a strong showing against Deer Creek, not exactly known as a pushover.

I also want to hang around to watch Millwood-Centennial over at Miller. Everyone knows just how good Millwood is, with Trayvon Henry, Kevonte Richardson and Josh Turner among their numerous stars. Centennial is an interesting team to me for a couple reasons: 1.) I really believe in Mark Ryan. He did a fantastic job at Western Heights two years ago, then made a decision to leave there that bettered his situation (He wasn’t happy with the direction the Jets programs were taking, and he lived East of the city). So he took a job as an assistant coach under Willis Alexander at Douglass. He’s back in a head coaching job and has an intriguing team that has a chance, should things fall together, to make the playoffs this year. The Bison weren’t too far away last year and have some real talent.