SPRING FOOTBALL: Defending champ Catholic heads into summer pondering adjustments

Catholic quarterback CJ Sankey runs through defenders during the Knights’ spring scrimmage on Thursday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

Catholic’s football team closed out spring practice with an intrasquad scrimmage on Thursday, drawing praise from first-year coach Jonathan Chandler for their progress through 10 spring practice sessions.

“I’m very proud of our football team, I’m very proud of where we are,” Chandler said. “In springs past, (coaching) at Pike Road, Wetumpka, even big ‘ol Opelika, I feel like we are much further along than we have been in previous springs.

“Today, at times, we were slow but we’re already at the point where we’re working situations -- red zone, 10-yard line, working third and long, third and medium, third and short. We were preparing in such a way to go down and have a true spring game but we still wanted to apply that and mentally start getting ahead so our players understand this is how we’re going to practice.

“We’ve got a lot of players on our team that are inexperienced with varsity football, so it’s trying to create a little bit of that mind thinking instead of just coming out here and playing football.”

The Knights had planned to play Enterprise in a practice-like scrimmage at Enterprise on Thursday, but the Wildcats’ baseball team is playing in the 7A championship series, so the Knights used their 10th practice as an intrasquad scrimmage instead.

The two-time defending state champions will look totally different this fall with a new team and a new group of assistant coaches.

 Catholic went undefeated last year in winning the Class 5A state championship, but 15 players on last year’s roster were seniors and 12 of those were starters. Of the remaining 51 players on the roster, 21 have left the program or are no longer playing, leaving Chandler with a group of less than 50 players that are primarily underclassmen.

“We’re not even taking that angle about who has to be replaced, who’s here, who’s not here, who graduated, who didn’t,” Chandler said. “This is the 2025 version of Montgomery Catholic and we’re very pleased with the 14, 15 guys that we’re rotating. We’ll have some two-way players, but I know we’ve got 11 guys on defense that are very hungry.”

While the talent level may be down because of a lack of experience and less depth, Chandler said the Knights picked up quickly on the installation of the new offense and defense.

“If there’s anything surprising to me, going from public school to private school -- it may not be a private school thing, it may just be the group of kids we have -- they’re very smart, they’re able to retain information,” Chandler said. “Our offensive line is our core group. Our center, Gion Winters, knows what all five positions are doing, gets everybody lined up and we’ve got some ball hawks on the defensive side of the ball.

“We’ve got five or six different defensive fronts and the ability to change fronts during a drive. We know that’s going to create some things to give us an advantage when we get to the fall.”

Patrick Plott, a former head coach who is known for his defensive style, was hired from Auburn High to serve as the defensive coordinator for the Knights. Plott’s defense showed flashes of its dominating style in Thursday’s scrimmage, but the secondary also surrendered three long touchdown passes.

“We have some young guys,” Chandler noted, “but we’re going to have them for two to three years and we’re going to develop them and they’re going to be some really good football players.”

Shuler Bentley, known for his offensive play-calling and his work with collegiate quarterbacks after two-year stints at Troy (2019-20), Coastal Carolina (2021-22) and Charleston Southern (2023-24), will be the offensive coordinator of the Knights this season. His philosophy was on display in Thursday’s scrimmage as the Knights leaned heavily on its passing attack, although Chandler said that was because of the situational nature of the scrimmage.

“If I had to guess, we’d probably be a pass-heavy offense,” Chandler said. “Coach Bentley has that background. Comes from a passing background and he’s been at Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina and Troy. We’re doing some creative things in the passing game but we have the skill players that are able to handle that.”

Junior CJ Sankey handled most of the snaps at quarterback on Thursday. Backup Jacob Eley lined up primarily at receiver, but played some quarterback as well.

“We’ve been very pleased with our quarterbacks, creating situations to get them mentally ahead of the game, where they need to be,” Chandler said. “This summer will be really big, going and competing against other schools” in seven-on-seven workouts.

It’s a team that will need to gain experience over the summer at the skill positions, but the secret, as always, is at the line of scrimmage. Perhaps that’s why Chandler saved his biggest praise on Thursday for Winters, his center, and Cayden Dees, his best defensive lineman.

“Cayden Dees is an all star,” Chandler said. “He’s a diamond. He is the leader of our football team. Leads us in prayer. His parents have done a phenomenal job raising him. More times than not, there are some head coaching things where you want to get instant accountability and Cayden is already on it. The best part of it about him -- and several of our other players as well -- they’re going to make plays out here on Friday night, but they take care of business in this school Monday through Thursday.”