Athletic additions, young newcomers have good things cooking for Trinity

Trinity’s Bruce Lane isn’t the type of head coach who’s out to fit his team to a certain scheme. 

Rather, it’s about tailoring his system to the unique strengths and weaknesses marking each year’s roster of players. 

And from his point of view, one of coaching’s unique pleasures is the process of discovery that takes place every summer, which can be compared to the fun had by a chef figuring out the best way to use what’s in the pantry. 

For the Crusaders, a lot like every program their size in the GIAA, each season’s challenge can be a lot like pulling together a dish from the arbitrary selection of groceries that are dropped in your lap on a round of Chopped. 

“Every year is a new year,” Lane said. “It’s kind of like you’re a mad scientist, and you go into the laboratory and you take the ingredients, and that’s what June and early August are about is mixing it up and seeing what you’ve made when you get to the 14th of August.” 

What’s in the Crusaders’ basket for 2026? 

Overall, it’s a fairly young group of players, dominated by juniors and freshmen (who account for 19 of the roster’s 27) that will have their share of inexperience. 

But the upside is that both classes feature some pretty talented players who made a name on middle school squads that were some of Trinity’s most successful in recent memory. Among the seniors and sophomores in between are a handful who have established themselves as dependable players and leaders. 

Throughout the summer, all were faithful to show up consistently with a desire to get better. 

“(They) are working hard,” Lane said. “Unless a kid’s been on vacation, they’ve been here. I’ve been very pleased with the effort they’ve given, and dedication to being here. We haven’t had any guys AWOL, just missing without letting us know why they weren’t there, which I think speaks highly of them and their character.” 

Provided the Crusaders can keep them all healthy, there are a lot of intriguing players to work with at the skill positions and in the defensive front seven. 

If the right pieces fall in place along the offensive line, that unit has a chance to be a strength as well. 

The challenges? Putting together a serviceable kicking game (set back by the loss of both last year’s main specialists, one to graduation and the other to transfer) and… something that goes without saying for any small football program… building enough depth to get by. 

“I’m excited about this group,” Lane said. “They work really hard. We are going to have to play ironman football. We’ve got a lot of guys going both ways.”

Early samples out of the kitchen have passed the taste-test. 

With time running out on the appetizer round, the Crusaders looked pretty fine-tuned as they took the field in a controlled scrimmage on July 30. 

“We scripted 36 plays,” Lane said. “Not down and distance, we just wanted to look at every play we had installed and we wanted to see each person touch the football and try to make a determination what we can do, what we need to clean up and what to throw in the trash.” 

The results seemed to indicate some good things are cooking. All that’s left to do is get it on the plate.  

A little of this, and some of that… 

The Crusaders’ use of their most unique basket ingredients could score some points for creativity with the judges, as they weren’t content to go by the same recipe as last year. 

Absent a few of the defining components of their 2025 offense and defense in the cupboard, this year’s spread will have its own distinct flavor after some somewhat significant adjustments, whether in personnel or scheme, intended to maximize what they have to work with. 

“Our playbook is kind of like a menu at Waffle House,” Lane said. “There’s a lot of stuff on it, but we only choose to use the things that are going to fit within our personnel. That’s one of the things we’ve been able to gauge this summer is looking at people in spots, particularly the skill positions, and figuring out where our strengths are and trying to play to those strengths.” 

They were slated to have 2025’s original starting quarterback Asher Evans back from injury, now as a wide receiver. But after working out with the team through the preseason, the rising junior made a last-minute decision not to play this year.

His brother Jude Evans (6-2, 155), a freshman who has hit a growth spurt and nearly equaled his brother in height, had already moved behind center to take over the reins at quarterback, and impressed during the summer.

A second Evans, his baseball teammate Tayt (6-0, 185), will work alongside and lead a physical ground attack.

The senior, back for his first full season since transferring from West Laurens midway through last fall, was a rusher of about 250 yards, and two touchdowns last season as he filled in at both tailback and quarter. He’ll also be an option at a number of places on defense, the newest one as a situational pass rusher off the edge of the defensive line. 

A regular in that role will be Will J Harris, a transfer from Dublin with the type of body (6-2, 230) and skill set you could potentially use anywhere on the field. 

For the Irish he played linebacker. Lane plans to move him down a spot to the D-line. He’ll double as a running back and potential tight end on the offensive side. 

“He’s very well-coached, very athletic,” Lane said. “I think his desire is to play on the next level, and I think that will be as an edge player, more than likely. But he also understands that from time to time we may have to move him around a little bit. I know by reputation he’s a really good player and played in a really good program. He knows what it takes to win. So I think he brings that with him, and he has the expectation of being willing to work hard.” 

Someone Lane considers “our best football player” is junior Andrew Helton (6-0, 200), who is a lock for a two-way starting job on the offensive line, and at linebacker. 

“He has a motor, comes off the football, will attack you and loves to hit,” he said. “Andrew was probably our most consistent linemen from last year. He has a great work ethic in the weight room.” 

Corbin Albritton (5-9, 170), off a season-ending injury, is slated to be back as center on an O-line that is otherwise feeling out the rest of its main five. 

Receivers will include Hein Schaaf (6-0, 150), Griffin Lane (who will be a third-string option at quarterback, and work on defense as either a cornerback or safety) and Mason Lane (who will see potential snaps as any of the above). 

Another “wild card,” with some applications at both positions, is freshman Sam Owens (5-8, 140). 

“He did a really good job for us in middle school last year as a running back, but he has really good hands,” Lane said. “He could be one of those slot receivers, or could be a guy when we go one-back who could be a receiver type in there.” 

Alec Preston (5-11, 195) and Mason Lane (5-10, 166) return alongside Helton in the linebacking corps. 

Blake Sims, who battled a few bumps and bruises but started most of the season in 2026, is back to anchor the middle of the defensive line, where Gavin Hightower and Albritton both also made an impact in the opener.

Sam Fuller will be an option at either linebacker or safety. 

Dash Preston (5-10, 165) returns at corner, and will be mirrored on the opposite side by either Griffin Lane (5-10, 145) or a second Dublin pickup in sophomore Jackson Jones (6-0, 141), who has made an impression so far. 

They’ll be counting on making a limited number go a good ways on each side of the ball, but the goods are there to compete. 

“We have some really strong football players coming back,” Lane said. 

New staff, similar identity… 

During his remarks on the preseason forum put on by the Rotary Club of Dublin late in July, Lane joked that he looked around on the practice field on a recent afternoon and didn’t recognize any of his coaches. 

In addition to what the Crusaders lost in player personnel to graduation and transfer, their staff took a fairly big hit as three key assistants moved on. Lane’s son Christian took a new job as head coach at Vidalia Heritage Academy, and siblings Ben and Rob East have stepped away from coaching entirely. 

The only true holdover from last year will be Jim Coleman, a former Crusader quarterback who is continuing his role as a student assistant. 

New additions came from both near and far. 

Looking locally, Lane brought on ’06 Dublin state champion running back and D-lineman Thomas Barnes. 

Quinton Cooley (a first-time coach who was an all-American running back at Liberty) and John Scargle (a veteran of more than 20 years who’s coached ball at multiple Florida high schools, and a few colleges, most recently as DC at Pennsylvania’s Westminster College) join from out-of-state. 

“Those guys coming in have some big shoes to fill, but they have some really good credentials as well,” Lane said. “The kids seem to have been very receptive to some new ideas and some new faces. The coaches have been very good in developing some relationships.” 

Getting to know so many new staffers at once has likely been the biggest adjustment for Lane. 

“We’re trying to build a relationship and rapport with one another. You can take for granted that, ‘I thought you knew that, but I didn’t tell you that,’ so I’m having to coach coaches, and coach myself to coach coaches.” 

Despite the new faces, the brand of football Lane has carried as his trademark – with a priority on blocking, tackling, running the ball and out-executing everyone on special teams – isn’t really changing. 

Defense is likely the place where you’ll see the most tweaks in style, though the Crusaders plan to work under the same framework of an even front with the same general idea of how they look and what they’re doing. 

The kicking game, despite the loss of two blue-chip specialists in the Register brothers (Wade now punting at the University of Georgia and Cody a transfer to Bleckley County), may once again be the most integral piece of their plans to compete and win this fall. 

It’ll just be a totally different ballgame without the set of players whose ability to just knock the ball out of sight made the phase pretty foolproof.

“The one thing with Wade, and with Cody, when they were here, you pretty much knew the other team was going to start on the 20-yard line every time,” Lane said. “I was tempted several times last year, with Wade, to just send him out on the kickoff team and leave 10 guys on the sideline, because he was going to kick it in the end zone, and we really wouldn’t have to cover. We’re going to have to coach a little bit this year.” 

Without that luxury going forward, the Crusaders will have to focus a lot more on the details of what they’re doing. And they’re doubling down on the amount of practice time – already a lot, by most standards – that’ll be budgeted for special teams. 

Instead of the standard 15-minute segment of practice they devote per day, Lane and Cooley, who’ll be his special teams point-man, plan on spending a full 30 minutes looking to locate as much “hidden yardage” as they can on kickoff and punt situations. 

“We’re going to have to do a really good job of scheme and coverage,” Lane said. “Make sure we have the right people on the field to take care of that.” 

As for the scoring part of it, Trinity should be in pretty good shape between the legs of freshman Whit Byrd and soccer transplant Aiden George, frontrunners for the open kicking job. 

Touchbacks and 40-plus yard field goals won’t be near as frequent, but Lane feels that they’ll be in position to make the proverbial layups. 

“Your goal would be to convert your extra points, and be able to kick the ball to the 20 or the 15 or so yard line, you hope you can step in there and kick a short field goal,” he said. 

The younger Register was also the Crusaders’ snapper on punts and scrimmage kicks, and those duties will be handled by one or both of Helton and Albritton. 

Punting, throughout summer, has been a project, to an extent where there are a good many fourth downs this year where Trinity may feel comfortable taking its chances and going for it. 

“I’m reading this guy’s book that never punted,” Lane said. “We may have to do that this year, too.” 

A quest to build depth… 

When your roster size is in the 20s and low 30s, having the depth to weather injuries – let alone 48 minutes of football – is a never-ending concern. 

Last year, no amount of it would have really helped Trinity to survive a constant storm of attrition that amounted to a curse from August all the way through November. 

The most brutal loss was probable starting quarterback Asher Evans, who suffered a broken leg at the very end of their preseason scrimmage that knocked him out for the season before it even began. 

The core who remained intact made a fairly strong rebound, compiling four wins in a row after a medicinal opening loss to Brentwood, and finishing the first half in position to contend. 

But that’s when a second wave hit, wiping out at least half a dozen other key players – representing roughly 12 starting spots on the overall depth chart – and most all remaining hope of salvaging much from the second half of the schedule, which Trinity would finish on a five-game slide. 

With fill-in QB Jakob Sahli, super-specialist Wade Register and at least two key linemen in and out, the Crusaders wrapped the regular season with a 5-5 record, and were on the chopping block against Briarwood in the first round of the playoffs. 

If there’s any silver lining Lane can point to from the ordeal, it’s that it allowed a lot of the younger players he’s set to depend on this year to begin the process of experiencing and adjusting to varsity football several games early. 

So that group should be able to hit the ground running in 2026, as they keep their fingers crossed for some much better luck on the injury front.  

“I found this to be true whether I was coaching 75 kids or 30 kids or 27, if the wrong person gets hurt, it changes your whole season,” Lane said.

A reality at this level of the GIAA, save for those in the elite class of Brentwood and the association’s superpowers in AAA and AAAA, is that most teams are in the same boat as far as overall numbers. 

How any can manage to build themself a safety cushion in the form of extra athletes to take off some of the load or pressure borne by their top guys, or give you that next man up as a fallback in case of emergency, can often be the separator between good and great. 

“Everybody in our situation, save for one or two schools, are looking at 25 to 30 kids, and playing seven or eight guys both ways,” Lane said. “You’ve gotta develop that depth.” 

But the rest is simply doing the best you can with what you have to work with. 

All in all, the Crusaders believe they’ve been dealt a quality hand to play here in 2026. 

“I feel good about the pieces, now we just have to make them fit in the right place,” Lane said.