“He’s the probably the only offensive lineman that I’ve ever coached that knows the plays and the blocking schemes and what we do almost to my level, and I’ve been coaching 18 years,” Grant continued.
“That’s probably over 1,000 kids and he’s by far, the smartest offensive lineman I’ve had.”

One might say Foley has played football for so long that it is in his DNA. Foley doesn’t remember when he didn’t play football as he started playing flag football before he attended Bob Sikes Elementary School.

From Bob Sikes and the Bull Pups, he went to Davidson Middle School. His football journey, or at least his hometown part of it, is winding down as a Bulldog playing for the team he’s pulled for all of his life.

“Being a Crestview Bulldog means everything to me,” Foley said. “It’s the footprint you leave behind here for the other guys to follow. I just want to leave my mark here.”

There is no doubt in Grant’s mind that Foley is leaving a mark that sets the bar high for not only future Crestview football players, but Crestview students in general.

“I can’t say enough about the young man,” Grant said. “He’s the type of young man that you want your daughter to date one day and marry. He has a great work ethic. He takes pride in what he does. He’s probably going to be a better coach than me. But I think his mom wants him to be a doctor.”

At 230 pounds, Foley is, by 2023 high school standards, an adequate size offensive lineman. It’s not uncommon for him to square off against players that outweigh him by 50 pounds or more.

“You just have to have great technique,” Foley said of taking on much bigger players. “Sometimes I know I have to be perfect or things will go bad. It feels good (to block the big guys) because I’m the underdog and I have to have a chip on my shoulder.”

Crestview’s coaching staff grades players for their performance in every game. And while nobody is perfect on every play, Grant said Foley wins a lot more battles than he loses. He’s also that player who is the coach on the field.

“Last year he never had a grade under 80,” Grant said. “For us, 80 and above is a passing grade. He doesn’t mess up.

If somebody doesn’t know what to do, they look at him,” Grant continued. “That could be the receivers, the running backs, that’s anybody. He knows what everybody is supposed to do on every single play.”

Foley embraces being the offensive player that touches the ball every play and has learned to live with the expectations of the position.

“There’s a lot of pressure on you,” he said. “There’s always something going through your head like, ‘This had better not be a bad snap.’  If our defense just got a stop at the 1-yard line, it’s got to be pin point snap or we are going to get a safety.”

Foley isn’t one to sound his own horn, but when asked, he shares what he is most proud of as a Bulldog football player.

“It’s probably my leadership and my IQ of knowing what people are supposed to do and then teaching the younger guys,” he said.

Bulldog coach Thomas Grant is ready to get a look at his team under the lights against someone in a different color jersey.

Some coaches see the games only as a tune up that allows them to evaluate players. Grant is not one of those coaches.

“We want to get a W (win) and get back,” he said. “It’s not time to play around. It’s time to think about the game. It doesn’t matter if I’m playing checkers, I want to win.”

The Gators are coming off an 8-4 campaign in 2022, advancing to the second round of the playoffs.

Grant likes the idea of facing a quality team in the preseason as the Bulldogs prepare for their season opener a week from Thursday at home against Rickards.

“Just being able to face a program like that in the scrimmage to kind of see where you’re at,” he said.  “You need to see what you need to work on. The more time we can get our young guys on film, the better.”

After hosting Escambia in the 2022 Kickoff Classic, Crestview opened last season with a game in Orlando against Ridley, Penn., followed by road trips to Gulf Breeze and Choctaw. This year the Bulldogs see the other side of the coin, opening the regular season with three straight home games, which makes the Kickoff Classic on the road even more important to a team filled with sophomores.

“It’s just going on the road and you know, having to have the mindset, this is business,” Grand said. “We’re going to get over there to do our job.

“We’re going to mess up against Escambia,” Grant continued. “We have to take that and learn from that. So when it’s the second-half against Niceville, against Mosley, against Leon, against Chiles, for district games that we we’ve learned those mistakes.”

“Basically I play everything on the line,” Abdon said. I’m playing tackle for sure right now. This will be my eighth year playing football.

“I just love the energy we have out here,” Abdon continued. “The other players pushing me forward to get better and just  having a good time.”

Abdon already has a year of varsity starting experience under his belt and will be one of the young guns the Gators look to this season.

“He started last year for us and did a great job,” Baker coach Barry Gardner said. “He’s one of the strongest kids on the team. He plays guard and tackle depending on the week. He’s also played center for us. He’s a good center for us too. And defensively, he also plays the defensive line.”

Abdon embraces the Baker culture and what it means to be a Gator.

“It’s about pride in the school,” he said. We have a great staff here, great coaches. It’s just a great place to be.”

Gardner described Abdon as a smart player.

“He picks up on stuff really fast for a young kid,” he said. “He’s really done a good job picking up on what we want to do on offense and defense. He’s learning as he goes. But he also started last year for and helped us a lot. He got a lot of experience last year as a starter.”

Abdon said his biggest challenge is his lack of size, which might be difficult to believe in look at his stout frame.

Gardner believes Abdon has yet to reach his full football potential and believes he will continue to improve.

“He’s got a chance to be a really good player,” Gardner said. “He just has to keep getting better and getting faster.”

Crestview coach Thomas Grant enters his second season in the driver’s seat and he’s been pleased with what he’s seen from his team.

“I’ve been really happy with the effort level,” he said following the Aug. 1 practice. “We have a lot of guys, about 100 guys. “I thought today we did a really great job of moving to the ball. We are flying around to the ball.

“It’s really hard to judge your defense (until they get into pads),” Grant continued. “But I’m very excited to see that (flying to the ball) and we are being physical on both sides of ball.”

Youth on the offensive line is Grant’s biggest concern. Senior center Michael Foley is the only returning starter up front.

“We’re starting four guys that haven’t taken a snap up there,” Grant said. “So yeah, that’s probably my biggest concern, but I’ve seen a lot of good things. Isaiah Brooks had a great first two days with a great summer.”

“We’re going to try to scrimmage our freshman and junior varsity for about 20 to 30 plays, assuming our field how it sets,” head coach Thomas Grant said. “We just put some new sod down that we got to make sure it sets up before the season.

“We will have for the ice cream truck and I’m hoping to have some other activities for the kids to do.”

Local youth football teams and cheerleading squads will be introduced.

Grant said the hope is the Shoal River and Davidson middle school cheerleaders and dance teams will perform, but he doesn’t think the middle school football teams will be in attendance. CHS varsity football players will be on hand to sign autographs and talk to the fans.

Grant believes an enthusiastic crowd helps set the foundation for a new season.

“Anytime there’s a lot of people in the stands and you get your juice to going it’s a way for some of the kids to come up that don’t feel of the field (a lot of playing time), he said. “It’s crazy because it kind of puts an end to fall camp that we are going through now.”

The evening of football starts at 4:30 p.m. with the future Gators taking the field. Cost for the event is five dollars. If you get hungry while there, BBQ plates will be available for $5 as well.

Baker coach Barry Gardner likes having the dress rehearsal before the Gators travel to Northview on Aug. 18 for the Kickoff Classic.

“It’s good because we turn the film on,” he said. “It’s not a real game, but to the kids it’s a game. They will go hard, and it will show up on film.

“It really helps so we can show them, this is how you do stuff all the time. Everybody grades seven through 12 gets to play in that game. It gives us a chance to evaluate the kids at all three levels.”

Parks had what might have been the biggest play of the 2022 season for Crestview when he scored the game-winning touchdown on a long pass play in the first round of the playoffs at Niceville.

A few weeks later, while playing for the CHS basketball team, Parks left the lineup and had surgery to repair a torn meniscus.

After missing spring practice and most of the summer drills, Parks is back and looking as strong as ever.

“It’s great to  have him back,” Bulldog coach Thomas Grant said. “He’s the guy that knows what everybody has to do. He’s gonna get a lot of tests that running back this year. I’m excited to see his hard work has paid off.”

Parks worked mainly as a slot receiver last year. This year the idea will be to get him more touches at running back.  

“He’s one of our guys, you know that we’re going to count the make plays in certain situations,” Grant said. “He’s not the only one, but he definitely on the short list of guys.”

For his part, Parks believes he’s close to full speed.

“I’m about 100 percent,” he said. “It feels great to be out there. Being on the sideline through spring ball was the hardest thing.

“I think it’s (the knee) is going to be good. I’ve been able to do some heavy squats. I’ve been able to jump just as high as before.”

Grant said the Bulldogs might have as many as 12 sophomores on the field at any given time so it’s important for Parks and other seniors to set the tone for the team.

Parks is ready to get the season started and is optimistic about what’s ahead.

“I think I have to be more of leader than last year,” he said. “Last year we had senior quarterback (Jerome Brazan) that was making a lot of plays. This year is my year and all of our offensive guys are really good.

“This year I think we have more weapons than we had last year.”