The Pleasant Home Eagles hope their successful spring football practice continues into the 2018 regular season.

“We’ve continued to improve with each season,” Rick Mercer said. “It started with what Coach (Chris) Mason brought in and has continued with me.”

Mercer said that the team still has things to work on before the season begins.

“We’ve still got some holes that need to be filled,” Mercer said. “We lost three of our best play makers this past season. Robert Scott, Nic Woods and Rico Bovino are going to be hard to replace. They all played a big part of our offense.”

The Eagles closed out their spring training with a game against Goshen.

“It was pretty exciting for the kids because we got to play at Troy University,” Mercer said. “We played up a classification and Goshen had a very good team. We did some things that I liked, but we did have a tough time moving the ball.”

Mercer said he was pleased with the effort that he saw throughout spring training.

“The kids did a good job,” Mercer said. “They are excited about the season. You have to give them credit because they came in to work everyday and did what they were asked.”

The key is going to be continuing to improve during the summer and fall, Mercer said.

“We have to continue to get better with each practice,” Mercer said. “There are holes that still need to be filled, but I believe we have the players that are capable of filling in those holes. Josh Ruth is one guy that could fill those holes, but I don’t want him to have to do it all by himself. There are other guys that can do it, but we just have to see who is going to step up.”

Mercer said he is looking forward to seeing what his seniors are able to accomplish in their final football season.

“This year I only have four seniors,” Mercer said. “I wouldn’t trade these four guys for anything. They are real deal high school football players. We will go as they go. They want to be competitive and they are going to fight hard to win their final year. We also have some young guys that will step up. As long as we continue to prepare and continue to improve, we are going to be just fine this year.”

This year, Mason said the Eagles will have to come out ready in fall practice.

“This year, we won’t be playing a fall jamboree,” Mercer said. “We have some important practices when we get back in the fall. We will be playing our first game just three weeks after we start practice. It’s going to be important they we get in shape this summer and we are ready for fall.”

Pleasant Home will open the season with a road trip to Elberta High School on Aug. 24.