Last year’s Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats varsity football team enjoyed more success than any team in the school’s history, but the head coach and several of the players have moved on. The team is now coached by Chad Flatt, an assistant coach and coordinator last year for the Bobcats, who admittedly has a different style than his friend and former coach Bryan Pinabell.

“Bryan was meticulous and very organized, sometimes even lining up his pencils,” said Flatt, who is still getting used to all of the little things that head coaches have to do. “I’m a bit more disheveled, but I’m starting to model myself more after Bryan every day.”

While Flatt is trying to be a little more like Pinabell, this year’s Bobcats will look a lot different than Pinabell’s team.

First of all, the explosive running tandem of Dominique McDermott and Christian Willis is gone, but Shawn Edoimioya and Amir Mustafa will handle the running duties this year and should help Our Lady of Mercy control the ball and the clock this year.

Leading the offense will be senior quarterback William Pearl, who Flatt praises for his extensive knowledge of the offense.

“He’s grown up quite a bit since starting at quarterback as a sophomore,” Flatt said. “He makes good adjustments and good decisions.”

Pearl has a number of options to throw to at receiver, including Jarrell Bankhead and David Goemare. Bankhead has been a solid receiver for the Bobcats for several years and Flatt expects big things this year for Goemare.

“He had the best summer of anyone on the team and has really come a long way,” Flatt said.

Flatt thinks his offense will have a number of other options this year and thinks his offensive line, which he believes to be the strongest in school history, will play a big factor this year as well.

“We have good size for a Class A line,” said Flatt, who cited Daniel Alexis, who is also on the team’s defensive line, as well as center Rich McPhee, a transfer from Italy, and Tommy Kearns with being important pieces of the line.

“I’m very proud of Tommy’s toughness,” said Flatt, mentioning that Kearns had been battling some back issues from last winter.

While Mercy’s offense should have fans cautiously optimistic, Flatt believes his defense is miles beyond where they were at the end of last season.

“We’re better at tackling and lining up this year for one thing,” said Flatt, who mentioned linebacker Daniel Wesley as playing well, as well as Pearl, Bankhead, Alexis and Mustafa.

Overall, Flatt just sees his team working hard to be prepared to play on Fridays.

“They have a better understanding of what it takes to be good at football,” Flatt said, which is saying something for a team that returns five starters on both offense and defense and only has five seniors on the squad.

The Bobcats should be among several teams from the region fighting for a state playoff spot. Flatt acknowledges it won’t be easy, but the start of this year’s schedule may help insure that his team is firing on all cylinders when they get to the thick of region play.

Our Lady of Mercy started with a scrimmage against Lakeside, DeKalb last week and will open the season with a game at Jackson County this Friday. Both teams are from higher classifications, but both have struggled in year’s past and should give the Bobcats competitive matches, something that was missing in past seasons when they opened against state champion contenders.

After a bye week, Our Lady of Mercy will host North Cobb Christian, a new program, something that the Bobcats know an awful lot about.

There are no guarantees for any football team when a new season begins, but the Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats have been working hard and can promise an exciting season.

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