CHOCOWINITY — Southside football coach Jeff Carrow said turnout has been great throughout the first half of summer workouts. The Seahawks, hoping to continue finding success despite talent turnover, have gotten an influx of young players to mix in with the returning crop from last year’s team that competed for a 1-A regional championship.

Those returning — like senior linemen Aiden Kelley and Teddy Minor — will be important come Southside’s Aug. 18 season opener against Ayden-Grifton. Carrow said they’re playing their role in preparing the team for not only this season, but also for the future in the way they’ve stepped up and taken on leadership roles.

“This has probably been our best younger turnout that we’ve ever had,” Carrow said. “The numbers have been fairly decent. I’ve been real happy with that. We’re filling a lot of positions on offense and defense, so it gives us a good opportunity to get back to some of the fundamentals.”

Minor and Kelley will help keep Southside’s ever-evolving offense running smoothly — literally. The Seahawks will continue to focus on their ground offense, just like they always have, but also plan to air things out more often.

The man under center will be either junior Will Warren or senior Grant Jensen. Both have experience at the position, whether that is in a backup capacity or starting at the junior-varsity level. It’s made for a battle between the two.

“I’ve been impressed with Will Warren. He’s projected to be the starting quarterback, but he’s in competition with Grant Jensen,” Carrow said. “Jamari Nelson may also see a few snaps. … Competition is good. It breeds good play. Will is getting the majority of the snaps right now.”

Whoever the signal caller is will have plenty of weapons around him. Two seasons ago, Southside had superstar running backs in Lawrence Brown and Matt Baxter. The Seahawks took a committee approach to the position last year. It worked out fine, and looks like that will be the way things shake out this season.

The team will have a speedy back in Amari Peele. Brandon Sullivan will bring the power as fullback. There’s also Trajan Rhome, Jamison Bennett and Jonquil Haywood, among others, who showed plenty of promise in 2016.

Carrow expects all of those players to be able to catch the ball out of the backfield. Demetrius Ebron has been the player getting most attention from the quarterback.

“We’ve got no true starters (at running back). Every one of them, from Trajan Rhome to Brandon Sullivan — especially Brandon being a big guy out of the backfield — all of them have hands and are doing well catching the ball,” Carrow said.

Carrow said the Seahawks are just about where he hoped they’d be at this halfway point of the summer. Attitude and motivation have been good, and he hopes to see that continue on through the last few weeks until official practice starts.