CHOCOWINITY — Southside football coach Jeff Carrow is an outspoken advocate of athletes playing multiple sports. It’s a good mindset to have, especially since 1-A athletic programs oftentimes have to share athletes. The best football players on Carrow’s 2015 squad that made it to the regional championship spent the months afterward playing basketball, baseball and running track.

It’s why he isn’t too concerned with missing the majority of spring workouts. Most of the football team ran track this past spring. A number of them were unavailable for spring football workouts because the Seahawks sent over 20 athletes to the state championship meet in Greensboro two weekends ago.

“I’m a firm believer in kids playing multiple sports,” Carrow said. “Not just because we’re at the 1-A level and we have to share athletes. … Those kids are together all year long. They’re competing for different things. All of our coaches here at Southside work together tremendously for the athletes. … We have a good culture and a good family here.”

Southside will begin summer football practice on June 15. Carrow plans on practicing three or four times a week, working on strength, endurance and schemes.

“We’ll start with our base stuff like learning offensive blocking schemes, base defensive schemes and secondary coverages,” he said. “… It’s a disadvantage that we didn’t get a lot of workouts in (the spring). We did get one quality workout in, but we’ve got 90 to 95 percent of our football players running track. The guys were together and getting in shape.”

The Seahawks, on paper, should be strongest on defense this coming fall. They’ll have an experienced secondary led by the likes of Zikajah Crawford and Joe Myers. Up front, Hunter Sparks will help spearhead a stout linebacker corps.

The offense graduated quarterback Johnny Sullivan, running backs Matt Baxter and Lawrence Brown, as well as much of the offensive line. Even so, Carrow plans to run it very much the same.

“The offensive line is young, but they’re an energetic group. They’re eager to learn,” he said. “… We’re going to do what we do. We’re a winged-T team and we’re always going to be. Honestly, we’re going to do what we did last year.”

Returning most of the defense and keeping the offensive approach relatively the same will be important to the Seahawks building off of last year’s success. The main difference with this squad, Carrow noticed, is the mental approach.

“We have a totally different mentality with these kids,” he said. “Last year was a very vocal group that spoke out a lot and led. This group may not be as vocal as last year, but, as far as playing experience defensively, it’s the same guys out there. They know how to win.

“What we’ve got to figure out is team chemistry and how the team is going to develop,” Carrow said. “That’s what the summer is really all about.”

Southside shouldn’t miss a step in the chemistry department. While the team may have missed out on a few spring workouts, most of the Seahawks spent the offseason on the same team. Whether it was basketball, baseball or track, they’ve been working out and playing alongside one another.

One of the most exciting things about the summer should be the emergence of new leaders. Sparks was a team captain last season and should continue to lead as a senior.

“Obviously, Hunter is going to be there, but we’ve got other vocal guys out there,” Carrow said. “Some young guys are coming up like Cody Modlin. We expect Brandon Sullivan to step up and become a leader. We’ve got seniors like Zikajah Crawford and Joe Myers who are quieter, but lead by example.”

Carrow also mentioned rising juniors Demitrius Ebron and Kyle Hill as emerging leaders. They saw action last season and are expected to step into full-time roles.

Even with a brief spring, Southside is more than ready to pickup where it left off after an impressive 2015.