Christian Liberty is making strides

Some of the simple things established football programs don't worry about were a major concern for Christian Liberty in its first full season.

Improvement in those areas is also a sign the Chargers are headed in the right direction with their still-growing program.

"Our tackling should be a lot better and we'll be in position to tackle," said Chargers coach Jim Calkins. "We've worked a lot more on the passing game.

"There are some problems we'll still have. But the early-season snap problems we had last year, we're not going to have as much of."

Especially with sophomore quarterback John Dulinsky running the Chargers' wing-T.

"J.D. has been working on it all winter," Calkins said. "He threw all winter and he got his footwork down. For next year and the following year he's in a good place."

Dulinsky has a lot of weapons to work with in Jared Edmonds, Mike Wood, David Sotomayor, Dan Glad, Shawn Anderson and Alex Glynn. Senior tackles Tyler Canoy and Nate Cavanaugh will be the anchors up front.

Canoy and Cavanaugh will also be a big part of things on the defensive front. The 270-pound junior tackle Stephen Koch is the biggest player on the team.

And last year's first full season, along with having players come in with experience from the Arlington Cowboys such as Dan and Matt Glad, Anderson, Glynn and Cunningham is accelerating the learning curve.

Calkins also added a four-game junior varsity schedule to give his players more experience. Improved offseason conditioning and weightlifting should help a 23-man roster avoid the injury bug that plagued the Chargers last year.

"Between the parents, coaches and kids, they understand what it takes," Calkins said, "and what has to be done to compete at the level we have to compete at."