Lightning scrubbed the Effingham County Rebels’ last practice of its two weeks of spring football, but it was a productive period nonetheless.

“We’ve still got a long way to go offensively,” Rebels coach Jack Webb said. “Once we get some kids back from injuries and ineligibility, we’ll have a chance to be good. But by no means are we ready to a play a football game right now.”

Webb, who will enter his third season as Rebels head coach in the fall, didn’t have to do a lot of re-teaching or re-coaching of his players this spring. Most of the schemes are in place, and the kids know what Webb and his veteran coaching staff expect of them.

“Just about every day was evaluation,” Webb said of the spring practices. “I think they understand what we want out of them.”

With the final practice wiped out, Webb and the Rebels watched tape on their good and bad habits before he released them early — it was prom weekend at ECHS.

But there’s plenty of work to do in the offseason, and Webb said teams that want to compete for a state championship in Class AAAA — a class loaded with some of the state’s longtime powers and its burgeoning programs — have to work year-round. The Rebels were 7-3, just missing out on a state playoff berth.

The Rebels will lift weights from Monday through Thursday in two shifts in the summer, “because we’ve got so many kids,” Webb said. They will take the week of July 4 off, since it’s a GHSA-mandated dead week.

He’s also expecting to have some players show up to sharpen their skills.

“We’ll have kids come in, to throw and catch and kick,” he said, “and do some of the things they need to do to get better. The ones who don’t try to get better, someone else is going to bypass them.”

Webb also said it may not be a guarantee for older players to earn playing time based on their longevity.

“We’re starting to get competition out there,” he said. “It’s getting to where just because you’re a junior or a senior doesn’t mean you’re going to get to play.”