By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer

Gateway, Poinciana and Celebration will be the first to take the field for spring football games today and Friday.

Gateway gets it started tonight at Lake Nona at 7 p.m.

Friday, the Eagles and Storm line up across from each other at 7 p.m. at Poinciana High.

Four more games dot the schedule next week, but local fans will have to ride to see three of those games, which are out of Osceola County.

Harmony is at Daytona Beach Seabreeze  May 27 at 7 p.m. Three games are set May 28 when Osceola travels to Davenport Ridge at 7 p.m., St. Cloud goes up to Olympia at 7:30 p.m. and Liberty welcomes Lake Region at 7 p.m.

Gateway Coach Marlin Roberts went young – real young at some positions – last season, and the result was a 2-8 record. But Roberts now sees the benefits of doing that as those starters are impressive this spring.

Roberts is scaling back some of the spread-option offense the Panthers ran last year and he’s putting in more traditional Wing-T plays to the offense, run by rising senior quarterback Roger Allen.

Allen’s backfield mates will  be rising sophomores. Zack Smith, Ian Stevens and Aaron Roman made varsity contributions as freshmen last year.

“That’s three fresh guys, eager to learn, and they’ve been busting their butts all month,” Roberts said. “And Roger’s doing a great job improving, considering last year was his first year playing any offense. He’s picking up the offense real well, and he’s maturing and has gotten stronger.”

Linebacker Brian Rosa, a sophomore last year who started every game, has emerged as a leader on defense, Roberts said.

“It’s just a bunch of young guys and I can see them coming together,” he said. “I can’t complain at all.”

Gateway takes on Lake Nona, which won one game as a first-year program last year, 34-14, over Celebration. The Lions feature all-everything quarterback Kevin Sousa, who accounted for nearly all of the team’s offense as a passing and throwing threat.

“It will be a great test for our kids to try to keep a guy like that contained,” Roberts said. “He has guys who can catch the ball, too.”

Friday’s game will feature two new coaches to the county. Poinciana’s Michael Timpson, a former Penn State wide receiver and an NFL alum for the New England Patriots, Chicago Bears and Philadelphia Eagles, inherits a team that was 2-8 last year.

That will be the last time the 2009 record be brought up, if he has his way.

“We don’t talk about last year. I even purposely haven’t watched any of the film from last year, I don’t want any preconceived notions about anyone,” he said. “I opened every position up; there are no returning starters. We have new people taking shots at jobs. It’s all about changing the climate here and writing a new chapter.”

Timpson said he has been installing offensive and defensive schemes little by little this month. Jake Dorminy and Mike Cirino both saw action under center last season and will work at quarterback on Friday.

They will be essentially playing for a role in the fall, just like all the other positions.

“We can’t make any bold predictions based on what we see in the spring,” said Timpson, who is still fine-tuning his coaching staff. “I’ve been preaching, ‘Give me effort,’ and they’re doing that.”

Celebration, 1-9 last year, will go into Friday’s game with a new coach, Ben Aarestad from Hialeah American by way of Lakeland, and a new quarterback. Rising senior Miguel Torres-Bruno, who’s gotten snaps the last two years behind center in special packages, heads into the fall as the starter.

“He’s got all the qualities, he’s tall and strong, he’s just never been taught how to play quarterback,” Aarestad said. “We’re going to keep it simple on offense to work him along.”

Tyler Osorio, who placed fifth at the Class 3A state track meet in the 400 meters, returns to the backfield and will play in the defensive secondary. Rising junior Jameel Lowery is an impressive newcomer at running back.

The Temple brothers — seniors Justin and Curtis and sophomore Lucas — will help lead the defense.

Aarestad said that while he wasn’t around last year to gauge it, excitement is up in the program now that he’s taken over from John Bangley, who remains as Celebration’s athletic director.

“I’ve had administrators tell me,” he said. “We had a barbecue last week and 120 people showed up.

“The spring game’s about getting the guys some confidence, see who the starters are going to be in the fall. Then we can gauge where we’re at and where we’re going to have to improve.”

Liberty’s interim head coach, David Benson, is preparing the team for its game against Lake Region next week. The Chargers were 8-3 last season and won the Scholarship Bowl under Doug Nichols, who moved to Osceola two months ago.

“Things are going well,” he said. “We’re in the process of revamping our offensive line and linebackers and we have a rookie quarterback, (sophomore) Greg Hankerson. He’s doing great. He’s developing a lot faster than I expected. He has a great football IQ.”

At Osceola High, Nichols is preparing for his first game as the Kowboys head coach next week. He was an OHS assistant 16 years before taking the Liberty job in 2007.

Nichols said fans will see plenty of new faces.

“Very young and inexperienced,” is how he described the Kowboys, 7-5 and regional semifinalists last season.

“The young kids are working, and what seniors we have are being leaders,” he said.

St. Cloud Coach Mark Jackson said the Bulldogs, 7-5 and district champs last season, are retooling their defense for 2010 under new defensive coordinator Bill Buldini, over from Osceola.

“With Coach Buldini coming over, we’re playing a 4-3,” Jackson said. “We’re improving daily and learning new terminology and trying to line up correctly.”

Jackson said more than 100 players are working out for the Bulldogs, including incoming freshmen.

Harmony, 6-5 last season, is working under third-year Coach Dayne Brown.

Rick Pedone contributed to this story.