Spring football starts Monday. Here's what to look for from area private school teams

Reloaded, rebuilding, returning.

That describes the area's private school programs beginning spring football practice Monday.

So let's dive right into the spring storylines for those teams, in alphabetical order:

Bradenton Christian

Dan Fort showed his creativity in his first season as the Panthers' head coach. Trick plays and onside kicks helped BCS against various opponents last fall.

BCS even pulled off a first-round playoff upset.

This spring, the Panthers have a chance to build themselves into a team that can topple Saint Stephen's for the division title in the Sunshine State Athletic Conference now that the Falcons lost some key senior skill players.

Cardinal Mooney

Welcome back, Paul Maechtle. Well, the veteran head coach wasn't fully retired before returning to head coaching in the offseason. Maechtle was an assistant coach under Drew Lascari, before Lascari stepped down to take a quality coaches position with Rutgers University.

Instead of going on a long job search to find the replacement, the Cougars kept continuity for the players by hiring Maechtle.

The Hall of Fame high school coach won two state championships with Southeast High in 1993 and 1994, several district titles and playoff berths.

Southeast High's field was dedicated to him in 2015 following his retirement.

IMG Academy

The Ascenders were the No. 2-ranked team in the country last season. They lost some key pieces.

That's OK, because IMG simply reloaded its roster with more talent.

Multiple rising seniors transferred into IMG for this upcoming season. Linebacker Jaleel McRae (Florida State commit), offensive lineman Dontae Lucas (Florida State commit), wide receiver Shamar Nash (Missouri commit), wide receiver Josh Delgado (14 offers) and safety Briton Allen (19 offers) are some of those transfers.

The Ascenders aren't playing a spring game against another high school program. However, they're playing an intra-squad scrimmage.

Saint Stephen's

Fred Billy, Chase Brown and Sydney Brown were key players in the Falcons' back-to-back SSAC championships.

Billy, a quarterback, scored more than 100 career touchdowns.

Chase Brown was the speedy, physical running back heading to Western Michigan and his twin, Sydney, was a hard-hitting safety heading to Illinois.

They're all gone.

Life moves on, and the Falcons' next wave of talent gets their first chance to impress when Monday's spring football season begins.

This story was originally published April 22, 2018 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Spring football starts Monday. Here's what to look for from area private school teams."