FERRIDAY — Signing offensive plays to his quarterback underneath the dark clouds hovering above him Thursday morning, Dwayne Taylor prepared his Storm.

The Delta Charter head coach made the final adjustments to his offense, making sure the Storm football players were prepared for a 5 p.m. encounter against Centreville High School today.

On the receiving end from Taylor’s rain-dance-like movements was quarterback Trey Poole, a soon-to-be ninth grader who earned the starting job last football season. At practice last fall, one day before a middle school exhibition, both of Delta Charter’s quarterbacks were missing because of illness. In their absence, then head coach Josh Loy elected to place Poole at quarterback.

“I had a faculty meeting, so I was late to practice that day,” said Taylor, who became Delta Charter’s head coach in January. “When I showed up, Coach Loy told me he put Poole there, and I said, ‘well, we could always run the ball tomorrow if we need to.’”

Poole, who was playing running back, threw seven touchdowns in a middle school game against Crowville, surprising his coaches.

“I said, ‘Well, I guess we found our new quarterback,’” Taylor said, laughing.

Delta Charter started Poole at quarterback the next day in a junior varsity game, and Poole threw three more touchdowns. Poole, who earned the starting job and has kept it, said he was just hoping for an opportunity.

“I don’t want to talk about myself, but I knew what I could do,” Poole said. “I was hoping he would put me in, but I wasn’t going to say anything.”

Joining Poole in the backfield at practice was starting running back Larry Scott, while Johnny Hatten, Lee Lancaster and Freddie Mango rounded out his receiving corps. Upfront for Delta Charter were Tyler Heard, Desmon Valdez, Brian Davis, Colton Nations and Michael Smith.

Because of Delta Charter’s size, nearly every offensive starter will have to play on the defensive side of the ball, as well.

Taylor said Lancaster and Scott would be the heart of the defense at linebacker, acknowledging that Lancaster was one of the team’s best athletes.

“He’ll strike you,” Taylor said. “He’s a 10th grader who made a 22 on his ACT, so he’s drawn some interest from colleges. Louisiana College and Northwestern have shown interest in him.”

Heard, Valdez, Nations and Davis will be the starters on the defensive line, while Jalen Williams, Mango and Hatten will play the role of ironmen in the defensive backfield.

“The thing about our defense is we’ll never be the biggest, but we’ll always get to the ball,” Taylor said. “And when they get there, they’ll hit you.”

Taylor said he’s treating tonight’s exhibition against Centreville as if it were a real Friday night game, since the Storm have yet to experience it.

“A lot of these guys don’t know what it’s like to play on Fridays, and since we’ll be doing that this fall, I thought we’d treat it like we would a normal Friday during the season,” Taylor said. “We’ll have the Storm walk before the game and everything. I’m just excited and ready to play.”