ARMED AND READY – Grayson Muehlstein, who will take over as the Decatur Eagles’ starting quarterback this season, attempts a pass during practice Monday. Messenger photo by Joe Duty

From one brother to another, so goes the quarterback transition for the Decatur Eagles in 2012. Grayson Muehlstein prepares to take the reins this season after his brother Garrett led the Eagles to a 10-0 season in 2011.

Monday morning was the first time Grayson took snaps as the starter after spelling his brother in relief a year ago.

Muehlstein completed eight passes for 146 yards and a touchdown in his backup role. He also rushed for 232 more yards.

“We hope to see the same results [as his brother],” Decatur head coach Kyle Story said. “Grayson has done a lot of work over the summer and gone to a lot of camps and improved himself, so I’m ready for him to take over the reins where his older brother Garrett was last year.”

The first day back on the field included a lot of basic offensive packages for the new signal caller, but Story feels the junior responded well.

“He [Muehlstein] did some good things today,” Story said. “We have some areas to work on, but he threw the ball well and handled the run-games read well.”

Not only did Muehlstein have a good first day, Story was pleased with how the guys around him performed, too.

“We had a lot of retention from what we had learned in the spring, and basically we were just reviewing some of our basic offensive plays and our defensive packages,” Story said. “I was really impressed that guys knew what they were doing, but until we get out there with pads on and start playing some other people, we really don’t know what to expect or know how good we could be.”

Decatur will not get a chance to play anyone else until their first scrimmage Aug. 17 when they host Mineral Wells, but Story knows his staff has a lot of work to do before the pads come out at the end of the week.

“We want to get our base package in on offense, defense, and the third phase is our kicking game, and we got two of those phases taught today,” Story said. “We’ve got a lot of reps to do to get better at them. We’ve got to get all six of the special teams done by the end of this week and then get ready for a physical day Friday when we get the pads on.”

Decatur had a total of 50 varsity kids reporting on the first day of practice, along with 32 JV kids and 42 freshmen.