The 2012 season was supposed to be North Cobb Christian’s coming out party in region play as the Eagles were set to compete in Region 6A.

However, the Eagles elected to wait two more years to make their region debut after several lackluster seasons and a big hit from graduation this year.

As North Cobb Christian wrapped up its spring last week, the Eagles are setting their sights on building back up in another non-region schedule in 2012.

After losing nine seniors from last year’s 1-9 team and entering the ’12 campaign with a large number of underclassmen, North Cobb Christian coach Harry Miles thought that delaying his team’s first foray into region action was the best way to go.

“We lost nine seniors and we have only two seniors returning,” Miles said. “We have a lot of inexperienced players on our roster, so we thought it would be more beneficial to play a non-region schedule, so we can build up more experience.”

It will be a bigger North Cobb Christian team that takes the field this year as the Eagles enter the 2012 season with 33 players on their roster — seven more than last year.

“We have a lot of new players, a lot of young players, but we are bigger in numbers,” Miles said. “We are starting to gain momentum.”

After changing its defense to a 3-4 alignment last year, North Cobb Christian is now overhauling its offense for the 2012 season with a new triple-option formation, which Miles said he ran when he coached at Savannah Christian.

“It’s more of a fit for the players that we have,” Miles said. “It’s a lot more vertical. We have installed only three plays so far, so we still have a lot of work to do.”

While North Cobb Christian loses running back Corey Harris, who provided much of the team’s offensive firepower, the Eagles do return someone who can pick up the slack in rising sophomore running back Reggie Pruitt.

“Reggie was a key performer for us last year and he will play a more important role this year,” Miles said. “He is going to be really special.”

Rising senior running back Daniel Galanos will be another key player in the backfield, along with rising senior quarterback Alex Ho-on, a three-year starter.

The Eagles will be helped by the return of its entire offensive line, with rising junior center Zach Pruitt — a three-year starter — leading the way.

North Cobb Christian will go on the road for a preseason scrimmage with Mount Vernon on Aug. 24 before hosting Southwest Atlanta Christian in its regular-season opener a week later.