Jefferson Davis sitting atop High School Sports Report SCISA 8-Man Pick 6 poll
Raiders roll off 6 straight wins after season-opening loss to Providence Athletic Club
Blackville – When the Jefferson Davis Academy football team opened its season with a 38-22 loss to Providence Athletic Club, some people may have been taken aback. Not Raiders head coach Anthony Reitenour.
“Providence has actually proven to be a very good team,” Reitenour said of the independent home school team based out of Columbia. “It was the first game and we were still trying to figure things out. Plus, Providence has like a 35-man roster. It’s hard to compete with that kind of depth at the start of the season when you’re not in prime shape.”
Since that loss, Jefferson Davis has been on a roll. It has won six straight, including ending a 38-game winning streak for 3-time SCISA 8-man state champion Holly Hill Academy with a 28-22 triumph.
Because of all of that, the Raiders are ranked No. 1 in the latest High School Sports Report Pick 6 SCISA 8-Man poll.
Reitenour said his team is still a work in progress despite its 6-1 record.
“We just try to put it together week by week for what works best for us,” said Reitenour, who is in his second season at Jefferson Davis. "I still don’t feel like we’ve played a complete game yet. If we can ever string together a 4-quarter game that would be great. We seem to have a few hiccups each game, but we’re able to come out with wins every night.
“I’m just wanting my guys to continue to work hard and progress forward to get better.”
The Raiders are coming off of a 40-8 victory over Holy Trinity Classical Christian on September 29. They exploded in the second half after only leading 16-8 at halftime.
Jefferson Davis is averaging right at 40 points a game. Reitenour has a bevy of offensive weapons that he uses in different spots on the field to make the offense work.
“We’ve been moving people around a little bit,” Reitenour said. “We’ve got a versatile group of boys. We had Colson (Loadholt) at quarterback, and the runs been working for us, and we haven't passed a whole lot, but we decided to go with Paxton Wall and throw it some.
“We don't have to go that route if we don't need to. We can let the quarterback be a facilitator, but we can mix it up so who we’re playing has a lot to prepare for. If we’re doing that, that means a lot of game planning is going on which is good fur us.”
Through the first six games, Loadholt has rushed for 335 yards and nine touchdowns on just 37 carries. He completed 7 of 16 passes for 149 yards and a score and was the leading receiver with 10 catches for 200 yards and two touchdowns.
“When Colson’s not at quarterback, he’s either at wide receiver or wing back,” Reitenour said. “He’s such a versatile athlete that you can put him anywhere and he’ll be successful.”
Wall goes behind center when Loadholt isn’t there. He’s completed 18 of 28 passes for 286 yards and five touchdowns. In the Raiders’ 54-8 win over Laurens Academy, Wall was 9-for-10 for 169 yards and three TDs. Loadholt had five of the catches for 126 yards and a score.
No matter who is taking the snaps, running back Nazir Void is normally in the backfield with them. The junior had 569 yards and seven touchdowns on 54 carries through six games with seven catches for 22 yards and a touchdown.
James Grubbs had 51 carries for 388 yards and four TDs.
The Jefferson Davis defense has allowed just 62 points since the opening game. It is led by nose guard Tollie Fickling. He has 55 tackles, including 45 solo stops to go with 12 tackles for loss, three quarterback sacks, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
Loadholt had 47 tackles and four TFLs, Payton Payne had 42 tackles and four TFLs and Hunter Zorn has 41 tackles.
Loadholt is a ballhawk at cornerback with six interceptions. He had taken three of them back for touchdowns.
“Our defense has been lights out,” Reitenour said. “They've been just phenomenal. Tollie Fickling has helped us in shutting it down in the trenches. We’ve got a lot of guys who can play in space and make tackles. They’re really good over there.
“Our aggressiveness in the secondary has caused us to slip up a couple of times, but we’ve got great coverage guys. Those are early-season things you can work on. I think we have one of the top defenses in 8-man, but we have to keep getting better. You want to be the team no one wants to face.”
The Raiders have four games remaining. The final is at home in a rematch against Holly Hill. Because of that, Reitenour hasn’t made that much out of the Game 3 win over the other band of Raiders.
“It wasn't that big,” Reitenour said. “We play them at the end of the season, and that’s the one that counts (in regards to playoff seeding). It was good in the sense that it got the monkey off of our back and gave us confidence that we can beat Holly Hill. I’m glad it was a close game, a tight game, a hard-fought game, so we know what it takes to win.”
JDA VOLLEYBALL OFF TO 9-3 START
The Jefferson Davis volleyball team was having a good season as the schedule moved into the home stretch. The Raiders owned a 9-3 overall record and a 4-1 mark in Region 1-Class A.
“The team is doing very well,” said Jefferson Davis head coach Bart Owens. “We still have growing pains with several young players, but we are getting better each week. We want to be playing our best in October.”
JDA is led by junior setter Sydney Owens, freshman rightside hitter Carrie Lynn Loadholt, sophomore outside hitter Rynn Fickling, senior outside hitter Reagin Still, middle hitters Maddie Morris and Emma Craig and defensive specialist Ellie Fogle.
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