Hartsville returning seven starters on both sides of the football
Running back Carmello McDaniel, quarterback McKendrie Douglas back to lead offense
Hartsville – Jeff Calabrese has seven starters back on both sides of the football for his Hartsville High School team. He is filled with anticipation for the upcoming season, but not necessarily because of that.
“I'm excited just because we're getting ready to start another season,” said Calabrese, who led the Red Foxes to a 7-5 record last season. “Who we have back is really irrelevant at this stage. The bottom line is you've got to develop your roster. You can have seven returning kids, but if three of them are out on a Friday night, you can throw that stat out the window.
“The fact we do have some kids back with playing experience makes it fun because the coaching comes at a little different level,” he added. “You're talking football at them at them a little differently. We enjoy that aspect, increasing their knowledge, taking them a step further.”
In running back Carmello McDaniel and quarterback McKendrie Douglas, Calabrese has a pair of seniors who would be very, very, very good by advancing another step.
McDaniel, who is drawing interest from Football Championship Subdivision school Charleston Southern and NCAA Division II Newberry at this time, ran for 1,814 yards and 24 touchdowns on 169 carries out of HHS’ Wing-T offense. He also caught five passes for 153 yards and two touchdowns.
Douglas only averaged about 11 passes a contest, but he completed over 61 percent of them, connecting on 80 of 130 passes for 13 touchdowns and 1,284 yards against just four interceptions. He also ran for 684 yards and seven TDs on 123 carries.
Douglas has an offer from DII Limestone and is getting interest from FCS schools The Citadel and Furman. Calabrese said Douglas is a student of the game and his stock should continue to rise.
“In that last scrimmage, he called all of the plays,” Calabrese said following a 5-team 7-on-7 session at Dillon High School last month. “He’s an exceptional talent, he’s intelligent and has a love for football.”
Hartsville has a pair of juniors returning as starting wide receivers in Jackson Moore and EJ Smith. Moore had 20 catches for 314 yards and three TDs, while Smith had 11 catches for 135 yards and one score.
Using a run-heavy offense like the Wing-T, Calabrese said he and his staff use the 7-on-7 scrimmages to better themselves at what they do in the passing game during the regular season. However, there are many benefits beyond that.
“It allows players to work at communicating with players, being on the field with the coaches off the field,” said Calabrese, who is entering his 19th season as Hartsville’s head coach with a 172-56 record. “It helps in coaches being able to communicate with players via hand signals. It's a good time for player interaction a little bit as well as competing, so it's a lot of fun.
“Also, just competing. It's 7-on-7 and you can choose to compete in a 7-on-7 or you can just do what you do, and that's what we do. We just try to do what we do and then coach them up through what they're seeing.”
The Red Foxes return three starters from the offensive line led by Slayton Stokes, a 6-foot-4-inch, 325-pound senior. Despite his size and being a 2-time all-region selection, Stokes is just starting to gain some recruiting interest. He is an avid golfer, the No. 2 player on the Hartsville team, and hasn’t attended many summer football camps, according to Calabrese, so he isn’t well known.
Also returning as starters are senior Evan Young (6-0, 200) and junior Deric Brown (6-1, 270). Others who will be battling for time on the offensive line are senior Shamar Thomas (5-9, 290), senior Jazir Reardon (6-0, 235) and sophomore Chris Price (6-3, 245).
Junior Jackson Chavis (6-3, 245) was an All-Region 6-AAAA performer as an offensive lineman last year. He is going to be playing defensive end along with returning starters Bryson Jacobs, a senior who is starting to gain some recruiting traction, and junior Jordan Davis. The nose guard will be senior Hayden Wilson.
The linebackers in the 3-4 alignment will be juniors Web Barnes, Coleman Radcliff and Xavier Robinson along with senior JaQuez Coe. Barnes, who had 101 tackles last year, and Radcliff are returning starters, while Coe missed last season with an injury after starting in 2021.
HHS has only one returning starter in the secondary, but he is a good one. Junior DaMarion Coe had 106 tackles, four tackles for loss and two interceptions.
He is also dangerous as a kickoff returner, taking 15 back for 469 yards and two touchdowns.
Hartsville was without several of its key players during spring practice because they were participating in other sports. And that’s fine by Calabrese.
“Now I'm old school, but I prefer a 3-sport athlete,” he said. “Give me a 3-sport athlete every day because I love the kids being involved in so many things.
“It allowed us to get some younger players ready to go. I think that's the biggest thing, just creating some depth, teaching as many kids as you can possibly teach, exposing them to as many things as you can possibly expose them to where by the end of June we're in a pretty good spot.”
Hartsville opens its season on August 18 at home in Kelleytown against Conway,
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