Kingstree – Is Kingstree High School football head coach Brian Smith happy to be off to a 0-2 start? Of course not, but he thinks his Blazers are moving in the right direction.
“We are a young team that is getting better every week,” Smith said. “We have played the toughest schedule for a AA team, playing up both weeks, but held our own. We have had some key injuries early, but as soon as we get healthy we will be a dangerous team going forward.”
Kingstree opened the season with a 24-8 loss to AAA Manning. It then played another AAA school in Aynor, falling by a 30-14 count.
Smith was the head coach at C.E. Murray before becoming the Kingstree coach last year when C.E. Murray was closed. He said all of that is now behind his players.
“We're a year older and we've been together, so the players kind of know what to expect from us, and they've done a great job,” Smith said. “I can't complain. They've busted their tails the entire offseason for the most part, and we're again excited to see what happens and how it translates to the field.
“We're all Blazers now. There is no separation between the two. No one ever thinks about the past anymore. We're all looking forward to this season and supporting all of our teams.”
Kingstree returns eight starters on both sides of the football. The offense is led by senior J’Shaun Dorsey. He showed his dual threat ability against Aynor, completing 6 of 16 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns while running for 93 yards on six carries.
Last season was Dorsey’s first playing football, much less quarterback. He thinks he has made great strides.
“I feel like I've gotten better over time,” Dorsey said. “I feel like I've worked a whole lot harder since last year with that being my first year under him. I understand the game more -- and that’s by studying. I kind of look at what I did and see what I can do better.”
Juniors Xavier Dukes and Khaled Riggins are the wide receivers. Dukes had 112 yards and the two TD catches on three receptions. The running backs are juniors Chi Quan Giles and Javien McCray.
The offensive line is led by junior center Michael Edwards (6-feet-2-inches, 300 pounds). Junior Malcolm Salters (6-1, 255) is at left tackle and sophomore Ethan Carraway (6-0, 245) is at right tackle. The guards are senior Emmanuel McBride (6-0, 245) on the left side and senior Jafari Slay (6-0, 250) on the right side.
Senior James Brockington is back at defensive end after a monster junior season. The other starting linemen are Salters and Edwards along with sophomore BJ Washington. The linebackers are all seniors in Javon Johnson, Michael Kelly and Rodney Bryant. The secondary includes Dorsey, sophomore Tyleek Dukes, senior Terrance Scott and Xavier Dukes.
What has Smith excited is how young the team is with seniors filling just eight of the 22 starting slots.
“We're pretty experienced and still young at the same time,” he said. “We don't have many seniors at all. This was the COVID class, and that's kind of a common theme throughout the state talking to other coaches. This senior class, a lot of them decided not to play football and that's held true for us as well. We only have six or seven seniors total on the team adn a pile of freshmen, sophomores and juniors.”
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