Mullins – The final record may say otherwise, but Mullins High School football head coach Marc Lowery said he has a better program now than when he took over at the end of May.
Disregard the fact the Auctioneers were winless in 10 games after going 1-9 last season in John Williams’ final season before he retired. There is excitement around the program, according to Lowery.
“We took steps forward,” said Lowery, a first-time head coach after decades as an assistant coach at several Horry County schools as well as a middle school head coach. “The boys felt good where we were in a lot of games. We were disappointed that we came away winless, but we could see improvement.”
Even though Mullins just concluded its season with a loss to archrival Marion on October 27, there is no time for a break. He said the Auctioneers need to start preparing for next season now and it begins in the weight room.
“We need to get in the weight room and work on getting stronger,” Lowery said. “This is where the administration needs to step up and give us what we need to do that, the things we were promised. If we’re going to make that leap that we want to make, it starts in the weight room. That's something that’s not been the focus this year.
“We were able to come away with a little validation. We need to get in the weight room, Most of our skill kids are sophomores and our linebackers are juniors.”
Along with making the team physically stronger, Lowery is excited to have an entire offseason to teach and work on his offense with his players. Lowery had no spring practice with his team last year and just a couple of 7-on-7 scrimmages over the summer before the start of fall practice.
“We’ve got a big learning curve in what we try to do,” Lowery said. “We’re looking for the benefit of a full season, a full offseason, to see what we can do. That’s why I told the kids as soon as the season was over, the next season starts now. We’ve got to start doing the things necessary to get better for next year now.”
Lowery is excited to see what kind of progress sophomore quarterback Kanazzion Bethea makes in the offseason. Bethea threw for over 1,500 yards to go with 14 touchdowns in nine games.
Through eight games, sophomore Justin Reaves Jr. was Bethea’s favorite target. He had 22 catches for 164 yafds. Senior JJ Davis had 15 catches for 171 yards, junior Lonnie Avant averaged 21.9 yards per catch on 14 receptions for 307 yards, and Andre Littlejohn had 11 catches for 51 yards.
Bethea also had a couple of other big play receivers in junior Zion Grant with a 29.9 average on seven catches for 209 yards, sophomore Bradley Hughes with six catches for 112 yards and sophomore Ayntwain Crawford with seven catches for 102 yards.
“We just need to continue to work and develop what we do on offense,” Lowery said. “Our quarterback is starting to trust some of those guys.”
The Auctioneers have a lot of starters back on both sides of the football. Lowery said the coaching staff is going to have to continue to tweak things on both sides of the football. He especially wants to get bigger and stronger on defense.
Some key defenders who will be back are junior linebacker Williams Boateng, junior lineman Lonnie Alston, junior defensive back Lebron Avant and freshman outside linebacker Nathan Peracki.
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