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Florence area teams ready for football success in 2011
Florence – Wilson High head football coach Darryl Page has not been this excited about a football team since 2007, the year Wilson won the class AAA state title.
Page has a talented group returning this season, including several underclassmen who he feels will be make a difference for the future as well as the present.
“We have a chance this year to be pretty good and the future looks even better,” says Page. “This is a good group and I feel real positive about the work they are putting in to become a good football team. We’re young in a few spots and we need some time to mature but those young players bring a lot of talent with them.”
Young talent such as junior tackle Justin Evans, a 6-6, 280-pounder with two Division I offers already this fall. Sophomore Keeland Hennagan will be starting in the secondary with great potential. A defensive front consisting of juniors Jerrell Timmons, Natron Cusack and Travon Maye, not to mention sophomore Tavion Haile is a promising unit.
The top returning linebacker is junior Devonte Baccus.
Offensively, junior running back Devon Borden gained more than 500 yards in 2010. Sophomore Jaquan Galbreath is a promising player at receiver.
The Tigers also have some senior leadership and will get plenty of help from the upperclassmen. Brandon K.King can play quarterback, running back, receiver and defensive back. Page says he is the best overall athlete in the school.
Senior Braxton Ivery will play quarterback and receiver. He runs a 4.4 in the 40-yard dash.
One of the anchors along the offensive line is tackle Brandon C. King, a 6-1, 325-pound three-year starter up front.
“We have made progress each week during camp and I think we’re ready to see how far we can take it this year,” says Page. “We’re not there yet but we can get there. This team is ready to win again.”
West Florence will lean heavily on an experienced defense this fall, especially the first part of the season.
The Knights, who head into their seventh season under Trey Woodberry, have a handful of three-year starters on that side of the ball, including devastating pass rusher Dwayne Gunn at defensive end.
Gunn (6-3, 220), an all-region player the last two seasons, made 17 sacks and recorded 91 total tackles in 2010. He uses his speed to get to opposing quarterbacks.
"He's breaking all of Malliciah's records," Woodberry said of Gunn, comparing him to former Knight and present Clemson defensive end Malliciah Goodman. "He's more of a speed rusher, though, where Malliciah was just a bull. Dwayne is more of an outside linebacker at the next level."
Woodberry said Gunn has been drawing interest from a number of mid-major schools around the country.
Linebackers Grey Strait and Richard Cotton, both 6-feet, 185-pound seniors, are back to anchor the second level. Strait had 102 total tackles last season while Cotton made 94 stops.
Zack Shields (5-10, 170), Rendell Mowlin (6-0, 185) are athletic members of the secondary returning along with senior Darvion Dease (5-11, 185), another three-year starter.
On offense, 2010 starter Josh Davidson and Phillip Gardner, a pair of junior quarterbacks, are embroiled in a battle for the top spot and Woodberry has not ruled out playing both. Gardner threw for 916 yards and seven touchdowns last season but went down with an injury and also missed spring practice with an injury.
"Josh knows the system better because he's been in the system longer but Phillip is bigger and can probably take a pounding better," Woodberry said. "We may play both early until one stands out."
Juniors Jalin Dixon (5-10, 190) and Darius Charles (5-9, 160) are the top two running backs and have contrasting styles. Dixon has more power and Charles is a little shiftier and has good vision.
The lone returning starter on the offensive line is junior David Driggers (6-5, 225). The rest is mostly coming up from last year's JV team that went 8-2. The others are junior Ashton Julious (6-5, 300), senior Dondre Kinder (6-2, 290), junior Michael Thomas (6-1, 220) and sophomore David Broache (6-0, 230).
Shields and Mowlin are the top two receivers entering the season. Shields was all-conference as a sophomore and is trying to get back to that level after missing out on postseason honors as a junior.
The Knights, members of Region 6-AAAA, were 5-6 last season and missed out on the playoffs.
"I think if everything comes together, we've got a chance to be a pretty decent football team," Woodberry said.
Wide-spread competition for starting spots for South Florence seems to bring forth questions about the Bruins’ experience this fall but it could also be making them better.
“We’re pretty pleased with where we’re at,” Bruins coach Lynn Fleming said. “We lost some of our key guys but we did a good job at our younger levels last year.”
Fleming, whose varsity squad was 9-4 last fall, estimated that South Florence’s lower levels were at least 21-3 last season.
“Our JV was 7-3 and our freshman and middle school teams didn’t lose a game,” he said.
Fleming’s varsity team returns nine starters from 2010, which mostly includes players in space.
Senior Brandon Lewis is back at running back and linebacker. Senior wide receivers Tey’Von Johnson (5-5, 160) and Shannon James (5-6, 170) bring the speed element to the offense.
Junior Will Edwards (5-10, 250) is a returning starter at right guard.
Newcomer Jamal Cain (5-9, 165), a sophomore, has a chance to be the newcomer of the year in the region for the Bruins at running back. Fleming said Cain has the vision to make plays when something fails to develop.
“He’s good enough that if he works hard enough he could rewrite our record books,” Fleming said. “He’s got good hands, which we’ll use too. We’re a zone scheme team and he sees things nobody we’ve had has seen.”
On defense, senior defensive end Braushaun Redden (6-3, 215) has a chance at the next level along with junior defensive back Casey McClam.
James and Johnson also make an impact on defense.
Junior newcomer Keyon Harrison (5-10, 205) will help anchor the second level.
Freshman A.J. Lowery takes over kicking duties.
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