Andrews Finishes Year with First Round Playoff Loss
By Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to the HSSR
Andrews – Since head coach Scott Durham and his staff took over the Andrews football program in 2013 they have had only one losing season and have established themselves as one of top-class AA teams in the low country but the 2025 seasons did not meet the standard set by previous Yellowjacket teams.
“Finishing 4-7 is not up to our expectations or standards. I don’t feel like we’ve played a complete four quarters of football in all three phases all year. We just haven’t been able to put it all together and it showed in all our games,” said coach Durham.
The Yellowjackets season ended Friday night in the first round of the class AA playoffs when they fell to the Cheraw Braves 17-7 on the road.
“We have played a tough schedule. Two of our non-region opponents won their region (Carvers Bay and Andrew Jackson), Waccamaw had the best team I have seen them have, and Hanahan hosted them in a playoff game. You add those to our region schedule, and we certainly played some tough teams,” Durham said.
Despite the up and down season, there were a few highlights. Senior running back AJ Lee became the first running back in Andrews history to rush for over 4000 yards with a school record 4350 yards. He has also rushed for a school record 53 rushing touchdowns.
The All State running back burst on the scene as a sophomore when he replaced All State and Touchstone North/South All Star Lavon White and he rushed for 1175 yards and 15 touchdowns. He followed that up with a school record 1432 yards and another 17 touchdowns. He capped his career with another school record with 1752 yards and 21 touchdowns. He is starting to get looks for colleges and has several visits scheduled. He is a hidden Gem.
It’s hard to understand how he was left off the rosters for the Shrine Bowl or the Touchstone North/South All Star game. Before the season coach Durham said for the Yellowjackets to be successful AJ just had to be AJ and I would say he accomplished that in a big way.
Western Michigan commit Chris Stewart had another stellar season for the Yellowjackets despite people running away from him or double/ triple teaming him. He still found ways to make plays as he led the team in tackles with 76, tackles for loss with 19, sacks with 10 and pass breakups with five. He was selected to play in the Touchstone North/ South All Star game in Myrtle Beach. For his career, he had over 200 tackles to go with 63 tackles for loss, 27.5 sacks and 11 pass break ups.
Joining Stewart at the Touchstone North/Sout All Star game will be offensive linemen Da’Viyon McNair. He is a three-year starter and is the unquestioned leader of the Yellowjackets offensive line. He and the rest of the line paved the way for AJ’ s school record rushing yards.
Riley Jordan played well on both sides of the ball while quarterback Avery Durham had a solid year throwing for over 1000 yards and 10 touchdowns.
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