Barnwell Football Wins 13 games In 2024 Season, Earning Spot In AA Finals Against Clinton
Barnwell's senior QB Cameron Austin
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Barnwell — The Barnwell Warhorse football team had an historic 13-2 season, and their hard work earned them a trip to the gold medal round of the AA finals against Clinton on December, 12 at Oliver C Dawson Stadium at South Carolina State University.
Despite losing to the Red Devils 35-6, the game in no way negated a great season for head coach Brian Smith, the Warhorse players, coaches, and fans.
After the championship game, Coach Smith said, “They played well, and we made a lot of mistakes tonight,” he said. “It’s a great year though. I’m proud of these kids and we’re just happy to be here.”
Barnwell made it to the Class AA finals with play-off wins over Academic Magnet (42-0), Timberland (21-0), Cheraw (28-27) and Manning (37-14).
The HSSR sat down with Coach Smith for a one-on-one interview 48 hours prior to the big game against Clinton.
We never stopped working and I feel like this team was destined for this moment,” said Coach Smith earlier in state championship week. “The preparation this team put in during the off-season helped prepare them for the success we have had this season. We lost our only game this season (South Aiken) on the final play of the game and that loss refocused us to keep working hard.
“We feel we should really be 14-0 right now,” said Coach Smith. “This team continued to work harder each week to keep getting better and better and that help culminate into a great season that got us to where we are now.”
Senior quarterback Cameron Austin was selected as the Region 5-AA Player of the Year this past season after completing 154-of-247 for 2,183 yards and 19 touchdowns. The dual threat signal caller also rushed for 791 yards on 1`63 carries and 16 rushing touchdowns.
In an interview with this writer back in May, Austin said, “We are going to play for a state title this season, no doubt about it,” said Austin, well before the 2024 season even started. “Last year we won 8 games with very few seniors and a bunch of freshmen and sophomores. We’ve worked too hard not to compete for a state title.”
Going into the state finals against Clinton, Coach Smith said this about his hard-working quarterback who would be a great pick-up for any college in the sports of football and baseball.
“It is great to have a quarterback that leads by example, does everything the right way, and he out-works everybody else on the football team,” said Coach Smith. “He does well in the class room also, and he is a class young man on-and-off the field.”
The top rusher for Barnwell this past season was junior Nehemiah Brown (5-11, 170) who finished with 1,088 yards on227 carries and 11 touchdowns. Senior Jaquan Peeples added 230 yards on 29 carries with three touchdowns. Jordan Peeples added 192 yards for the season.
The Warhorse had four wide receivers with over 400 yards in receptions. Top on the list was JaQuan Peeples with 48 catches for 698 yards and three touchdowns. Logan Sturkie was next with 439 yards in receptions on 28 catches resulting in six touchdowns. William Robinson caught 40 passes for 575 yards and he led receivers with seven touchdown receptions. Kahzeer Wesley hauled in 33 passes for 428 yards and three touchdowns.
In the state championship game against Clinton, Austin completed 15 passes for 121 yards. Kahzeer caught six of those passes for 52 yards, while Robinson had three catches for 44 yards and Sturkie had two receptions for 21 yards. Barnwell’s lone touchdown came on an 87-yard kick-off return by JaQuan Peeples in the first half.
For the 2024 season Barnwell was very balanced on offense. They passed for 2,183 yards while rushing for 2,392 yards.
Senior combo-kicker Lane Evans averaged 36.3 yards a punt on the season. He also made 23-of-25 PATs while making 5-of-9 field goals with a long of 45 yards.
On defense, Barnwell allowed just 180 points in 15 games. Five players had 50, or more tackles on the season. Prior to the state championship game, the top tackler on the hit index was senior William “Polish” Robinson with 76 total tackles including two interceptions. Sophomore free safety Damajahi Devoe went into the championship game with 70 tackles, including a team leading four interceptions.
Senior Jordan Peebles had 64 tackles and two sacks going into the Clinton game. Senior OLB Logan Sturkie had 60 tackles and a team leading six sacks. Senior Jeremiah Eaddy had 52 tackles at linebacker. Other contributors were senior DB JP Pickney with 35 tackles and one interception along with sophomore DB Jayden Peeples and Aiden Saxon who had 33 and 29 total tackles respectively. Defensive lineman Klayton “P-nut” Zissett had 18 tackles while Kaleb Wilson contributed 14 hits.
The offensive line is anchored by veteran senior left tackle Tony Cherry (6-5, 285) along with left guard junior Cordie Handberry, senior center Lamar Buxton, right guard Jackson Bedingfield, and sophomore right tackle Davison Owens.
Just what was the key into molding the 2024 Barnwell team into the state championship finals? ‘What we wanted to do this season was to play up to our abilities, and to our expectations each week; and not to play down to our opponents,” said Coach Smith. “For the most part I think we accomplished this major objective from week-to-week.”
HSSR research historian Gearald Doolittle, the founder of the ever- popular Doodles Doodles, verifies just how rich the Barnwell football tradition goes back. Since 1954, Barnwell has had 25 seasons of 10 or more wins, and in anyone’s judgement, that is a very strong tradition.
They had 10 wins in 1954, 1971, 1972, 1982, 1984,1986, 1994, and 1996. Barnwell had 11-win seasons in 1991, 2000, and 2001. The Warhorses had 12-win seasons in 1985, 1988, 1990,1993, 2016 2017, and 2022. They had their first 13-win season in 1995 followed up by a 13-win seasons in 1998, 2018, and this past season under coach Brian Smith. The team has had one 14-win season in 2019 under former head coach Dwayne Garrick. Mac Weir was the coach in the 1980’s and 1990’s that kept the tradition going. Barnwell’s rich football tradition began with “Coach Sease” in the 1950’s when Barnwell defeated Summerville, 19-14 in the Lower State championship game.
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