HSSR Class AA Pre-Season
Gray Collegiate, Oceanside Collegiate 1-2 In HSSR AA Pre-Season Ranking With Abbeville & Marion In The Hunt Also
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Moncks Corner — Year-end and year-out the AA football classification is perhaps the most competitive classification in the state of South Carolina and the 2023 season will be no different.
The HSSR is honesly not trying to fuel anti “Charter School” issues by having sister schools Gray Collegiate (8-4) and Oceanside Collegiate (12-2) ranked 1 and 3 in AA in the pre-season. We are just simply following the information available to us. Rounding out the top five in the HSSR AA pre-season ranking is second ranked Abbeville, Marion is 4th and consolidated Hampton County (Estill and Wade Hampton have merged) rounds out the top five in a very competitive AA field.
The HSSR went face-to-face with Gray head coach Adam Holmes gazing out at the brand- new turf stadium on the school campus, being used for the first time by the soccer team in the upper state championship game on May, 8th. Coach Holmes said that he and his staff were working out 65 varsity and junior varsity candidates during Spring drills at the time.
“We are super excited to have our own facility now and we worked out on it earlier this afternoon before the soccer match,” said Coach Holmes, a Manning High graduate who went on to play football at South Carolina. “We only had five seniors on our team last year, so we do not really lose a lot.”
One key player for Gray in 2022 was junior QB Riley Staton (6-2, 185) who passed for 2,126 yards and 24 touchdowns. Staton transferred to Gaffney after the season and he did not participate in Spring drills with the War Eagles. However, Gray will return six other players who were either AA all-state or all-region in 2022 that saw the War Eagles lose to Saluda 23-16 in the second round of the playoffs.
Among the six next level prospects returning are senior OL J.T. Sowell (6-4,265) who is pledged to Appalachian State and he has been a four-year starter up-front. Speedy senior WR Zai Offord (5-10, 170) has several offers also. “Zai is a most electric player on the field with the ball in his hands,” said Coach Holmes.
Any time you have your quarterback back after an outstanding junior season, teams are usually a leg up in offensive preparation.
Thus, third ranked Oceanside Collegiate is fortunate to have the services of senior Edward Reidenbach (6-1, 190) who completed 131-of- 187 passes thrown for 2,012 yards and 16 touchdowns last season. Reidenbach was also a true dual threat, rushing for an additional 595 yards adding 19 rushing TD’s to the stat sheet.
While the Landsharks better QB’s in AA, the 13 talented and graduated seniors they had on the team a year ago, accounted for nearly 70 per cent of the rushing yardage. On defense, the seniors made nearly 65 per cent of the tackles, as many of these players performed double duty as two-way starters.
Oceanside will return five players from the state championship roster on offense and they have seven starters back on defense. Last year the team also had 10 juniors, 24 sophomores, and 8 freshmen on the championship roster.
Oceanside returns three senior OL in the persons of guard Owen Millard, RT Ben Britton (6-3, 250), and guard Phen Johnson (6-2, 265). Highly regarded left tackle Monroe Freeling is now at Georgia where he is expected to see early playing time for the Bulldogs. Trey Brown (5-11, 220) will be a senior returning tight end.
Graduated RB Vaughn Blue has taken his 1,266 yards and 9 TD’s of last season to (missed five games due to injury) Appalachian State. The top returning RB is senior William Virgilo (6-1, 170) who gained 167 yards last season with three TD’s. The top WR back is Brown who had 24 catches for 237 yards and two TD’s last season.
On defense, the top returning tacklers are Britton, two-way lineman who had 77 tackles and 17 TFL last year along with junior LB Max Moorman who had 68 tackles and 5.5 TFL last season. Other defensive starters back include sophomore DL Michael Jones, junior DL AJ Johnston, Brown and Moorman two way at the LB slots, and junior DB Grayson Freeling and senior DB C.J. Moskos.
In 2022, the HSSR made the trek to McCormick for a sideline “up-close” look when Abbeville, ranked number two in the HSSR pre-season ranking, started the season in mid-August defeating the Chiefs 40-3. Veteran head coach Jamie Nickles came into the season with 198 wins and it would the 5th game of the year before he earned the milestone.
After what Abbeville accomplished last season, overcoming the lost of their most talented player for the majority of the season (Antonio Harrison) due to injury, and then dominating a very talented Oceanside Collegiate team in the AA state finals with 275 yards of rushing offense that produced 35 points, pollsters will just have to understand that this tradition rich program can start off the season at 2-2 and still be in the hunt for a championship every season. This fact was verified last year.
The Panthers was the top scoring offense in AA in 2022 with 663 points while giving up 198 points on defense, tying for 6th best scoring defense with Andrews. The best scoring defense in AA last year was Central who allowed just 145 points all season but the Eagles finished with a 6-5 record.
After the McCormick win, Coach Nickles shared these thoughts: “I consider Harrison among the top 15 skilled athletes in the state and we are hoping to have him back by mid-October,” said the coach. (Harrison had an ACL injury playing AAU basketball in the Spring and his injury since shock waves through the Abbeville community).
“I thought we started slow but that is not unusual for our first game of the year,” said Coach Nickles. “On defense I felt like we were solid all night.”
In the first game of the season McCormick stacked the box to stop the run and senior QB Zay Rayford completed four passes for 128 yards and three touchdowns. Highly regarded (then) sophomore fullback Jha’Louis Hadden (6-0,213) rushed for 50 yards against McCormick scoring a TD on a 29-yard run and he later scored on a 21-yard pass reception.
After head coaching in his 8th state title since taking over the program 13 years ago, Coach Nickles said this after his team’s gold medal win, “Nobody is in Abbeville right now, everybody’s out here,” said Coach Nickles. “This is emotional for me because these kids believed in us back in August when we were losing games, and that is not easy to deal with, but they kept believing in what we were doing, and our coaches do such a great job of coaching.”
Abbeville’s state championship season was fueled by the play of 23 dialed in senior’s last season. The Panthers had 9 juniors, 17 sophomores, and one freshman on the state game roster last year. They also have one of the best feeder programs in the state and wearing that “A” on your helmet challenges you to give your all each and every game.
The Panthers return three starters on offense and four starters on defense. Altavious Patterson and Hadden both return as potent junior RB’s. Hadden rushed for around 835 yards and scored 12 TD’s a year ago while Patterson averaged 8.9 yards a carry in gaining around 675 yards and scoring 12 TD’s. Jay Hill will also return as a senior WR.
The Woodland defense will be led by junior Migule Rhodes (5-9,165) and Lavont Furray in the secondary. Jerrell Sullivan is a sophomore newcomer that will contribute at free safety. Sophomore Jaemin Pinckney (6-2, 170) is another strong candidate at free safety. Jaylen Samson will be a sophomore strong safety/nickel back. Jarvis Guest (6-0,210) is a junior returnee at one outside linebacker slot.
The Panther defense returns senior DL Jae Harris along with junior DL Gage Evans. Senior LB Nikelyn Bowie returns along with junior LB Demarcus Leach.
Only seven teams in AA had double digit wins in 2022. Abbeville had the best over-all record at 13-2. Barnwell won 12 games in a row before playing very flat on the road at Andrew Jackson (11-3) to conclude the season 12-1. Former Warhorse head coach Dwayne Garrick has moved over to head coach at Aiken High this season. Former RSM head coach Brian Smith is now in charge of the Barnwell football program.
The 11th ranked Warhorses will be led by junior QB Cameron Austin (6-1,180) who is a two- sport prospect in both football and baseball. The Warhorses are likely to rely on the pass more as 2,000-plus rusher Tyler Smith is now at SC State. Austin, who has a strong accurate arm, completed 50 of 88 passes for 878 yards and 13 TD’s last season. Other starters back on offense include WR’s Jaquan Peeples and Logan Sturkie along with highly regarded OL prospect Slaton Ragsdale.
On defense, only three starters return for Barnwell. They are LB’s Lex Thomas and Clayton Zissett along with DB Jordan Peeples. PK Lane Evans also returns for Barnwell. The Warhorses will be fielding one of their youngest teams in quite some time this season but they are expected to improve with every game.
Saluda, loaded with senior leadership last season, finished with an 11-3 record. Oceanside Collegiate finished 12-2 but it be a while before the Land Sharks forget the 35-20 loss to the Panthers at Benedict College last season.
Fairfield Central and Andrews each had 9 wins last season. Gray Collegiate, which could be a contender once again this season finished 8-4 over-all, but 6-0 in their region, and the War Eagles are excited about playing home games in their new stadium this season.
The HSSR is also high on the deep playoff run potential of Woodland High coached by Eddie Ford.
“We had a good group to work with in grades 9-12,” said Coach Ford who will be starting year five at Woodland this August. “Finding a quarterback to replace Sudarian Harrison (headed to Virginia) was one of our major focus points during our work-outs. I feel like we accomplished a lot over the two-week period.”
Kam Pringle (6-7, 330) is a big- time four star OL who has committed to South Carolina and he will open up holes for talented RB’s . Joining Pringle in the offensive trenches are junior LG Antonio Ford (5-11, 320), and RG Xavier Green (6-3, 303).
The top QB candidate coming out of Spring drills is soph Jaden Cato (6-0,180) who is moving up from junior varsity. “He is more of a runner but he has a decent arm,” said Coach Ford. “Our other candidate at quarterback is senior Tyree Edwards who has been a wide receiver. If Edwards does not become the quarterback, we know we will have an excellent receiver.”
The RB position should be one of the strengths of the team. Senior Jayden Gardner was an all-region performer a year ago when he rushed for 700 yards and had 500 yards in receptions. Cane Bay RB transfer T. J. Wright (5-10, 205) has joined the Wolverines after he rushed 1,200 yards last season.
Marion, at number four, is head coached by Brian Hennecy (31-13), and he has a team that could win it all in 2023. The Foxes return seven players on offense and 9 players on defense plus their combo kicker Cameron Felder returns.
Over the summer Marion WR/DB Quay’sheed Scott (6-0,186, 4.3) committed to Kentucky after running 4.3 forty at every camp he went to. Scott has been compared to Deebo Samuel, former USC playmaker who is an all-pro with the 49’ers in the NFL. Also, WR/DB Tyshawn Sanders (5-11, 166) committed to Appalachian State over the summer.
Coach Hennecy says coming into the season Marion is strong at all skill positions and in the secondary. He reports his team is still working on the kicking game and building team depth.
Over the summer QB Gabriel Cusack (6-0,200) and WR/DE Jamorius Wilson (6-3, 200) also received a lot of recruiting attention from colleges.
Marion will start the season on August, 17 against Lake View.
Rounding out the AA top 5 is consolidated Hampton County and several next level players have come over from Estill that shut down to merge with Wade Hampton to form the new country wide public school this year.
Last season, QB Xavier Garvin (6-0,165) and DL Ka'von Chisolm were HSSR all-state players at Estill. Chisolm has camped at FSU and is a top prospect in the defensive front. The team will also be supported by RB Zion Dobson.
Head coach Rob Hanna says the strength of his team is at skill positions with good play makers. He says developing depth in both lines is a challenge coming into August drills. Hampton County will start the season away at Colleton County on August, 18.
In Class AA there is parity and balance this year. The race for the gold is wide open!
HSSR Class AA Pre-Season Ranking (As of July, 23)
1. Gray Collegiate
2. Abbeville
3. Oceanside Collegiate
4. Marion
5. Hampton County
6. Woodland
7. Fairfield Central
8. Silver Bluff
9. Andrew Jackson
10. Strom Thurmond
11. Barnwell
12. Saluda
13. Buford
14. Andrews
15. Keenan
16. Kingstree
17. Timberland
18. Central
19. Batesburg-Leesville
20. Lake Marion
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