Kingstree begins new era under Brandon Cantrell

          Kingstree – Brandon Cantrell has waited several years as an assistant football coach to finally get an opportunity to be a head coach. Cantrell is in his first year in charge of Kingstree High School.

           He got off to a good start in his first game, going on the road to beat Georgetown  24-23 on August 22.

 “I feel really good about the summer we had,” said Cantrell, who was the quarterbacks coach at Fort Dorchester before coming to Kingstree. “I’m excited about the kids and their effort. We’ve held them accountable all summer with their attendance, and we carried that over into practice.

“The buy-in for a first-year guy that wasn’t in the school last year is tough. I thought the attendance we had spoke volumes about the kids.”

 Cantrell takes over a team that went 5-7 last season and reached the second round of the AA state playoffs. While the Blazers were a run-heavy team under former head coach Brian Smith, Cantrell plans to diversify what they do offensively.

 However, with a running back like senior Tyleek Dukes returning, you’ve still got to be true to the ground game. Dukes rushed for 1,798 yards and 21 touchdowns.

“I got to watch film from last year on Tyleek,” Cantrell said. “The offense will be a little different. I’m not a 3-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust offensive coordinator, but I do like to run the football. I think that establishes the dominance and fixates the tempo and pace of the game.

“We’re going to run the ball, but we’ll definitely use Tyleek as a weapon in different areas of the field.”

 Senior Travis Bennett will be the other starting running back, and Cantrell plans to get the ball in his hands as well.

 Junior Randy McFadden will be in his first year starting at quarterback.

 “He didn’t get to play a whole lot last year, but he throws the ball well and he is a smart kid,” Cantrell said. “I’m trying to get him to see the field the way I see it with his experience. We’re just going to try and teach him where to put the ball.

“We’re not going to ask a lot out of him. We’ve got some god running backs in the backfield to help support him back there. When we do throw the ball it will be to get it to guys in space who can help us win the ball games. We just want him to settle down, play his game and try not to do too much.”

 The wide receivers will be seniors Romello McFadden, Bryson Epps and Jeirhond Blue. Senior BJ Washington will be the tight end.

 Kingstree will be inexperienced on the offensive front with just two returning starters. Sophomore Maurice Burgess will start at left tackle. The rest of the line will be sophomore left guard Lazarus Moyd, returning senior center Ethan Carraway, returning senior right guard Adeigeon Archie and senior right tackle DeMario McCormick-Major.

 The Blazers will be using five defensive backs on a regular basis. Maleek Dukes and Washington will be the strong safeties, while Tyleek Dukes, Epps and Blue will be the cornerbacks. Bennett, Romello McFadden and Mark Pickard-Williams will be the linebackers.

 Terrell Keels will be the noseguard, while Burgess and Malik Green will line up on either side of him at the tackles.

“We have to play a lot of the same guys both ways,” Cantrell said. “Our strength on defense will be our secondary. The defense has come along. I think we’ll be strong. We’ll need it to carry us for the first couple of weeks of the season while we get through our bumps and bruises with the offense.

“If I ever became head coach I wanted to slant and be able to bring people from different parts of the field, and we’ve been doing that. I think the kids are excited about it.”ingstree begins new era under Brandon Cantrell