Cornelius loves his East Clarendon football coaching staff
Veteran head coach set to begin his third season in charge of Wolverines
Turbeville – Call him crazy, but East Clarendon High School football head coach Larry Cornelius is actually considering moving his 2-year starter at quarterback to wide receiver for his senior season.
“Right now, we’re moving Takoda (Cornelius) to wide receiver,” Coach Cornelius said of his son. “A lot of coaches don’t think we’ll do that because why would you move a quarterback that you’ve won 13 games with in two years to wide receiver for his senior season? We feel that is going to make us a better team overall.”
Such is the thought process for Coach Cornelius, who is set to begin his third season in charge of the Wolverines. After winning five games his first season, East Clarendon catapulted to eight last year. The Wolverines came away with playoff victories each year, the first time in a very long time they had consecutive seasons with at least one playoff triumph.
Cornelius feels like the best is yet to come, and he credits the coaching staff he has built for much of that.
“I love my staff,” the head coach said. “We are all on the same page, with the same vision.”
The coaching staff is pretty much holding steady with seven of the eight assistants on last year’s staff. However, that doesn’t mean there hasn’t been some tweaking taking place.
Coach Cornelius will continue to call the offensive plays, but instead of working with the quarterbacks like the past two years, he is coaching the wide receivers this year with BK Floyd helping him. Benny Knowlton, the quarterback of the last East Clarendon team to win a playoff game prior to Cornelius’ arrival, will coach the quarterbacks.
Veteran coach Robbie Wright, who came to Turbeville with Cornelius from Lakewood, will again coach the offensive linemen. The running backs coach will be Dawson Price, the former Lee Academy football and baseball standout. Price comes to East Clarendon from Georgetown.
Brandon Carter returns as the defensive coordinator and will be in charge of the linebackers. Kevin Graham is the defensive line coach, and Chris Rowland will coach the defensive backs. Rowland will also be the special teams coordinator.
Coach Cornelius said the Wolverines had a strong session of summer workouts.
“It was good, even though Turbeville is a little bit different,” he said. “We have people taking multiple vacations during the summer. The big thing though is we have good communication as to who is and isn’t going to be there. We normally have very good turnout, and the kids are all working really hard.”
Going back to the quarterback situation, Coach Cornelius feels like he has three options available. As of now, sophomore Gavin White is the No. quarterback after being the B team starter last season. Takoda Cornelius will start at wide receiver to strengthen the wide receivers room and better showcase his talent, while junior Blease Hardy, who saw some time at signal caller last season, will start at running back to meet another need.
That doesn’t mean though that Cornelus or Hardy won’t have a special package with each behind center.
“Gavin is a gunslinger and we want him to be able to get the ball to Takoda some,” Coach Corneliu sid. “Blease ran the ball a lot of power reads as our quarterback so we think this utilizes his talents best. We’ve changed our playbook a little bit. We’re probably going to be pretty much 50-50 (perent) running and throwing the ball, but we haven’t had pads on yet either.”
