Mullins football hopes to continue upward trend
Auctioneers went from winless to 7-4 in head coach Marc Lowery's second season
Mullins – The just completed spring practice didn’t have the same pizazz or zing to it for the Mullins High School football team as it did in 2024. Why? Because the Auctioneers were unable to end it with a spring game.
“We had to cancel the spring game for various reasons,” said head coach Marc Lowery, who is set to begin his third season at Mullins by traveling to Hemingway on August 22. “We had it last year, and I was told it was the first time Mullins had ever had a spring game. The kids really enjoyed it and it was a big event. We were able to springboard that momentum into summer workouts.
“That’s not so much the case this year. Overall, we had a great spring, but the kids missed us not having the spring game. Still, they came in knowing what was expected of them.”
And what Lowery and his coaching staff are hoping for is another big jump in the win-loss record. Lowery wasn’t hired as the head coach in 2023 until just prior to July 4. The Auctioneers took their lumps that season, going 0-10. However, they won their first six games of the 2024 campaign before finishing with a 7-4 record. They advanced to the state playoffs for the first time since 2021, losing in the first round to Philip Simmons.
In order to do that, Mullins must continue to develop its competitive drive, according to Lowery.
“For us to get beyond where we were, we’ve got to learn to compete, get better, overcome adversity,” he said. “We’ve kept talking to the players about that.
“We don’t really talk about games where we were blowing people out. We talk about games where we had to come back, overcome something. We want to embrace that, this is what we’re here to do. We have to get better fundamentally, better competitively where we’re able to overcome.”
The Auctioneers return a combined 17 starters. When Lowery took over, he had a sophomore-heavy roster.
“Last year they were juniors and they got a whole lot better,” Lowery said. “All those guys are seniors this year, and they’ve bought into what we’re doing. The more they understand, the more fun it is. They are enjoying the process.”
Senior Ka’nazzion Bethea is back for his third season as the starting quarterback. He completed 82 of 195 passes for 1,284 yars and 15 touchdowns against 10 interceptions last season. He also rushed for 481 yards.
Senior Tyron Allen, who rushed for 320 yards on 53 carries, is back as well as the top four receivers in seniors Justin Reaves Jr., Zayan Grant and Amir Lee and junior f.
Reaves, who caught a lot of short passes on jet sweeps, had 26 receptions for 339 yards. Grant had 18 catches for 358 yards, Campbell had 14 catches for 98 yards and Lee had eight catches for 187 yards.
Lowery said a goal this year on offense is to get the ball into the different playmakers’ hands more often.
“We’re going to be on pitch count to make we get the ball to all of our playmakers. With one running back and four wide receivers, that doesn’t mean we’re going 50-50 run-pass. We’ve got to get it to all of those guys on a consistent basis.”
Defensively, Mullins will be switching from a 4-2 alignment to a 3-4 simply because it won’t have as many defensive linemen to choose from this year.
“We’ve got more guys who are faster and a little bit quicker to the football,” Lowery said.
PERACKI PLACES IN 800 IN AA BOYS TRACK STATE MEET
Distance runner Nathan Peracki finished fifth in the 800-meter run in the boys portion of the AA track and field state meet on May 16 at Spring Valley’s Harry Parone Stadium in Columbia.
Peracki finished in a time of 2 minutes, 02.32 seconds. He had won the event in both the Region 7 and the AA District 3 state qualifier meets.
Peracki also ran a leg on the 4x800-meter relay team that finished seventh in a time of 8:43.55
The Auctioneers finished with six points, good for a tie for 25th with Landrum.
