It’s all about repetition for Williamsburg football in the spring and summer

           Kingstree – Williamsburg Academy only lost six seniors from last year’s football team that won the SCISA Class A state championship. With so much experience returning, spring practice was more about repetition than it was about learning new things.

           That was probably a good thing for the Stallions as the baseball team reached the AAA state championship series, thus limiting spring practice.

           “We were able to get in five practices,” said Williamsburg head coach Will Furse. “The guys who played baseball were in just one of those practices.”

           Still, Furse was happy with what the Stallions were able to accomplish.

           “A lot of it was just reminding our kids how we do things,” said Furse, who was 11-1 in his first year as head coach. “It was just a matter of getting out, going over fundamentals, conditioning. We worked on our basic plays on both offense and defense.”

           Williamsburg is having to replace a pair of 2-way starters in quarterback/safety Micah Balder and tight end/inside linebacker Jay Kellahan as well as standout noseguard Connor Morris. Expected to take over at quarterback is rising sophomore Caden Morris, who started at the other safety last year and saw time at wide receiver on offense.

           Furse likes everything Morris has shown him so far as a signal caller.

           “I think he brings a lot of athletic ability, he’s an accurate passer,” Furse said. “Every single day he gets better. He’s a leader. He comes to football every day and does baseball every night.

 “He’s here every single day he’s near Kingstree. Hopefully he’ll have a really good year. He has a lot of confidence. The team likes him. He knows how to lead.”

Caden Morris will have a lot of returning talent around him, both at the skill positions and on the offensive line.

 Senior running back Grant Small is back after rushing for 2,080 yards and 27 touchdowns on 224 carries while catching three passes for 93 yards and two more scores.

 Senior Charlie Caulder is back at wingback. He was the Stallions’ leading receiver with 32 catches for 600 yards and eight touchdowns.

  Williamsburg has each of the five players who started on the offensive line in the 36-14 championship game win over Colleton Prep Academy returning. They are senior Michael Ard at right guard, senior Marlin Morris at right tackle, senior Mason Cribb at left tackle, senior Sammy Tomlinson at left guard and junior Henderson Livingston at center.

With the graduations of Balder, Kellahan and Connor Morris, the Stallions will be losing just one starter on each level of the defense.

 Marlin Morris and Tomlinson will be back along the defensive front, while Ard, who led the defense in tackles with 141, will be back at one of the inside spots. Caulder and senior Seth Cherenko will be back on the outside.

 The secondary will be loaded with senior Hall Dukes, who led the team in interceptions with five despite missing the three playoff games with an injury, back along with junior Gamble Wilson, junior Lane Patrick and Caden Morris.

 The Stallions will have two 7-on-7 scrimmages with both Lamar High School and Clarendon Hall and another with Thomas Sumter Academy over the summer along with participating in a 7-on-7 competition at The Citadel. They will then have scrimmages with Dorchester Academy and Pinewood Prep before facing East Clarendon in the FTC Jamboree at Manning High.

Furse is hoping the summer will serve as a major bonding time for his players.

“Really what we want from the summer is just having the guys showing up on time, working hard and being together as a team,” he said. “With no school, this is when they are able to hang out with each other.”

           CADEN MORRIS WINS HIGH JUMP IN BOYS DIVISION II STATE MEET

           Caden Morris won the high jump event to lead Williamsburg to a seventh-place finish in the SCISA Division II boys track and field state meet held on May 1 at Orangeburg Prep.

           Morris scored 10 of the Stallions’ 30 points with a winning jump of 5 feet, 10 inches. Junior Ethan Jones finished fourth in the event at 05-06.

           Three other Williamsburg athletes had fourth-place finishes as well. They were Charlie Caulder in the 200-meter dash in a time of 24.14 seconds, Micah Balder in the javelin with a throw of 142-11 and Michael Ard in the shot put at 41-08.

           The other points came from freshman Josh Holt and freshman Rylan Berry, who had fifth-place finishes in the 110-meter hurdles and the javelin, respectively.

           The girls team scored four points. Freshman Paige Kellahan finished fifth in the high jump, while junior Shay Carraway and freshman Ann Paisley Stillinger had sixth-place finishes in the high jump and the javelin, respectively.

           CADEN MORRIS, CONNOR MORRIS, ABBY WARD SCISA ALL-STATE PICKS

           Caden Morris and Connor Morris were selected to the SCISA All-State baseball team, while sophomore Abby Ward was named to the All-State softball team.

           Connor Morris led the Stallions in hitting with a .427 batting average and shared the lead in on-base percentage with Caden Morris at .516. Caden was just behind him in batting average at .419. They also shared the lead in runs batted in with 26 and doubles with seven.

Connor led in home runs with four, while Caden led in triples with three.

Ward was a standout both at the plate and in the circle. She had a .367 batting average while striking out 207 batters in 102

innings to go with a 3,22 earned run average.