Marion football team very, very young
Swamp Foxes have no senior starters on defense, just three on offense
Marion – There’s young, then there’s the Marion High School football team.
The Swamp Foxes have just three seniors starting on the offensive unit and no – that’s zip, zero, nada – seniors starting on defense.
“It’s just where we are right now,” said Marion Head coach Brian Hennecy, whose team is coming off of a 1-9 season from a year ago. “We lost 19 seniors two years ago (a group that won four straight region titles and played for a AA state title) and 12 from last year.
“We’ve got 12 seniors this year, but only four of them are contributing a lot. Most of our talent is among the sophomore and junior classes so that’s how we’re going.”
There is one freshman starting on offense, and he happens to be the quarterback, Jayden Nowlin.
“He’s a great athlete, good size (6-foot-1-inch), and he passes the ball pretty well,” Hennecy said. “He was our middle school quarterback last year, so we decided to go with him. We’re trying to develop him.”
Nowlin made his varsity debut on August 21 in a 26-13 loss to Lake View.
“He did some good things, and he did some bad things, but they’re correctable,” Hennecy said.
That’s the way Hennecy, who saw his team fall to Latta 54-19 in its second game, felt about his team as a whole in its performance against Lake View.
“We had some mistakes, but they were all correctable mistakes,” he said. “Offensively, we’ve got to get better running the spread. It was 14-13 in the third quarter then we had a couple o defensive breakdowns.”
One of the seniors, Jeremiah Eaddy, will line up at running back along with sophomore Kameryn Davis. The wide receivers are sophomore Jacorie Brown and sophomore Da’Shawn Davis. The tight end is junior Amauri Green.
The other two seniors start on the offensive line. They are right tackle Norvell Finklea and left guard Diego Herrera. Sophomore Kendrick Brown is the left tackle, sophomore Marcus White is the right guard, and sophomore Ka’Monntey Kirton is the center.
The good news for Marion is that it only has two players going both ways. Kendrick Brown is starting on the defensive line, and Davis is lining up at linebacker.
The other defensive linemen are junior Derrion Baccour, sophomore Kaleb Moore and junior William Self. Joining Davis at linebacker are sophomore Jaylin Reed and sophomore Benjamin Watford.
The secondary is made up of freshman Jhy’Yonn Hammonds, sophomore Alexander Roberts, junior Tyler Nelson and sophomore Malachi Graham.
Sophomore Carter Shelley will be the placekicker and freshman Robert Wynns will handle the punting duties.
“We’re better than we were last year,” Hennecy said. “We’ve improved a lot, mainly because of the experience we gained. The kids have gotten bigger, faster stronger and are learning the game. They’re a year older.”
The Swamp Foxes are playing a beast of a non-conference schedule. After Lake View, they take on Latta, AAAAA Division II West Florence and AAA power Dillon.
“This should make us better for our region (7),” Hennecy said. “We’ve got to get better. It makes us better when we have to prepare to play good teams. Playing good teams nly make you better.”
“Weve just got to get better each day.”
