Move to AAAA , late coaching change, inexperience makes for difficult season for Fox Creek
Head coach David Sammons believes Predators will take a step forward next season
North Augusta – When David Sammons took over as the football head coach at Fox Creek High School in June, he knew there was going to be some very tough sledding this season. And he was right.
The Predators were in their first year in the AAAA classification after being a AA school just three years ago. They ended up going 1-9 overall and finishing 0-5 in the treacherous Region 5. They were outscored 490-168 on the season.
Despite all of that, Sammons is excited for his second season in charge.
“We knew coming into this thing it was not going to be easy,” Sammons said. “We knew it was going to be tough this year. first year. We played seven playoff teams.”
It was so tough, in fact, Sammons didn’t refer to it as his first year or Year 1. Instead, he called it Year Zero.
Sammons said senior star running back Brandon Crawford was the only player with a lot of varsity experience.
“The vast majority of our team had not played football at the varsity level,” he said. “ It was almost like we had played as a junior varsity team n in a lot of aspects. We started more freshmen than anybody in our area.
“We got molly-whopped in some cases, got the wood laid to us. I think the kids grew up big time. they certinaly took their lumps, but they were getting better. We gave them praise every day about that.”
Despite being the focus of every opposing defense, Crawford averaged 133.7 rushing yards per contest through the first six games he played. He had 802 yards and eight touchdowns on 145 carries.
Sophomore quarterback Julian Abro had 161 yards and two scores on 52 carries. Abro completed 83 of 143 passes for 1,007 yards and seven touchdowns.
Junior Armani Jones and sophomore Artis Joye both had 24 catches going into the regular-season finale, a 73-0 loss to Irmo. Jones had 322 yards and four TDs, while Joye had 299 yards and five TDs.
Senior Chartavious Weaver had 16 catches for 177 yards and a score, and freshman Carter Hoppe had 12 receptions for 144 yards.
Sophomore outside linebacker Blake Wilson was leading the defense with 75 tackles and three tackles for loss.
Sammons pointed out that the final score of some of the games didn’t tell the whole story. He pointed out the Predators were in several games until the war of attrition finally took its toll.
There is one thing he is certain of though.
“Every single one of our players got better,” he said. “They were better at the end of the year than they were at the start.”
