It was, no thanks to Debby, a rough week for Bryan County and although it isn’t over yet residents are now doing their best to get back to a normal routine which will include the start of the high school football season on Friday night.
Bryan County, coming off its most successful season ever, will host Johnson at 7:30 p.m. in the first meeting between the two. The Class 3A Atom Smashers are coming off a 3-7 season while the Redskins were 12-2 last year capped by the school’s first ever region championship and a run to the Class A-DI Final Four.
Due to reclassification, the Redskins will be competing in Region 3A-DII this season along with Savannah High, Claxton, Screven County, Metter, McIntosh County Academy, ECI, Jenkins County and Portal. Pre-season projections have Bryan County finishing third behind Metter and Jenkins County.
Coach Cherard Freeman is concerned with his team’s preparation being behind schedule after last week’s school closings meant the Redskins got in only one practice prior to a three-team scrimmage last Friday night at Hendrix Park. Bryan County had two quarter matchups with Bradwell Institute and Windsor Forest.
“We got in one practice this week,” Freeman said after the hastily put together scrimmage session with the Tigers and Knights. “We didn’t get the reps we needed and that’s why we decided to play today.”
After the previous week’s scrimmage with Butler and Beach plus film study, Freeman and his staff had a long list of areas they wanted to focus on as they honed in on their opener with Johnson. That had to be put on the back burner, however, as the primary concern became the safety of the players, their families and the community.
“I don’t know anything about Johnson,” Freeman said. “We’ll get some film on them and break that down but our focus this week is going to be on Bryan County.”
The Atomsmashers should provide a strong season opening test for a Redskins team which is having to replace 90 percent of last year’s offense with untested players at nearly every position, especially at quarterback.
Johnson, two years removed from back-to-back playoff appearances, returns several key players from last year including quarterback Brayden Hurst, running back/linebacker Isaiah Scott, wide receivers Treshwan Robinson and Brian Robinson and linemen Carl Gulotta and Elijah Brown.
Defensively, the Redskins again held their own last Friday against a Bradwell team looking for a big year and Windsor Forest which is coming off a 2-8 year and playing under a new coaching staff which has been on the job for only about a month.
Offensively, however, it was a different story as like it did against Butler and Beach—Bryan County struggled to move the football.
Much of that was due to Freeman looking at several different backfield combinations. While junior Ger’bravion Collins, who has started at defensive back the last two years, will be the starting quarterback freshman Gunner Ennis also got in a lot of work and Freeman was encouraged by what he saw.
“Not practicing this week set us back,” Freeman said. “We didn’t get in the reps we needed but we’re getting better. We didn’t put any points on the board but I could tell we were better.
“I’m not worried. I’m not hitting the panic button. I think we’re going to be okay. We just have to keep working.”
While Collins and Ennis are getting all the looks at quarterback with Gaige Javis, Cooper Ennis, Anddreas McKinney and Collins getting reps at running back the offensive and defensive lines are basically set.
Allen Williams anchors the offensive line at center and he is joined up front by Zane Renteria, E’Savian Rivera, Nathan Long, Corey Collier, Matthew Huff and Kendel Collier. Nearly all of them go both ways as do several other players including wide receiver/linebacker Chris Winfree, wide receiver/cornerback Jayden Lee and wide receiver/cornerback Elijah Mincey. Senior defensive end Mike Smith, senior linebacker Kegan Westcott and senior defensive back Nathan Creech will be starting on defense.