Mike Brown, Sports correspondent.
Bryan County’s flag football team may be short on experience but it’s long on talent and for that reason Coach Kristen Barnhill believes the second-year program is moving in the right direction.
The Redskins played basically an exhibition schedule last year but this year are playing for keeps and despite an 0-4 start Barnhill is confident the wins will eventually come.
Bryan County played New Hampstead and Windsor Forest Tuesday night at the Savannah High field, losing to the Phoenix, 46-0, and to Windsor Forest, 13-0.
Losing to New Hampstead was nothing to be embarrassed about. The Phoenix return most players from last year’s team which reached the Class 4A Final Four. They are led by Gianna Brown who has committed to playing flag football at Emmanuel University in Franklin Springs, Ga.
Brown won the Hollis Stacy Award last year as the most versatile female athlete in Savannah. She also stars in basketball, volleyball and soccer. She said her favorite sport is flag football.
Barnhill returns only two players, Shae Coursey and Haley Thomas from last year’s team while everyone else is playing flag football for the first time. However, the roster is dotted with multisport athletes who have proven ability.
“Shae and Haley are good athletes,” Barnhill said. “So are Reece Raeburn and Zy’Myla Bostick. Haley is playing three sports right now: she’s a kicker on the football team, playing for us and running cross country. Shae just finished with volleyball. Thomas and Coursey, along with Raeburn, are also all standouts on Barnhill’s soccer team which set records last spring for most wins in school history (10-7-1), hosting a state playoff game for the first time ever and advancing to the second round of the playoffs. In their second game of the evening the Redskins dropped a 13-0 decision to Windsor Forest with the Knights two touchdowns coming on Pick Sixes. Windsor Forest beat Bryan County, 13-6, earlier with the winning score also coming on a Pick Six. The two games with the Knights show that the Redskins can compete with teams of a similar experience and talent level. “We were looking great on defense; Windsor Forest didn’t score on our defense,” Barnhill said. “It’s just on offense we’ve got to find something, make something happen. I need to go back and adjust the play book, that sort of thing. “I think we have the tools, we’ve got the people we need. We’ve just got to figure out where we’re going. Because we’ve got people involved in other sports we haven’t had a lot of practice.” Bryan County has 13 players on its roster and Barnhill said she would like to have at least two more which would enable her to have full practices and scrimmages.”
“I was hoping to get more athletes out from different teams,” Barnhill said. “It didn’t work out because of where the sport falls (in October). The timing is not good but where [else] are you going to put it?”
The roster, number in parenthesis: (1) Haley Thomas, (2) Reese Raeburn, (3) Si’Niyah Frazier, (4) Tatiana Rivera, (5) Deonnie Dorsey, (6) Zy’Myia Bostick, (7) Shae Coursey, (8) Katelyn Von-Waldner, (9) Naavaeh Mutcherson, (11) Ni’Jalah Walker, (12) Zhariana Benjamin, (16) Emily Connell, (20) Untionna Clemmons.