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Aug. 16—Blackville-Hilda’s football team enjoyed a breakout season in 2022, winning 10 games and giving itself a chance at the Region 3-A title.
Head coach Kevin Jones knows his Fighting Hawks may have snuck up some opponents last year, but that won’t be the case this time around.
Just ask Ninety Six coach Matthew Bennett. He agreed to a non-region game this year against Blackville-Hilda over offers from larger schools like Chapman and Gilbert, then texted his staff to let them know the good news.
Then came a knock on his door within 30 minutes from his bewildered defensive coordinator.
“Did you even look at their film?,” Jones said the assistant asked, as Bennett told him during a recent coaches’ clinic. “… Dude, they’re good. They’ve got dudes.”
The secret is out about the Hawks, who will be considered among the favorites to win the state championship in the new-look Class A.
It’s a team with a ton of returning talent, led by a dozen seniors who know what’s at stake this year — they know they have to work harder, which is why after a highly-successful spring track season nearly half of the roster didn’t miss a single summer workout.
“I think the big thing, especially for that older group of juniors and seniors that played a lot of football last year and maybe in previous years, it’s helping these guys understand that you can’t just show up on Friday night and roll your helmet out there and expect to win,” Jones said. “We have an incredibly tough schedule. We struggled to find some 1A schools to play us out of region, so we had to schedule up a good bit. I think that helps with the offseason workouts, when you know that your non-region schedule is as tough as ours is going to be. I think that adds a little bit to that mindset and preparation. We can’t wait around until Week 3 or 4 to figure these things out. We’ve…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/blackville-hilda-football-returns-talent-234800468.html
Author : Aiken Standard, S.C.
Publish date : 2024-08-16 23:48:00
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