March Madness is upon us but that doesn’t mean King Football is willing to take a backseat when it comes to sharing the limelight.
College football conferences released schedules for this fall in the last week or so – Georgia Southern hosting former coach Willie Fritz and Houston on Sept. 26 being the top draw locally – but Richmond Hill and Bryan County also have their schedules set for this fall.
Matt LeZotte will be starting his 12th season at Richmond Hill, 15th overall as a head coach, and on paper this group has the potential to be his best team yet including the 2019 squad which advanced to the Final Four.
The Wildcats are coming off a 6-5 season which saw them lose to eventual national and state champion Buford in the opening round of the Class 6A playoffs. It was a young team with only 12 seniors.
Bryan County was 5-5 last fall and missed making the playoffs when it lost its season finale at Metter. The Redskins had suffered the same fate the year before when they lost their final three games and came up one win short.
This fall, however, playoff participants will be decided by GHSA power rankings rather than the top four teams in the region qualifying. Bryan County would have qualified last year under this system.
Both teams are in two of the strongest regions in the state in their classification: Richmond Hill in Region1-6A and Bryan County which will find itself in Region 3-2A due to reclassification.
For Bryan County this represents what will no doubt be a stronger schedule as it picked up Calvary Day School, which was a state runner-up last year in Class A-AAA Private and Savannah Christian while remaining with Screven County and Metter. Savannah High is the fifth team in the region.
The only change region-wise for the Wildcats is Tift County dropping down to Class 5A. That means they’re still with Valdosta, Lowndes County, Colquitt County and Camden County. Had the power rankings system been in place last year all six teams would have qualified for the playoffs.
LeZotte enters the season needing eight wins to reach 100 for his career and the Wildcats open on Aug. 21 against Effingham County where Coach John Ford, like LeZotte, is approaching the 100-win mark. Ford has 97 wins in his career and he has taken two teams, Buford and Roswell, to the state championship games.
Richmond Hill is hampered in scheduling as the nearest Class 6A school is Camden County thus the Wildcats find themselves playing several lower classification schools. However, those teams are anything but automatic wins. Every non-region opponent qualified for the playoffs in their class last year.
The Wildcats have the luxury of playing their first five games at home. Following the opener with the Rebels the Wildcats then face on successive weeks Liberty County, Jenkins, Ware and Wando, S.C. Ware, especially, is a strong Class 4A program where veteran coach Jason Strickland is 164-60-1 for his career with a pair of state championships on his resume.
The first road game is Sept. 25 at East Coweta, which is also a Class 6A school, and then after an open date the Cats open region play by hosting Colquitt County. That’s followed by a trip to Camden and then a home game with Lowndes before an open date. Richmond Hill ends the regular season at Valdosta on Nov. 6.
Bryan County started several freshmen and sophomores last year and Coach Cherard Freeman, starting his seventh season, is hoping it pays dividends this fall.
The Redskins open the season on Aug. 21 at home against Treutlen County and the next two weeks find them going to Portal and Islands, respectively, before an open date.
After that break Bryan County will return home to take on Windsor Forest and the following week go to Warren County. Freeman coached for seven years at Warren County before coming to Bryan County.
The Redskins open region play on Oct. 2 at home against Screven and face Calvary Day, also at home, the following week. Then comes an open date followed by a home game with Metter, a trip to Savannah Christian and the season finale at home against Savannah.