The time for personal development and improving skills are fast coming to an end for high school football players. If players haven’t put in the work this summer, it’s too late to get started as the season is just around the corner.
Practice officially started on Monday of this week and Bryan County will waste no time in finding out who has put in the work and who hasn’t as it hosts Beach, Wheeler County and Butler in a round-robin scrimmage Friday starting at 7 p.m.
Butler will face Wheeler in the first go round and then take on Beach. In session three Bryan County will face off against Wheeler County and conclude the evening against Beach.
The Redskins will be at Bradwell Institute on Aug. 8 for a scrimmage before facing off against Johnson of Savannah in their opener on Aug. 15. That will be the first of three straight home games for Bryan County which will play Aquinas on Aug. 22. After a week off it will open Region 3A-DII play against Savannah High.
Coach Cherard Freeman will be starting his sixth season with the Redskins and he is only four wins away from becoming the winningest coach in school history. Freeman, in his 14th year as a head coach having previously coached at Warren County and Portal, is 25-27 at Bryan County. Ron Lewis is the wins leader having gone 28-93 in 12 years.
The Redskins were looking to make the playoffs for a third straight time last year only to miss out as they struggled to a 4-6 finish, 3-5 in the region, to finish behind Metter, Jenkins County, McIntosh County Academy and Emanuel County Institute.
Last season the Redskins, Freeman said, never got untracked and struggled mightily against the better teams in the region.
“We played some good football but we didn’t have consistency and not doing the little things correctly hurt us all year,” Freeman said at the conclusion of the season. “We had a lack of leadership, too. Once we got bogged down, we didn’t have someone step up and push us over that hump. We didn’t have that difference maker.”
That should not be an issue this season as the Redskins have a solid group of returnees headed by running back Anddreas McKinney, defensive back Ger'Bravion Collins and offensive linemen Nathan Long and Zane Renteria.
“We’ve got some good kids coming back,” Freeman said. “Our senior class is awesome. We’ve got some seniors who know how to lead. Last year we had some great athletes but we didn’t have any leadership. This year we’ve got some great athletes who are leaders.”
The biggest question mark for the Redskins is at quarterback where Freeman has to replace Trevor Lanier who started for three seasons.
The top candidate is sophomore Gunner Ennis who is an excellent athlete. The 6-foot-1, 172-pound Ennis was an all-region pick in baseball last spring as a freshman outfielder/pitcher and he was Lanier’s backup last year.
The other quarterbacks on the roster are sophomores Braylin Deloach and Knari Dixon along with freshmen Anthony King and Jamariyan Cosey.
All have been put through the paces this summer by quarterbacks coach Jason Napier but the job appears to be Ennis’ to lose.
