The Redskins of Bryan County football are looking to do one thing this year: Win.

The last time the team would prevail in a football game was on August 31, 2018, when they defeated Long County 28-14.

Since, they have been on a 24-game skid.

In 2020, the Redskins would go 0-8 with Cherard Freeman as their new head coach, coming from Warren County, who was fresh off a GHSA 1A-Public quarterfinals appearance in the previous season.

With the pandemic taking off during his arrival, Freeman felt that it played a part in the team’s lack of success with him and his new team being unfamiliar with each other because of COVID restrictions.

“It was an up and down season. The season was crazy to be honest with you,” Freeman reflected. “I got the job in May and did not get to meet the kids until the middle of June. It was a long season. The craziest part is that I did not know all the player’s names and I did not know the coaches that well by the first game. And now the players got positions because last year we were guessing.”

Another hinderance was the youth of the team.

But Freeman is elated to have his players become a year older while also being able to spend the spring and summer with them unlike leading up to the 2020 season.

“We had a young football team with all freshmen,” Freeman said. “The kids are not as young anymore. Last year we played 23 freshmen so this year it will be 23 sophomores. No one on our team had a learner’s license and we still got guys who do not have their driver’s license but start on a varsity football team. That tells you how young we are.”

Over the summer, Freeman saw a high number of players coming to workouts to prepare them for the season, giving him a good feeling when it is time for kick off.

“We had a great offseason,” he said happily. “All the kids lifted weights and got stronger, faster, and gained some weight. We had about 51 varsity players coming in the summer which is a good number for Bryan County.”

The Redskins will look to rely on a couple of sophomore two-way starters in running back and cornerback Tanner Ennis and running back and linebacker Austin Clemens.

Freeman will have his team running a Wing-T offense, the same scheme of when he became a state championship-winning running back at Lincoln County in 1993 and 1995 and as a collegiate player at Georgia Southern where he won a national championship in 1999.

“We run the old-school Wing T with a lot of buck sweep and lead,” he explained. “We are kind of a physical offense, so we are trying to mold our kids to run the offense we want to play. We want to get them stronger, tougher, and meaner. Eventually we want to play smashmouth football.”

Former Jenkins High School Head Coach and Effingham County Defensive Coordinator Tim Adams is responsible for defensive duties.

Freeman says that the experienced Adams will have the Redskins in a 3-3-5 set on the defensive end.

“Coach Adams came in and brings a lot of wisdom and knowledge to the game,” he said about the former Warriors head coach. “He is doing a great job with installing a 3-3-5 defense to our kids and they have taken it in.”

For this season, Freeman wants his players to establish a camaraderie off the field so it can help them on Friday nights, making up for lost time last offseason by having teambuilding during training.

“I want them to understand it is a brotherhood and they have to have each other’s backs,” he said about his players. “We did a lot of team bonding this year because I want them to understand that this is a family and we can lean on each other. We went to Splash in the Boro in Statesboro for team bonding and a big part of having a winning football team is everybody being on the same page.”

The time is now, Freeman thinks.

First and foremost, he wants to get a win on the board for the Redskins to possibly set the precedent for the remainder of the season.

“First thing we got to do is break this losing streak that Bryan County has,” Freeman said about the looming season. “If we can break it early, I feel like it will take off. We want to teach the kids how to win.”

The Redskins’ first opportunity at killing their losing streak will be when they host the Butler High School Bulldogs, a team they fell to 34-6 a season ago.

The game will kick off on August 20 at 7:30.