Richmond Hill football coach Matt LeZotte will be looking to learn who his playmakers are when the Wildcats taken on Glynn Academy at 7 p.m. Friday at Wildcats Stadium in a pre-season game. The Wildcats, coming off a 3-7 season which saw them go winless in Region 1-7A play and miss the state playoffs for the first time since 2015, graduated approximately 85 percent of their offensive production.
Richmond Hill opens its season on Aug. 18 at Effingham County.
This will be LeZotte’s ninth season at Richmond Hill and that makes him the longest tenured head coach in school history surpassing Billy McGrath who led the program 1992-1999. With a 46-34 record he is the school’s winningest coach.
Overall LeZotte is 74-56 in 12 seasons as a head coach. Richmond Hill is a young team — it’s spring roster showed only 15 seniors compared to 37 juniors and 17 sophomores — but it is not lacking in experience. LeZotte played a lot of underclassmen last year out of necessity.
The strength of the team will be the offensive and defensive lines which return virtually intact and the defense which will be led by junior cornerback Caleb Easterling and junior linebackers Gabe Bauman and Lee Johnson.
Junior guard Thomas Zimbalatti, a 6-foot-3, 330-pound people mover leads the offensive line.
He has been a first team all-region selection the last two years.
Where the Wildcats need to find replacements are at quarterback, running back and receiver where they lost quarterback Ty Goldrick, running back Zion Gillard and wide receiver Ravon Grant, all of whom took their talents to Erskine College, Peru, Neb., University and the University of West Georgia, respectively.
Junior Kirk Scott and senior John Newman, two players with contrasting styles, are the top quarterback candidates. Easterling can also play quarterback as well as running back and wide receiver.
While Easterling is the top returning rusher with 205 yards last year the primary running back is expected to be junior Josh Ulrich-Troup who picked up 117 yards and had a solid spring game.
Nick Bliss, coming off an 18-catch season, leads the receiving corps. Bauman and Johnson had 65 and 54 tackles, respectively, last year. All total the Wildcats return 12 players who posted double figure tackling numbers.
Softball Wildcats
Richmond Hill’s softball team will be at home 5 p.m. Thursday when it hosts Brunswick in its home opener.
Coach Chris Jenkins’ team, coming off a 9-16-1 season which saw them make the Class 7A state playoffs, will be looking to snap a seven-game losing streak dating back to last year.
The Wildcats had their scheduled opener with Long County last Friday postponed due to weather and went on the road Tuesday night to play at Effingham County where they dropped an 11-0 decision. The game was called after five innings due to the mercy rule. Rebels pitcher Ansleigh Giordano pitched a no-hitter while striking out nine and walking one. Effingham pounded out 12 hits, seven for extra bases, and exploded for eight runs in the bottom of the fourth to put the game on ice.
Richmond Hill will play at Long County on Monday and at Brunswick on Wednesday before taking on Glynn Academy at home on Thursday.