Clarke Central High School varsity quarterback Isaac Ward, a senior, and varsity sophomore quarterback Jackson Forrester practice throwing during a varsity football practice on Aug. 20. Ward is confident that the team will succeed this year, but believes that one of the largest challenges moving into the 2019 season is reloading last fall’s roster. “We lost a lot of people last year,” Ward said. “Replacing some people from last year who gave valuable time to us (will be a challenge), but I think the younger guys will step up and do well.” Photo by Krista Shumaker
Members of the Clarke Central High School varsity football team hope to build off the progress of the 2018 season.
The Clarke Central High School varsity football team played its first preseason scrimmage on Aug. 16, losing to Norcross High School 27-21.
CCHS offensive coordinator Damien Gary has worked with many of the returning varsity players, and intends to improve the cohesiveness of the offensive side.
“This is new for me, and the last time I saw a lot of these guys they were in little league or middle school. I’m excited to see what the entire team can do, and I think they’re all up for the challenge and ready to go this season,” Gary said. “Offensively, we’ll try to be a little bit more balanced. We’ve got a lot of talented players on offense, skill-wise, that I think need to touch the ball, so my job is to get the ball in their hands and let their god-given talents take over.”
Depth Chart Analysis
Quarterbacks:
While leading the Gladiator offense last season, CCHS varsity quarterback Isaac Ward threw for 1,502 yards and 14 touchdowns, ending the 2018 season with a 92.3 quarterback rating on Maxpreps. Ward wants to improve his stats this season, but ultimately hopes to focus on a couple key areas of the game.
“I could say that I wanna throw for, 3,000 yards or something. That would be nice and all, but if you’re not winning, then it’s kinda pointless,” Ward said. “One thing I’m gonna focus on is limit(ing) turnovers. No interceptions. It’s gonna happen, it’s part of the game, but (I want to) limit interceptions and turnovers in general.”
CCHS junior Will Robinson will reprise his role as a backup quarterback for Ward this year.
Running Backs:
This year, CCHS senior O’Brien Barnett will continue to play as a starting running back. Barnett rushed for 205 carries, 1,107 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2018, averaging about 5.5 yards per carry.
Head CCHS varsity football coach David Perno has coached Barnett since 2016 and believes that he will continue to effectively move the ball offensively.
“As far as (O’Brien Barnett) goes, he has been a great player ever since freshman year. This past year, his junior year, (Barnett) became our feature back. He had multiple games where (he had) 25 plus carries and he gets better as the game goes on,” Perno said. “He just does his job, does his deal, doesn’t hurt anyone and has been a great leader in our program. I couldn’t ask for a better running back than what we have with O’Brien Barnett.”
CCHS junior Amareion Stembridge, who rushed for five carries for 15 yards in 2018, will be Barnett’s complement this season.
Wide Receivers:
2019 CCHS graduates Tre Johnson and Ja’quarus Grant ended their high school football careers in 2018, allowing seniors Jordan Hill, Jalen Gary and junior Jairus Mack to take on the roles of starting wide receivers. Hill caught four receptions for 103 yards and a touchdown in 2018, while Mack caught 32 receptions for 605 yards and four touchdowns in 2018. This left each player with 25.8 yards and 18.9 yards per reception average, respectively. Gary played at Oconee County High School last fall, and caught four receptions for 52 yards while suffering from a knee injury.
Hill believes that his last season playing for CCHS will be successful and that the team’s culture and offensive line will be instrumental in that triumph.
“This year everybody has a relationship. Nobody’s beefin’, nobody dislikes each other (and) everybody has a good relationship on the team,” Hill said. “The offense is (also) gonna be pretty good this year, and we have a great secondary, so that’s gonna be kinda good this year as a wide receiver.”
Offensive Line and Tight Ends:
Senior Chris Johnson will return this season as a tight end for the varsity team. With the addition of Coach Gary, Johnson feels that the offense has been revitalized.
“Overall I feel like the offense has really picked it up, because back before we used to be kind of on the lazy side,” Johnson said. “The defense would always be the main ones putting in work, basically, but now the offense is actually holding their own, taking responsibility and scoring points which is the best thing the offense can do.”
This year, seniors Amari Fulton and Brian Leahy will lead the starting offensive line alongside juniors Donterrius Govan, Montavious Cunningham and Ntela Diekumpuna.
Diekumpuna’s goal this season is to improve as a team player to provide others with opportunities to make big plays.
“It’s not about my stats. It’s just trying to help other players get their stats. As my position, for me to know that I’m doing well is to see my teammates look like they’re doing well,” Diekumpuna said. “If I can provide time for Isaac to get the ball off and for him to increase his passing yardage — and for receivers to increase their receiving yardage — that’s a goal of mine. To try to get our running back(s) to over 2,000 yards is a goal of mine.”
Defensive Backs:
Last season, the returning defensive backs were led by junior Tyeron Millsap, who had a total of 20 tackles and one Tackle for Loss (TFL) with seniors Sidney Barnett and Ken Ford trailing behind with 15 and 12, respectively. This year Ford has many goals for the defense and for himself.
“You know (the) team defensively, we don’t want to allow more than 17 to 21 points on defense. (For) me personally, (I want to) cause turnovers, interceptions, force fumbles — whatever I can do to help the team,” Ford said.
Defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach Justin Jones believes the Gladiators will need to play well in all three phases of the game.
“On the offensive side of the ball I think we have more organization, more structure, more direction than we had in the past. Defensively, we have a lot of guys who are young who haven’t played a lot of varsity snaps,” Jones said. “I think we got the ability to move the ball against anybody, hopefully we score points against anybody, special teams will be real key for us as well.”
Linebackers:
After losing 2018 CCHS graduates Quay Teasley and Wayne Malcolm, this season the varsity football team will rely on junior Trevon Starks. Starks believes the linebacking core is working hard with coaches to become more driven and determined.
“(The coaches have prepared us) by pushing us to go harder and just never giving up on the play even when you’re tired and just pursuit to the ball more quickly,” Starks said.
Defensive Line:
This season the defensive line will consist of three returning players. Senior Kasey Cowan had a total of 37 tackles last year, four TFLs and one sack, while junior Kolbe Cooper had a total of nine tackles, two TFLs and one sack. Junior Jaylan Smith had a total of four tackles and one sack. With few returning defensive linemen, Cooper believes that with their coaches and with practice the team will reach their goal of making it to the state championship.
“My coach, (defensive line coach Jimmie Brookins), and the defensive coordinator, (Justin) Jones, work drills every day in practice. They teach us to work hard, that’s just it,” Cooper said. “The main goal for the team is to try to make it to state and win state, and the goal for myself is just work harder than last year and just keep on.”
Special Teams:
During the 2018 season, CCHS junior and punter Walker Bradberry kicked 50 successful punts, with a 32.9 yard punt average, completing 1,642 total punting yards. CCHS senior and kicker Christian Bryan completed 24 points after touchdowns (PATs) and four field goals, making a total of 36 points scored in the 2018 season.
Bryan believes that the team has improved significantly this year and is working hard to meet their goals.
“The players are putting in work every single day, they’re out there for four hours a day, but also just, you can see it in the mentality. I’ve been here four years and this year definitely it seems like we want (the state championship) the most,” Bryan said.
Millsap and sophomore receiver AJ Jewell will be returning kicks while Gary will be returning punts.
The Gladiators will kick off their first regular season game against Winder-Barrow High School on Friday, Aug. 24 at 7:00 p.m.
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