Head Coach: Joey Whittington
Last Year’s Record: 2-8
Seniors: 8
Returning Starters: 8
What are your expectations for this season?
Just looking to have a bounce-back year. You know, we were definitely below expectations last year with a 2-8 record, and that’s been our focus since December. We’ve had pretty good turnout in the weight room in the offseason. We had a good spring game, a good spring season. Our game ended up being more like a scrimmage, but it was a lot of effort and good execution there. And then summer workouts and seven on seven have gone well. And so far, I’ve been pretty happy with where the kids are at, as far as about focusing on the stuff and staying healthy and being ready to execute this season.
You reached the SSAA 1A championship game. You fell behind in the first half, rallied in the second half, but came up short. How has that motivated the team?
I think they know that the pieces are there. Last year, we had, kind of, a season I’ve really never dealt with as a coach, assistant coach or head coach, with the amount of injuries and this and that. Like we didn’t start the same offensive line twice last year. And we had a lot of young guys. I mean, even this year, we’re still young, but having some guys last year in that playoff game. In that playoff game, we were playing eighth graders and ninth graders in key spots, and it kind of clicked in the second half. We ran out of time. Kudos to Space Coast, they put us in a bind in the first half. But I think they could see some of those things that if we stick to it and work on it, then, even though we’re going to have to play a freshman, we’re going to have to play a handful of sophomores in key spots, then all of our seniors are starters and we’ve got that junior class filling in, I think they see that the potential to have a good season is there.
What class do you expect the most out of?
You know, I actually told the boys this the other night. We had a team meeting Monday night, and you kind of always expect more out of the seniors. And the reason is, especially for this group, they’ve done it longer. So, last year we had five seniors, and only two of them had played more than two years before going into their senior year. This year, we have eight seniors, and seven of them are returning starters, so they played the game. The other thing I think you rely on seniors is it should just mean more to them. I was talking to the team the other day. They have, right now, on paper, 10 chances to play football. And we know all the percentages about going to the next level. Come November, that could be the last time they ever put on a helmet again. So you expect a lot of them, and you hope — and what they have shown — is that it should mean more. We have key contributors at every grade level, but hopefully those seniors kind of take that role and understand what they have at stake. I think that they’ll help us and lead us to where we want to be.
Second year in the SSAA. How does that help with everyone knowing how it works now?
Well, so it’s our second year, but they’ve made some changes. SSAA 11-man for the public schools has grown. It started out as four teams, and we weren’t in it that year. And it went up to 11 teams. The goal was to go to 12. We had a team drop out last minute, so we only ended up with 11. This year, we’re at 16. We’re at the ability this year to have a north and a south. So there’s eight of us in the north and eight teams in the south, and then they’re going to bracket it off. And then they’re going to have the north champion play the south champion for the SSAA state championship. This year, with the growth of the league, we’re going to have a true playoff field. A little bit different than the FHSAA is week zero, that Aug. 16 game, most everybody in our area is going to be playing a preseason game. Our game vs. Oak Hall matters It will count for us for playoff position and things like that. So having having those things where you hit the ground running, it helps with these first few weeks of practice. We can’t just limp into a preseason game, fugure what we’ve got to work on and then try to get better. You’re going to have 14 practices then play a game that matters. I think that dynamic has 100 percent helped us as far as focus and effort out there.
What games are you looking forward to the most?
I’m one of those guys that, if we’re keeping score, I want to win. So I look forward to every Friday night. Obviously, there’s thsoe games, just going through the schedule, clearly our local games that we like, you know, Trenton and Branford. They’re are local rivals. We look forward to playing them every year, always good competition. Coach Porch down at Trenton and Coach Clark at Branford, they both do a great job with their programs. A game I’m excited about is we got Franklin County back on the schedule. We played them for four years a few years ago. It’s one of those competitive, friendly rivalries. Very similar schools. We’ve got some new guys on the schedule. We’ve never played Old Plank before, never played Lake Weir before, so getting those guys on the schedule. Got Bronson back on the schedule after a few years off. Excited about getting them back because they’re another local school to us. We added Bishop Snyder. Before I was the coach here, I think Bell and Bishop Snyder played each other pretty regularly. It just happened to never work out in our recent history, but we got them back. So I’m really looking forward to all of the schedule. I like where we’re at.

All fall sports previews are available at the Gilchrist County Herald’s YouTube page in the “Fall Sports Previews” playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpWFBn0zLuoq4pr7Wi68C1nf-HEefB_1H&si=SkbSNfHI-SxbDTOv