High school football coaches have plenty of reasons to toss and turn at night this time of year. With all the working, changing parts to a team, each factor deserves attention.
But give a coach an experienced starting quarterback and a promising underclassman as the backup, and that pillow might feel a little softer at night.
“It just makes you sleep better,” Silver Bluff coach Al Lown said. “It helps tremendously to have that guy there.”
On the other side, lose the signal caller to injury or fail to have a guy in position after a star quarterback graduates, and it can make for a long season.
“The quarterback is touching the ball every play, so you have to have someone there you can depend on,” Strom Thurmond coach Lee Sawyer said. “In high school, if you can throw the ball a little bit, you’re going to be ahead of a lot of teams.”
Both Silver Bluff and Strom Thurmond have returning starters at quarterback this year. Raleigh Yeldell is the first three-year starter for the Rebels at the quarterback position since CoCo Hillary.
Cordrea Tankersley, considered the fastest at the position in Aiken County, will head to Clemson after his second consecutive year starting behind center at Silver Bluff. It’s no coincidence that both the Rebels and Bulldogs are undefeated.
The same is true at Fox Creek, where senior quarterback Marty Williams leads the area in both passing (351 yards) and rushing (657 yards).
“It used to be we’d just look for our best athlete and bring him in at quarterback,” Predators coach Russ Schneider said. “Last year Marty was a running back playing at quarterback. This year he’s grown so much as a passer, and that has really opened up the playbook for us.”
Coaches in Aiken and Edgefield counties agree that a strong football program must find and cultivate quarterback talent early. Sawyer said Strom Thurmond has a freshman on the varsity squad just so he can get a feel for what it takes to be a quarterback at that level.
“Our philosophy is we try to get one of our better athletes there and start working with him at an early age,” Sawyer said.
The quarterback situation isn’t quite as advanced at South Aiken and North Augusta, but both programs have reason to be excited about the future.
Tyrell Hillary is a junior who saw varsity snaps as a sophomore for the Yellow Jackets, while Bo Baldwin is starting at South Aiken as a 10th grader.
Though both have shown early signs that their overall games have great need for improvement, the two have also shown raw talent and big potential.
Hillary completed 16 of 20 passes for more than 200 yards last week in a convincing win over a Class AAAA Dutch Fork defense that had previously forced two shutouts.
Baldwin doesn’t look like a sophomore when his 6-foot-5, 190-pound frame lines up behind center and he threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in last week’s come-from-behind win over Midland Valley. He’ll be the face and future of the South Aiken program and has proven his worth so far, leading the Thoroughbreds to a 2-0 start.
South Aiken coach Jeremy West said his team has a strong running game and effective defense to thank for the fast start but also said Baldwin’s contributions have just begun.
“Hopefully about region time we’ll be able to open up the playbook a little more,” West said. “But right now we’re going to coast him in because he is just a 15-year-old kid.”
The county’s top quarterback prospect will square off against the county’s best current quarterback when South Aiken plays host to Silver Bluff this week.
North Augusta will get a look at one of the top quarterbacks in the Augusta area Thursday when the Yellow Jackets hit the road to take on Lakeside and senior quarterback Mark Widenaar, who threw for more than 300 yards last week against Thomson.
CHAT: What’s the best high school football team in the area? Who’s the best player? What’s the game of the week? Join the experts as they discuss high school football at 11:30 a.m. today at augustachronicle.com.
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