JOHNSTON, S.C. - Strom Thurmond High School has more game breakers this season than its namesake had terms in office.

There's Coco Hillary at quarterback. The Houdini in a helmet was part of 27 touchdowns and nearly 3,000 yards in 2004. If a ticket to watch him cost $20, it would still be a bargain.

Lined in front of him is Matt Holmes at center. The 300- pounder was a strait to first downs. He had 49 pancake blocks last year.

Senior lineman Otis Key is still picking Silver Bluff blockers out of his teeth from last year. The 270-pounder looks much improved from last season.

Receiver Justin Broadwater returns after 70 catches for 1,032 yards and 10 scores last year. He led the area in each of those totals.

Running back Tony Dugar scored eight times in 2004. The 200-pounder led the team in rushing, capped by a 105-yard game in the playoffs.

"I'd put our top six or seven players up with any team's top six or seven," Holmes said.

But there's more to these Rebels than recruiting targets.

"All special teams in high school football have to have more than the kids whose names you always see in the newspapers," Strom Thurmond coach Lee Sawyer said. "The reason why I feel good about our team is not because of our best players."

Strom Thurmond's best are the arms and legs of the team. It takes a closer look to find its heart.

FINDING THAT BEGINS with a 200-pound linebacker Sawyer trusts to fix his swimming pool when things aren't quite right. The same kid is his locker room leader. He fixes attitudes when those aren't quite right, too.

"Chet Phillips is one very, very committed young man," Rebels assistant coach Gary Smallen said. "Boy, that boy is focused."

Smallen's words reveal little. You understand once you see Phillips at practice.

He speaks and the team listens. It listens out of respect for that focus.

"Today, the first day we go full pads and hit, is the first morning I slept all the way to when my alarm went off," Phillips said on Aug. 3.

Phillips was asked why he slept so well. His response sounded like a young man who was saving up energy.

"Any other day I'm up 30 minutes before my alarm goes off," Phillips said. "I'm just so ready to come to practice. Today was the first day we got to hit and I slept right to my alarm. I guess I wanted my full rest because I knew a lot of contact was coming."

Strom Thurmond began the first of two-a-days at 8 a.m. sharp. The first day of full pads, Phillips was late to the locker room.

Which is to say he arrived at 7:15.

"Chet would be out here practicing at five in the morning if he could," senior linebacker Kenneth Griffin said. "And if he was out here at five. I'd be out here right with him at five."

Seven Rebels were asked which player cares the most about the team. Lots of names were called. The one at the top of every list was Phillips.

Thirty minutes before every workout, the practice field is empty. Except for Phillips. Even when he's late getting to school, he's never beaten to the field.

"I get mentally prepared for the work I need to do in practice," Phillips said. "I pray some. I get out the dummies and the bags we use for linebacker and defensive drills. I set those up."

He would love to draw a bead on

buddy Coco Hillary just once in practice. But his coaches don't let the defense get many shots at the area's most elusive catch.

Nothing against Hillary, but Phillips just likes hitting the guys with the ball on offense. Hard.

"My ultimate goal defensively is to see the players on the other offense give up and quit," Phillips said. "I want to light the guys on the other team up so much they go tell their coaches they don't want to play anymore. I want their coaches to hear them say they'd rather sit and watch on the sidelines than go out and get hit some more. Wouldn't that be great?"

He showcases that intensity in every practice drill. Teammates watch and appreciate. His habits are infectious.

"A guy like Chet Phillips gets me going," Holmes said. "He gets us all fired up to go hard."

And Phillips is not the only one who has that effect on this football team.

KEVIN JONES DOES not look like a young man who has found every ounce of his football potential. He looks like the team manager, who stole a helmet and shoulder pads.

He's 5-foot-5 and weighs 185 pounds. He's started the past two seasons on the defensive line.

That's the defensive line on Strom Thurmond's varsity. Not the junior varsity.

"We've got some great players," Sawyer said. "Great players who do amazing things. But I don't know if I would trade any one of them for that Kevin Jones."

Kevin Jones is actually an alter ego. Jones signs his name Kalboski Jones on the forms he fills out to play for the Rebels. Teammates think Kalboski comes from a wrestler of years past.

It does not. He was handed that name by his peers back in the sixth grade.

With one vicious hit, a school icon was born. Shouts of "Kalboski!" rang out like an ancient history.

Jones made the all-region team last season still built like that sixth-grade defensive end. Yet Jones can bench press 310 pounds and squat 420. His 5.1-second time in the 40-yard dash is slow, but he makes every step count.

"His first two steps are as fast as mine," Hillary said. "Kalboski's so quick off the ball."

Jones had eight sacks last year, but no one will mistake him for a college prospect.

"I don't even know what a recruiting letter looks like," Jones said. "The only ones I've ever seen are the ones Coco and Matt Holmes get about every day."

His example inspires hourly.

"I go up against 6-foot-4 offensive tackles who look at me lining up in front of them and laugh," Jones said. "They ask me who got hurt. But I go hard and don't let up. Sooner or later the big guy in front of me gets tired. I don't. I don't take a thing lightly. I sneak up on guys. I make plays because I surprise people. I won't let anybody surprise us this year."

SAWYER WAS on the staff for multiple state title teams at Swansea. One season, a team of mostly juniors that wasn't picked to win a thing still won a championship. The focus the next year was avoiding the big head.

"We had our microscopes and magnifying glasses out looking for it," Sawyer said. "Complacency can ruin the chance for a team to be great."

The Rebels won the region last year for the first time since 1996. There are 14 returning starters, 46 upperclassmen.

"Looking for complacency is what you do when you have a lot of success, and a lot of the kids who had the success are back for the next season," Saywer said. "You look for the kids who think they are already good because of what they did the year before. Who don't go harder than what they did the year before."

The magnifying glasses have come up empty on this team.

"I haven't seen it," he said. "I hate to say this so early, but this team's got a lot of the same characteristics as the teams did we won state with at Swansea. It's never satisfied. They work like they understand what I've been preaching. Everyone saying how good we should be doesn't mean a hill of beans when the first game rolls around."

Sawyer feels champions don't start practice talking about state championships.

"The only thing we talked about was playing better each week," Sawyer said. "We wanted to be the best we could be. All the rest took care of itself."

Could this team's best be a state championship?

"Hate to say that too, but I think it could," Sawyer said.

The most convincing answer to the question is from Phillips. It's answered best when asked what he thinks about the 2005 season.

The words matter because he's no star. His last game this year is likely his last as a player.

"The way I am I could go shoot basketball and shoot thirty times and miss 'em all," he said. "But I'll keep on shooting until I make one. Got to end up a good note."

Last year did not end well. Strom Thurmond was surprised 35-28 at home by Carolina Forest in the second round of the playoffs.

Phillips feels exactly the way his coach wants him to feel. It's a shot, just one, he knows he'll never get back again.

"Last season we walked off the field losers," Phillips said. "Aggravating. All of us on this team are losers until the season starts again. ... We can't have this year end like that again."

Reach Jeff Sentell at (706) 823-3425 or jeff.sentell@augustachronicle.com.