Eagles to feature small, but 'powerful' senior football class

Jul. 21—WARRENTON — Summer football can be good for a lot of things, but it won't make a team any older.

With fewer than 10 seniors expected to be on the fall roster, experience will be a disadvantage for Warren County, but head coach V.J. Hunt is excited about the players he does have coming back.

The Eagles also learned this summer that some of those inexperienced players could be poised to become some of the biggest contributors to a program that reached the second round of the state playoffs last season.

"We have some young guys," Hunt said, "but I think they're going to be really good players."

Two of the young guns are sophomores Joel Bryant and Demontay Hawkins. With good size at 6 feet, Hunt predicts Hawkins will gain statewide recognition soon as a standout receiver. He said both Bryant and Hawkins have put in the work to make big leaps forward for Warren County, which suffered a major blow last year when starting quarterback Najah Williams tore his ACL in the offseason.

Williams, now a rising junior, had turned in an impressive freshman campaign the season prior, but on the bright side, his replacement Dennis Williams gained some valuable reps and played well down the stretch.

Now, Najah, and Dennis, a senior, are dueling it out for the starting role although both can slot in at other positions on both sides of the ball.

That means regardless of any of the other uncertainties surrounding the Eagles' personnel, Hunt at least knows he has two experienced signal callers. Both are true quarterbacks and dual threats as passers and rushers.

"You will see two Williams kids line up at quarterback this year," Hunt said. "Both of them will play quarterback this year. And that's a luxury for us — whenever you can switch the pace, change some things up, that's good."

Some other names to keep an eye on: linemen Theo Madison, Tyjee Covington and Trent Williams, and running back Noah Dortch.

All in all, Hunt said the Eagles had productive spring and summer sessions, though they only played in one seven-on-seven scrimmage, electing instead to keep the focus in house.

Hunt added there will be some schematic revamping tailored to this crop of players' skillsets.

And though the senior class is light on numbers, Hunt described it as "powerful."

Ayzayvion Hunter, Sam Isreal and Donald Bullock join Dennis Williams, Trent Williams, Madison, and Dortch as seniors.

Some have been with Hunt for "three or four years," their coach said. "So that means something because you start to hear them speak like you. You start to hear them when they're holding their teammates accountable."

With a young group, that couldn't be more important.