Poised for the postseason: How Bryan Co. can build breakout season into a playoff run
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When Bryan County made its last state football playoff appearance this year’s seniors were in the fifth grade. They were in the third grade when the school had its last winning season, a streak that ended this year..
Yet when the Redskins (6-4) line up for their playoff game since 2015 at Heard County on Friday night they won’t have stars in their eyes. That’s because most of them have playoff experience in other sports.
Tanner Ennis, arguably the best defensive back in Region 3A-D1, is only a junior but he has been to the state playoffs in basketball and baseball. Other members of last year’s 20-win playoff basketball team playing football are Sean Kelly Hill, Jordan Flannel, Carson Nunn, Chris Winfree and Kameron Boggs.
Austin Clemons, who was the Redskins’ leading rusher and tackler when he was lost for the season to a knee injury on the first series of the game with Portal, was a key reserve.
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The Redskins reached the Sweet 16 in baseball last spring and posted 20 wins. In addition to Ennis, Hill, Nunn and Leggett other baseball players playing football include Cayron Rawls, Kris Martin and John Good.
Wide receiver Ethan Trombley qualified for the state track meet in the 1,600 meters as did running back Jacari Carney in the sprints.
Wrestling made it to the Sweet 16 in only its second year and several of those wrestlers are key contributors in football. Wrestlers playing football are Tarrell Singleton, Jet Lewis, Zach Sitton, Rylan Hernandez, Jayden Lee and Raul Parrish.
Third-year Coach Cherard Freeman is counting on that playoff experience, albeit in other sports, to help them maintain an even keel against a Braves team making its 18th consecutive playoff appearance. Heard County (5-5) won the Class A state championship in 2018 and has advanced to the second round two of the past three years.
“Their record is not what they want it to be,” Freeman said. “All of those kids have been in the playoffs so this is not anything new to them. But we’ve got kids who have been there, too.”
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Coach is no stranger to postseason pressure
Freeman has playoff experience also as a player and coach. He was a captain on two state championship teams at Lincoln County, was a starting slotback on Georgia Southern’s 1999 FCS national champions and he took Warren County to the playoffs prior to coming to Bryan County.
One player who will not shy away, Freeman said, is senior Konnor Leggett who leads the Redskins in rushing with 523 yards. As a defensive back his 77 tackles are second to Ennis’s 84.
Leggett has been the Region 3A Player of the Year in baseball the last two years. He’s so respected by opposing coaches on more than one occasion he has been intentionally walked with the bases loaded.
Until last year Leggett had bypassed football to focus on baseball. That obviously has paid off but he said he is happy to be playing football.
“I played rec football with all of these guys but didn’t play middle school,” Leggett said. “I decided to come out last year because I wanted to play with them. It has really been great. I’m having a lot of fun.”
Leggett’s presence became even more important when Clemons went down leaving a big hole not only in the backfield but also at linebacker where freshman Anndreas McKinny has stepped in to play well.
“Konnor is a great kid,” Freeman said. “He’s always funny. I love his personality.
“No moment is too big for him. He wants to be on the stage. He’s a young senior…he’s really a junior. They moved him up a grade in the fourth-grade. I don’t know why but I wish they hadn’t.”
While Leggett has an outgoing personality Singleton speaks quietly and in more measured tones who at the beginning of the season said his primary goals were to repeat as a 4.0 student and qualify for the state wrestling tournament. Playoff football was not in the picture.
“When you look at the history of the place there was no reason to think about the playoffs,” Singleton said. “I started believing we had a chance after we beat Treutlen County and Portal.
“I’m really happy and I’m proud of being a part of it. We seniors (seven) have hopefully helped lay a foundation of things to come.”
Leveraging a late-season surge
The Redskins will be riding momentum generated by a two-game winning streak and they turned in one of their most complete games of the season when they beat Claxton, 40-19, last Friday to clinch a No. 3 seed.
“We played really well at Claxton,” Freeman said. “We very easily could have had a shutout but we made some mistakes and gave up two big plays.
“Against Heard County we have got to play mistake free football and focus on the moment,” Freeman said. “We have to focus on what we do and try and get better at what we do.”
This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Bryan County football team opens state football playoffs against Heard
