Briarwood prep football preview

The Briarwood Christian School football team is finally back where it belongs.

After 16 seasons of playing against schools with far more populous enrollments — due to the 1.35 multiplier forced upon private schools — the Lions return to a classification that truly matches their size. 

Resulting from the most recent wave of AHSAA realignment, Briarwood drops from Class 6A to 5A for the 2016 season. 

“The 1.35 doesn’t put us out of 5A,” Lions head coach Fred Yancey said. “We’re kind of in the top six or eight of 5A, but in reality we would be third from the bottom, but that’s OK. We’re in 5A.”

Prior to this fall, 1999 marked the last time Yancey’s team enjoyed the luxury of playing in its enrollment-correlating classification. After winning back-to-back 3A state championships in 1998 and 1999, Briarwood made the lofty jump to 5A at the turn of the century. 

Entering his 27th season at BCS, Yancey said the long-awaited shift should help his team in 2016. 

“Absolutely. I’m hoping it does,” he said. “I hope that our boys take the challenge to realize they’re playing against schools our size that play good football, and we’re going to have to match them.”

The Lions will compete in 5A, Region 5, which is headlined by Wenonah High School and Pleasant Grove High School. Like Briarwood, both of those teams advanced to the second round of the state playoffs last season.

Although the Lions posted a 4-6 regular-season record in 2015, they managed to secure a playoff spot for the 23rd straight season. Once there, they scored a hard-fought — and unexpected — first-round victory over 6A-7 champion Fort Payne High School.

“We had to come from a place where we weren’t so good to become a good team, and that was our goal all year—to become a good team and beat a good team—and we really did,” Yancey said. “That was a big win to kind of prove the point that the kids were still getting better.”

Briarwood will aim for further improvement this fall.

Offense

Despite losing a trio of college-caliber defensive starters in Carter Bankston, R.J. Jennings and Sam Sherrod, the team returns much of its core, especially on offense. 

Quarterback William Gray, wide receivers Carson Eddy and Kolby Kwarcinski and linemen Hunter Whatley and Nathan Cale enter the season with a year of varsity experience under their belts. 

“The chemistry on the offense is going to be really good,” Whatley said. “We all know each other and have been playing with each other forever.”

Gray, a senior, will once again be tasked with directing Yancey’s option-based spread offense. After battling through growing pains in his first year under center, the dual-threat QB said he spent the offseason sharpening his ability to read defenses.

Yancey said he expects Gray — a stellar student with a GPA over 4.0 — to grow more comfortable in his starting role this fall. 

“I think William is such a good student that he’s not overwhelmed with information, and he’s got a year of starting under his belt,” Yancey said. “That’s a good sign that he’ll handle the offense fine.”

But the success of Briarwood’s season, Yancey said, will boil down to the play of its running backs. Facing increasingly athletic competition in their new region, the Lions need a ball carrier who can make opposing defenses pay for their mistakes. “That will be the toughest thing,” Yancey said, “is do we have a running back that’s really quality?”

Only time will tell who emerges as the bell-cow back. J.R. Tran-Reno, Ashton Domingue and Wilson Hand are among the potential candidates. 

Defense

Briarwood will also be searching for rising stars at key positions in the team’s 4-3 defense. 

In Sherrod’s absence at linebacker, Yancey said he expects  senior Ethan Housel and sophomore Mark Hand to step up and fill the void. 

“We’re hoping that as a sophomore he steps up and becomes a big-time player for us,” Yancey said in reference to Hand. 

Up front, three-year starter Champ Stewart will anchor a line missing two significant pieces in Bankston and Jennings. Yancey said Stewart, a senior defensive end, has already received an offer from Jacksonville State.

He will be joined in the trenches by seniors Jordan Harmon and Cooper Thompson. 

Bennett Miles, Bradford Pattillo and Carson Donnelly will contribute to a veteran secondary. 

Special teams

Gray will double as Briarwood’s punter. Although the kickoff specialist and place-kicker positions represent question marks, the Lions will look to discover viable options as they march toward their season goal: a state title.

“Only one team in the classification’s going to win it, but we tend to think that we want to be in that hunt,” Yancey said. “We want to be a team that has a reputation for playing at an extremely high level, fast pace; and that we have a reputation of playing with a lot of pride.”