Warhorses want to start, stay hot

Aug. 14—It took a few weeks longer than head football coach Dwayne Garrick would have liked last season, but execution finally caught up to effort in time for Barnwell to make a run to the Class AA Lower State championship game.

The Warhorses' playoff run was ended by rival Silver Bluff, but they return a vast majority of the players who helped them reach that point. With that comes a lot of hype and high expectations heading into this season, and Garrick said his players are ready to get out on the field to try to live up to it.

"Those last two, three playoff games definitely kind of boosted us with some momentum going into this coming season," he said. "We started peaking and playing well right there at the end. We knocked off two 1 seeds in Woodland and Marion just to get there, so it was a good ride right there at the end."

Garrick said his team only lost four or five seniors from last year, so that means practically everybody's back. That starts with the program leaders in this year's senior class, and it gives a glimpse of the future with a strong crop of sophomores that started for the Warhorses last season.

Running back Tyler Smith is back for his senior season after rushing for 2,147 yards and 28 touchdowns, and he's the headliner for this group.

Clay Pender is back at receiver and will play some defensive back, and Jaden James and Maurice Odom are key leaders from their linebacker/tight end/H back positions.

Everyone's back on the offensive line, and they'll again set the tone whether the Warhorses line up in the Wishbone or with quarterback Cameron Austin alone under center.

That's a philosophy that Garrick said a lot of people probably don't agree with, but they've turned it into a lot of wins over the years. It gives defenses more to prepare for, plus the Warhorses just love the physicality of the Wishbone.

Austin, a sophomore, backed up Weston Sandifer last year, and Garrick said he understands the offense well.

"He's the guy right now that we're counting on at that spot," Garrick said. "He'll have to get some game experience, naturally, and he's going to have to get hit a little bit. We expect him to play well. He's had two good scrimmages, and he's pretty mature for his age."

The defense will have to play better and more physical this year, and that group had a good offseason and preseason. Garrick said he has eight or nine returning starters on that side of the ball, too, and everyone should be fresh this year with only a couple of players going both ways.

The Lower State title game was an example of what the Warhorses need to fix. That game ended in a 42-35 loss, and Garrick has spent the offseason telling them that if they score 35 points then they've got to win the game. He feels like they have the right players in the right spots to do that.

South Carolina High School League realignment kept Barnwell in the Lower State in a new Region 6-AA that includes familiar foes Edisto, Ridgeland-Hardeeville, Wade Hampton and Woodland.

The non-region schedule starts with county rivals Williston-Elko and Blackville-Hilda and also includes rivalry games against Silver Bluff and Bamberg-Ehrhardt, plus higher-classification opponents Aiken and Orangeburg-Wilkinson.