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Wildcats to play one more year of non-region schedule

By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

To say the Whitewater fotball program has grown would be an understatement. Still without a senior class, the school now has 130 students involved in the football program, enough to field a freshman, junior varsity and varsity football team. Though the Wildcats will play one more year with a non-region schedule in football, they are poised to make a big splash next year in 4-AAAA.

“We’ve had tremendous support from the parents and fans from the beginning,” said head coach Amos McCreary. “It’s as good as it was anywhere that I’ve coached.” McCreary credits the success to a small town atmosphere at the school where everybody knows everybody else. Think “Friday Night Lights” without the rabid insanity of the coach-threatening fans and you get a feeling of what game night as like at the young school.

Whitewater had a successful season last year. They went 6-3 as a team made up entirely of freshman and sophomores and gave Landmark Christian, the region 5-A champion, a run for their money. Everybody is back this year and the team’s depth is what McCreary consides to be his team’s greatest strength.

“Our numbers are really good and though we have no superstars we have a lot of good football players,” said McCreary, who adds that his challenge is to try to give everybody a good amount of playing time. He also stated that by having the nine coaches working with this group since their freshman year, the team has received more consistent coaching than players at other schools. The players have also benefitted by partcipating on a number of other teams at the school, which is why so many of the names seem to come up so much in the paper.

The Wildcats have had good practices this summer and McCreary added that the team came in in good shape. Despite the heat, the players worked hard and the team was fortunate to avoid any overheating incidents.

In their first jamboree of the season, McCreary saw good play from his players against Newnan, including Jay Bright, Jonathon Ashley and Tavoris Dixon. He also commended linemen Riley Sisson and Andy Skiles for paying well but stated that the team gave up too many big plays which led to the loss.

McCreary cites all of those players as ones to watch this season and adds linebacker Dustin Davis and defensive end Jonathan Jaurigue to the mix but anyone who followed Whitewater last year knows that numerous players have stepped up and can be a game changer.

Among the big games for Whitewater this year are a home game against Heard County and away games at Landmark Christian, Athens Academy and Mill Creek.

Whitewater opens the season with five straight home games and they should give their fans plenty to be excited about this season.