York football to continue tough nonregion slate

York football coach Bobby Carroll believes that lining up a difficult slate of nonregion opponents is the way to go to ensure playoff readiness.

“We started this thing in York, scheduling a lot of Big 16 schools and large 4A schools,” said Carroll, whose York Comprehensive High School Cougars advanced to the division 11, AAAA championship last fall. “Hopefully, it will prepare us for another playoff run in the coming season.”

The Cougars open the season Aug. 21 at Sumter.

“Sumter advanced to the state championship game four of the last five years, winning the state title last year,” Carroll said. “They lost to us last year. I’m sure they’re excited about getting some revenge.”

Carroll said he will continue to schedule challenging nonregion opponents, primarily the big schools. “No offense to the small schools out there,” he said. “It’s not gonna help us to play smaller schools and jump right into Rock Hill, Northwestern, Clover, Nation Ford, Fort Mill and Gaffney.”

He said the Cougars are aiming for Friday night readiness.

“We’ve got to get our football team ready,” said Carroll. “We can’t dwell on last year, we won this and we lost that. We’ve got to go with the here and now. That’s what we’re really focusing on in the offseason.”

Carroll said the Cougars competed favorably in a recent 7-on-7 event. “We were five and five and lost to the guys that won the 7-on-7 championship. We lost to some real good teams.”

Carroll said high school football coaches view the 7-on-7 events a little more seriously than they once did. “We’ve got to get our secondary strong,” he said. “The secondary is our biggest concern right now. We lost some players there.”

While Carroll and the Cougar coaches are devoting a lot of time to improved secondary play, it’s a different story for the Cougars.

“We feel good about the offensive and defensive lines,” he said. “But we have to replace an all-state quarterback.”

The losses include 6-foot-4, 250-pound signal caller Deshaw Andrews and Shrine Bowl participant Daurice Simpson.

“I think our kids are up to it,” said Carroll. “We’ve won 42 games the last four years. Our kids are counting on getting some wins. We’ll see if the ball bounces our way a few times.”

He said he continues to monitor state high school classifications. The most recent enrollment figures released by the S.C. High School League show that York moved up a few notches in AAAA classification, at No. 45, with an enrollment has of 1,572.

“We’re right in the 45 to 55 range,” he said. “That will probably keep us in 4A classification.”

He said larger schools will comprise the soon-to-be AAAAA classification. “Whatever the high school league decides, we won’t complain one bit,” he said. “We’ll play in whatever region they put us in.”

The High School League’s goal is to reduce the disparity within each classification’s enrollment while being sensitive to geographic concerns.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 1:04 PM with the headline "York football to continue tough nonregion slate."