Fort Mill wraps up spring football practice

Spring football practices wrap up this week as the end of school nears and the athletes disperse for summer break.

Fort Mill started with about 90 athletes to begin spring practice three weeks ago, but will end with considerably less, said head coach Ed Susi.

For the Yellow Jackets, coming off a second consecutive trip to the playoffs and a 6-6 season, the bar is yet again being raised as the team bounces up to the new 5A classification this coming school year.

“We have got a long way to go,” Susi said. “Good thing is, we got 100 days to be ready.”

While that doesn’t sound very long, Susi and Fort Mill will be working all summer to get ready for its season opener, slated for Aug. 19 on the road at Spring Valley. In fact, Fort Mill’s first three games of the season will be away from the confines of home at Bob Jones Stadium. The new 5A schedule will provide only 10 regular season games for Fort Mill.

Fort Mill then travels to West Florence and Lancaster before hosting Orangeburg-Wilkerson at home Sept. 9 for the first time all season. The Jackets will also host York at home Sept. 16, which is now considered a non-region game since York will stay in the 4A classification.

Fort Mill’s bye week falls in the middle of the season this year on Sept. 23. The past two seasons, they have had their bye week fall at the end of the year around Week 11.

The Jackets begin their Region IV-5A schedule Sept. 30 hosting Northwestern, then will travel to Clover Oct. 7, while hosting both Rock Hill Oct. 14 in a region game and then hosting Dorman Oct. 21 in a non-region game stuck in the middle of their region schedule. Fort Mill will end the regular season Oct. 28 with its rivalry game at Nation Ford.

The Milltown Showdown returns to the end of the season for the first time in the past couple of years after being scheduled for the middle of the year. In years past, besides local bragging rights, the rivalry game has decided playoff berths and/or seeding.

“It comes down to the region,” Susi said. “We have to win in the region to make the playoffs. I think it will take a while to get the ball rolling this year.”

Fort Mill will have a lot of changes in personnel and for the first time in nearly six seasons, will have a new quarterback under center whose last name isn’t Wells. Rogan Wells graduated last week and ran the offense for three seasons before landing at Valdosta State University. His older brother, Rylan, ran it for three seasons before him, then accepted a scholarship to Jacksonville University.

Now Susi is trying to find the quarterback of the future – or at least for 2016. Heading into summer break that job is rising senior Ryan Deluca’s to hold onto for the coming year.

“We have a lot of new faces in a lot of new places,” Susi said.

This story was originally published May 23, 2016 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Fort Mill wraps up spring football practice."