Fort Mill High players are hearing a different message for the 2022 football season
If you ask anyone who has pulled on a jersey and pads, they learned one thing early on – the goal is to win. That is, after all, why there is a scoreboard prominently displayed.
However, Fort Mill High coach Rob McNeely gathered his team after a recent practice and conveyed a different message.
It’s not that winning doesn’t matter for the Yellow Jackets, who battled through setbacks and challenges during the 2021 season and still made it to the postseason. Instead, McNeely wants his team to focus on deserving to win.
“We haven’t prioritized things as much as we need to. We were just trying to get quick fixes and scheme up too many teams, rather than just focusing on us,” McNeely said. “The main thing is holding each other accountable. If you really call this team a brotherhood, then you should be able to confront your best friend or your brother in a positive way, or a negative way, and have them not take it as resentment.
“We’re praising the positives a lot more than we’re harping on the negatives. That’s all mindset. If the kids really think we can win, we have a shot. If they don’t think we can win, we don’t have a shot. If we’re not doing the things we need to do from Friday when that horn sounds at the end of the game to the next Friday at 7:30, if we’re not doing the things that we’re supposed to as coaches and practicing well and lifting well and meeting well with the kids, we don’t deserve to win that next game. The game happens before it happens.”
The 2022 Yellow Jackets will look different – both by design and necessity. Quarterback Kyle Neibch, receiver J.J. Ogwal, star offensive lineman Boston Brinkley, and several other key players are gone. That paves the way for an offense that will look to utilize many new athletes.
Senior quarterback Isaiah Haynes leads the club, having contributed many key highlights in the blue and gold.
“We have more assets and we have the freedom to do what we want,” Haynes said. “We’ve had a lot of discipline. The simple stuff – showing up to practice on time, looking at film, jumping offsides – we’ve fixed a lot of that from last year, which is a big step. Those five or ten yards could cost us the game.”
Cade Haley joins Haynes in the backfield, but many players will rotate through to aid the Jackets’ renewed focus on the ground game.
“We’re trying to maximize the talent of our players,” McNeely said. “We have to have the ability to gain an advantage in the run game, and that’s what this new style of offense does for us. It maximizes what we are from an athletic standpoint and who we are from a talent standpoint. Three yards or five yards isn’t a bad offensive play.”
McNeely also has a strong group blocking up front.
Flynn Hyde is expected to be one of the anchors of the group, and McNeely hopes he will carry some of the workload Brinkley shouldered.
“(Hyde) is now in his second year as a starter on varsity. He also plays three sports – football, wrestling, and lacrosse – so he’s a well-rounded athlete and is smart,” McNeely said.
Senior Iain MacIsaac also will help anchor the unit, along with several younger linemen who are making the jump to varsity.
When the Jackets put the ball in the air, they will rely on a group of wideouts led by senior Jason Moran.
“It feels like the energy is different this year. There’s more excitement in the huddle and during practice,” Moran said. “You can just feel the difference from last year to this year.”
McNeely cited Moran’s continued development as a key to the receiving corps, along with several key pass-catchers who will surround him.
“Van Piercy took a very big step in the right direction last year as a junior. We’ve got a sophomore, Tanner Mays, who catches anything in his radius. We’ve got some guys that can be possession-type receivers, but we’ve got a couple of guys that are sneaky long and sneaky fast,” McNeely said. “It comes with being able to run the football and protecting Isaiah or whoever’s back there at quarterback.”
The Jacket defense also finds itself needing to replace an every-down player in Miller Shouse. University of Florida commit Gannon Burt will offer senior leadership.
“If you leave these freshmen or those younger than you with a good impression of you and a role model to look up to, I’d say that’s a success,” Burt said. “We just want to keep the culture here constant.”
“I can point out on film to look at his stance and look where he’s aligned,” McNeely said of Burt. “He knows his job. We need some more coaches out on the field. That type of knowledge is invaluable in a game.”
McNeely also cited Haley as a defensive leader, along with a growing group of key defenders.
“Stephen Ocampo started every game for us last year at linebacker. Burt started (almost) every game at linebacker and is the best long snapper in the nation. Jackson Sholl has just got a knack (for defending). Lewis Price is another rising sophomore, but he’s big and strong,” McNeely added.
Star kicker and punter Joe Schepler also has moved on to college football, with junior Jackson Smith moving into the role of handling placements and punts.
“There’s a lot of hidden yardage in special teams,” McNeely said. “If we can pin somebody deep and make them start inside the 20 or at the 20, we’ve got a chance defensively. If we can get 10 extra yards in the kickoff return game, that’s 10 more yards that the offense doesn’t have to pick up. Over the last few years, we’ve probably blocked more punts than any team I’ve had in the past.”
The Yellow Jackets were the beneficiaries of realignment – a subject McNeely says “never” crosses the mind of anyone involved with the program – after last season. Fort Mill will compete in a retooled Region 3-5A, surrounded by two Columbia-area schools (Blythewood and Spring Valley) and York County foes Clover, Fort Mill, and Rock Hill.
If the Yellow Jackets welcome a postseason foe to Bob Jones Stadium or board the buses to compete, what will McNeely’s charges have done to deserve that playoff spot? McNeely offers a clear vision.
“I hate to lose,” McNeely said. “I’ve been doing this, I’m entering my 26th year of coaching high school football, and I do hate to lose. If we deserve to win on Friday nights and come up short, I can live with that, because I know what we’re doing, I know what our kids are doing, and I know we’re doing right by the kids. That doesn’t make it any easier, but I can live with it. If we’re not practicing well, if we’re not preparing well, and we get beat, we’ll reap what we sow.”
Fort Mill (1-8, 0-4 Region 3-5A in 2021) opens its 2022 slate at home against cross-town foe Catawba Ridge on Aug. 19.