Led by homegrown coach Dean Boyd, York football aims to reestablish itself in 2020
There were probably some moments in the 2019 season, after losses and wins, when Dean Boyd wished that progress didn’t depend so much on time.
The York Comprehensive High School football coach, who was hired to the Cougar helm in February 2019, probably would’ve preferred to rely on other things to expedite last year’s rebuilding process. Like his decades-worth of experience. Or his track record of two state titles and nine region championships in Marlboro County. Or the fact that he might know his York hometown and what “York football is all about” more so than anyone else in the area now — a result of growing up as one of eight Boyd children who attended York and three Boyd brothers who each coached at York in some way, at some point.
But instead, last season, when York went 4-8 overall and lost in the first round of the 4A state playoffs, time seemed to derail a lot of Boyd’s plans.
This past offseason, though, time has only helped him.
“Is it what we want for York? No,” Boyd said of his team’s finish last season. “But that takes time. I’ve taken over three programs now, and all three programs were in the same scenario that York was in when I took over last year. We made progress after that first year, but that first year is kind of a growing year, and you suffer through some growing pains. You have to put in your systems, and your ideals, and your discipline, and your philosophy and all those things. And you have to hire your coaches.
“You have to get guys in there that believe in your system, and we’ve done all that over the past year since November, you know?”
The end of last season didn’t slow Boyd down. If anything, after his Shrine Bowl head coaching duties were completed, Boyd worked harder.
Boyd said he’s hired six new coaches since the beginning of last year, some of whom coached or played under him at Marlboro, including defensive coordinator Kevin McKiver. Boyd has over 100 students in the football program now, dozens more than he had when he took over last year and about 40 less than there were before the COVID-19 pandemic upended normalcy.
He’s installed youth football programs in the community. He’s worked closely with York’s middle school and tried to establish deeper York football roots. He coordinated virtual spring practice that ended in a spring game earlier this year — which was played on a PlayStation 4.
He’s even engaged his players off the field, too.
Dean’s older brother, JR, who was the defensive coordinator at York football for its 1986 state championship before winning multiple more titles as the head coach at 1A’s Lamar, said he saw Dean a lot last year. And in between teasing Dean about questionable play calls on Friday nights and his defensive schemes — “Dean is more of an offensive guy; I’m more of a defensive guy” — JR said he saw how hard Dean worked.
“He works extremely hard making sure his guys do the right things,” JR told The Herald. JR went on to say that the York football team did several trash pickups in the winter and meal deliveries during the coronavirus-affected spring, events that connected Dean’s players to the community as well as to each other.
“He hasn’t made it his team, but the York team, if you know what I mean.”
York expecting big leap in 2020
On Monday, York football players were in helmets but no pads, in accordance with the South Carolina High School League’s Phase 1.5 guidelines for summer workouts. On the main turf field, the defense was working through coverage patterns; in the outfield of the baseball field, offense-only players were working through quick passing routes.
“I feel like this is one of the most talented teams York has had in awhile,” senior quarterback Weston Hance told The Herald in between reps on Monday.
Hance spent most of last year learning and playing behind starter Colby Clayton, who signed to play football at St. Andrews University in February. Since last summer, though, Hance (now 6-3, 195 pounds) has gained 55 pounds — and has taken many meaningful, in-game reps.
“I’m expecting big things,” Hance said. “I’m expecting a lot of wins this year. I think a lot of us are.”
York was a young football team last year, in part because a lot of talent left York before Boyd took over: Some of those players ended up playing on all-star teams last season — like defensive lineman JQ Guinn, defensive lineman Jaylon Ballard and quarterback Gabe Carroll (who all played for Clover, and helped lead the Blue Eagles to an undefeated 2019 regular season).
But getting early playing time — for its leaders on offense and defense — has made York football ready for a successful season, Hance said.
“All of these guys have been here for a while now,” Hance said. “Last year, we had a bunch of sophomores starting. We had a bunch of juniors on varsity. Now, we have a lot of experience, a lot of leadership on this team.”
York football skill players ‘can play with anybody’
Beyond experience, the York football team is confident that it has plenty of pieces to work with in 2020.
The Cougars’ offensive line will be young — Boyd expects to start three sophomores and a senior on the line, the cost of losing key seniors Ashton Shannon and South Carolina Lineman of the Year and Clemson preferred walk-on, Will Boggs, from last year — but their skill players “can play with anybody,” Boyd said.
There’s the pair of bruising running backs, junior Frank Thompson and senior Jordan Burris. There’s 6-1 junior wide receiver Dee Roseboro. There’s 5-9 slot receiver Aladrion Davis, who was described by his quarterback as “probably the best receiver in the state that nobody knows about.”
And of course, there’s DaShawn Brown — York’s leader on the wide receiving corps who earlier this year committed to play football at App State, and who recently picked up an offer from the ACC’s Virginia.
Brown told The Herald that Coach Boyd has, in many ways, passed on what it means to be “York built.”
“He trusts everybody on the team, unless if you give him a reason not to trust you; he loves everybody like we’re his own kids,” Brown said. “What he gets us to understand is the meaning of being York built, and being from here. It just runs in the blood. We just take pride in that, being from York.”
For Boyd, the homegrown coach who came back a year ago, the ongoing effort to instill that kind of pride is powerful and worth doing, he said.
Even if it takes time.
“I was content at Marlboro County,” Boyd said. “But I just felt like (coming to York) was a great opportunity, not only to rebuild a program, but to come home and do that. That’s something I feel like I’ve been pretty good at doing. And what better place to do it than the town you grew up in?”
York Comprehensive High School football schedule
Sept. 25: Indian Land (home)
Oct. 2: Catawba Ridge (away)
Oct. 9: Fairfield Central (away)
Oct. 16: Lancaster (away)
Oct. 23: South Pointe (home)
Oct. 30: Rock Hill (home)
Nov. 6: Clover (away)
Editor’s note: This story is one of 15 high school football previews The Herald will run prior to the first game of the regular season on Sept. 25. Look out for a preview of South Pointe football to appear at heraldonline.com on Thursday.
This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
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