5 minute read
Warriors
from Gridiron 2021
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders
“Lander quarterback Chase Shell (3) scampers away from the pressure being applied by Happy Valley’s Landon Babb (32) during a last season game. Warriors #3 Andrew Little gets into the open field for big yardage against the Cosby defense last season.
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Warriors fighting to be atop the heap at season’s end
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
Facing adversity even before the season began, the Happy Valley Warriors had to play a game of catch-up but that doesn’t mean that anything has changed on Warrior Hill from a competitive standpoint as head coach Jason Jarrett and his coaching staff continue to work on how to replace some important cogs from last year’s team including starting quarterback Eli Ayers and running back Matthew Bahn.
“Our goal and expectations are to try and compete for a conference championship and I think that is every coach’s goal at the beginning of the year however we do have a lot of new faces in a lot of new places without tons of experience,” said Jarrett about this year’s team.
“Right now, we are trying to take it in a day-by-day mentality which I know is cliche football talk but it’s a reality now at Happy Valley. Our goal is to be ultimately better at the end of the year than what we are at the beginning and it’s a day by day mentality but at the same time we are going to try and put our best foot forward and we are going to competing and hopefully be in the mix once again for a conference championship.”
Jarrett agreed that replacing skill is a tough thing to do but in the Warrior camp he feels that utilizing a number of players could play out to be a positive for the 2021 Warrior squad.
“With the skill guys that graduated last year, it’s going to be tough to replace those, especially by one individual,” Jarrett added. “We are going to have to by committee and right now from the quarterback position, we have a three-way competition for it right now, and up until we had to take a break we had done really equal reps in the seven-on-seven as well as in the one scrimmage that we had.
“For the running back slot, we have a few guys that are going to be able to carry the ball. Andrew Little, Spencer Hall, Ensor, and Pedro Colunga. We feel that we have some guys that can pick up the slack from where Matthew graduated last year.” Heading into a new campaign, many times a coach knows what the identity of his team will be for the season. However, Jarrett said that hasn’t been the case for his Warrior team in the 2021 season. “I am still trying to find the identity of the football team at this point,” shared Jarrett. “Honestly, we have to play great football in all three phases of the game. Offensively, I don’t know if we are going to be a home run team as far as breaking off the 50, 60, and 70-yard gains. However, at the same time, we have to have the mentality to move the chains. File Photo “Defensively, we are kind of built on applying presHappy Valley head sure,” continued Jarrett. “We are going to try to come coach Jason Jarrett from a lot of different places and really be extremely aggressive on that side of the ball. On the flip side of that, if everyone doesn’t do what they are supposed to do you are susceptible to a big play.” Jarrett echoed the sentiments of many coaches throughout the area as the new realignment has made it difficult for the Warriors to find competition who might be on the same level as the Warriors. “There are no weeks off for our football team this season,” added Jarrett. “There are no guaranteed wins. We are going to have to bring it each and every week and that is something that we are trying to get our kids to understand - that we can’t be content with anything that we have accomplished in the past because it’s a whole new year and a whole new football team and we have to bring that mentality. “If you are going to be a champion, you have to play great football in all three phases of the game.”
16
August 20 Open 27 CHUCKEY DOAK
September 3 at South Greene* 10 UNICOI 17 HAMPTON* 24 at Unaka
October 1 CUMBERLAND GAP* (HOMECOMING) 8 JOHNSON COUNTY (SR NIGHT) 15 at Cloudland 22 at Pigeon Forge 29 Open
ALL CAPS denotes home games. * denotes region games.
2021 Happy Valley Football Roster
Name Blake Garmon Antonio Martin Andrew Little Carson Sells Jamie Esterline Cade Kendall Spencer Hall Jason Thomas Drew Blevins Dawson Young Reagan Ensor Reece Sauer Pedro Colunga Landon Babb Gabe Hamby Greg Visser Cayden Campbell Bronson Norman Joseph Sowards Maliek Clark Malachi Clark Alex Caldwell Hayden Lee Ethan Townsend Mason Hicks Matthew Savage Kylar Collins Cameron Cochran Zach Hicks Gavin Way Hayden Walls Colton Bailey Zach Stansell Jayden Walls Ben Stansell
Position QB/DB WR/DB WR/OLB/DB WR/DB RB/WR/OLB WR/DB RB/WR/OLB WR/DB QB/DB WR/DB QB/OLB TE/DE RB/OLB TE/DE/ILB FB/ILB FB/ILB FB/ILB FB/ILB OL/DE OL/DL OL/DL OL/ILB OL/DL OL/DL OL/DL OL/DL TE/DE OL/DL OL/ILB OL/DL OL/DL OL/DL OL/DL OL/DL OL/DL
