South Forsyth

Jacob Smith Forsyth County News South Forsyth defensive end Ben Harvey, left, hopes to terrorize opposing quarterbacks, while offensive lineman Mason Cooper plans to keep his quarterback upright.

South Forsyth reloads on offense, led by quarterback Ty Watkins

By David Roberts

droberts@forsythnews.com

The keys to the South Forsyth offense belong to Ty Watkins.

For first-year head coach Troy Morris, there aren’t many more deserving than Watkins, the War Eagles’ 6-foot-2, 215pound junior.

“I’ll tell you what, Ty has impressed me ever since he stepped on our campus,” Morris said. “He is the ultimate leader. He really is. I’ve coached for a lot of years now and I’ve never coached a kid that’s hungrier to be successful and to be good. Just how he goes about his business, how intent he is; every single day he’s getting better. He’ll stare a hole through me when I’m coaching him, just because he wants to soak it up so much. I get texts from him after practice, you know, ‘Coach, how did it go today? Give me more information.’ He’s just a hungry kid.”

Watkins completed 12 of 18 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns playing behind Kyle Durham, who since transferred to Johns Creek.

The War Eagles must also replace their two leading rushers from last season [Durham and Tre Green], as well as their top two receivers [Mitch Thompson, Devin McGlockton].

South does return senior Gavin Morris, who Troy Morris expects to be even more involved in the offense than last season, when he caught 26 passes for 488 yards and six touchdowns and rushed for 129 yards and three touchdowns.

“We’ll still use him on both sides of the ball,” he said. “Offensively, he’s probably going to get more reps than he has in the past. Then, defensively, we actually moved him out of the position he was in last two years and moved him back to safety. We’ll see how he does back there.”

However, Morris will need more than one player to step up to replace Thompson and McGlockton, who combined for more than 1,600 yards and 20 touchdowns.

Senior Mason Capers is one candidate to help fill the void after moving to tight end during the offseason.

Capers, 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, already has offers from Charleston Southern and Davidson.

“We’ve asked Mason to move to the tight end spot for a lot of different reasons. He’s excited about it,” Morris said. “He’s actually put on weight to play that spot.”

As for production out of the wide receiver position, South has plenty of speed between

See SOUTH | 26

Aug. 20 – South Forsyth at Roswell Aug. 27 – Cambridge at South Forsyth Sept. 3 – Dawson County at South Forsyth Sept. 10 – South Forsyth at Central Gwinnett *Sept. 16 – South Forsyth at Lambert Sept. 23 – BYE Oct. 1 – BYE *Oct. 8 – West Forsyth at South Forsyth *Oct. 15 – South Forsyth at Gainesville *Oct. 22 – Denmark at South Forsyth *Oct. 29 – North Forsyth at South Forsyth *Nov. 5 – South Forsyth at Forsyth Central

*Region 6-7A game

2020 results

5-4 Overall, 2-3 Region 6-7A

South Forsyth 63, Dawson County 49 South Forsyth 52, Central Gwinnett 27 *South Forsyth 44, Lambert 14 South Forsyth 30, Alcovy 10 *West Forsyth 41, South Forsyth 34 (2OT) *Gainesville 28, South Forsyth 14 *Denmark 36, South Forsyth 22 *South Forsyth 52, North Forsyth 7 **Norcross 47, South Forsyth 20

*Region 6-7A game **GHSA playoff game

trophy case

First varsity season: 1991 Playoff appearances: 16 (1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2010, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020) Region titles: 1 (1997) State titles: 0

the coach Troy Morris

At South: 0-0, first season Overall: 0-0, first season

No. Name

Year Position

1 Jyi’Qez Green 12 RB/DB 2 Blaylen Lomax 12 RB/DB 3 Ian Diaz 12 FB/LB 4 Austin Uidel 12 WR/DB 5 Evan Bridges 12 WR/DB 6 Josh Nelson 11 WR/DB 7 Clay Walsh 12 QB/DB 8 Gavin Morris 12 RB/LB 9 Chris Nelson 11 QB/DB 10 Mason Capers 12 WR/DB 11 Ty Watkins 11 QB 12 Elijah Pritchard 11 QB/DB 13 Colton Postema 11 WR/DB 14 Conner Futch 11 FB/LB 15 Cade Aycock 10 QB 16 Tighe McGilvery 12 WR/DB 17 Josh Pehrson 12 WR/DB 18 Alex Urias 11 WR/LB 19 James Margiotta 11 WR/DB 20 Zach Hobson 12 WR/DB 21 Clark Stephens 11 WR/DB 22 Cal Jacchia 12 TE/LB 23 Zach Romeo 12 WR/DB 24 Brady Lynn 11 WR/DB 25 Matthew Daise 12 FB/LB 26 Andrew Meersman 11 TE/LB 27 Jacob Smith 11 TE/LB 28 Maverick Schippman 10 FB/LB 29 Ronald Oquendo 11 WR/DB 30 Dylan Reid 11 TE/LB 31 Zach Clark 11 WR/LB 32 Kaiyan Fernandes 10 WR/DB 33 Jake Stine 11 RB/LB 34 Jonathan Haas 12 WR/LB 35 Bayler Duncan 10 FB/LB 36 Cade Jacchia 10 WR/LB 37 Hayden Mock 11 TE/LB 38 Drew McPhail 11 WR/DB 39 Braden Belue 10 RB/LB 40 Christian Wehman 11 RB/LB 41 Cole Yeager 10 RB/DB 42 Cole Williams 11 FB/LB 43 Londyn Lomax 10 RB/DB 44 Cade Yeager 12 FB/LB 47 Eli Weems 11 WR/DB 48 Luke Nelson 10 RB/DB 49 CJ Kemper 10 TE/DL 50 Chris Brown 10 OL/DL 51 Ryan McClary 12 OL/DL 52 Kristian Dawson 11 OL/DL 53 Mason Cooper 12 OL/DL 54 Luke Sears 12 OL/DL 55 Ian O’Dowd 12 OL/DL 56 Brennan Hudson 12 OL/DL 57 Cooper Lowe 10 OL/DL 58 Luke Latham 10 OL/DL 59 Peter White 11 OL/DL 60 Sawyer Aragon 10 OL/DL 61 Sam Leachman 10 OL/DL 62 James Watson 12 OL/DL 64 Bay Robinson 11 OL/DL 66 Nathan Efobi 11 OL/DL 67 Aiden Bischoff 10 OL/DL 68 Turner Healy 11 OL/DL 71 Jack Sullivan 12 OL/DL 73 Ben Blanton 10 LS/OL/DL 74 Nathaniel Tew 12 OL/DL 75 Josh Felton 11 OL/DL 77 Brady Fogarty 11 OL/DL 79 Josh Emerson 11 OL/DL 80 Brock Ferrell 11 WR/DB 81 Tyler Lang 11 TE/DL 82 Justin Tyre 12 TE/DE 83 Avery Schalon 10 WR/DB 84 Zane Jenkins 11 WR/LB 85 Kevin Steiger 10 WR/DB 86 Ryan Huynh 10 WR/DB 87 Jack Cahill 10 TE/LB 88 Ben Harvey 12 TE/DE 89 Owen Ressman 11 WR/DB 90 Graham McKee 10 TE/DL 91 Tyler Simpson 11 K 92 Aidan Parkman 10 WR/LB 93 Davis Little 10 K 94 Brandon Lancaster 10 TE/DL 95 Mikey Meersman 10 WR/DB 96 Madox Pearson 10 K 98 Jackson Netzel 10 WR/DB 99 Justin McElvey 10 WR/DB