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West Carroll
Thunder thrilled to be back for 2022
By TY REYNOLDS
treynolds@shawmedia.com
The West Carroll football players are counting down the days until their Week 2 game on Sept. 2 against Fulton.
After a shortened 2021 spring season and a 2021 fall season spent playing JV games, the Thunder are poised to play varsity football for the first time in three years. And with that comes the team’s first home game since Week 7 of the 2019 season, on Oct. 11, 2019 – a 22-0 win over Milledgeville that made them playoffeligible at 5-2.
“We’re very excited. This is the first season to be hosting a home football game for a varsity team in three years for us,” coach Teo Clark said. “My first year in the spring of COVID, we couldn’t play on our field because of three feet of snow that melted on the field.”
It will also be the first full varsity season for Clark as head coach, since he was hired before the COVID year. He came to the area from northern Mississippi, and has coached just three varsity games in his first two seasons.
Last year, a lack of upperclassmen playing football forced West Carroll to play a JV schedule with a team full of sophomores and freshmen. Despite playing against opponents their own age, it was a step down for the sophomores, who had played roles on the varsity team during the delayed and shortened COVID season in the spring.
“When a lot of these juniors – our main contributors – were freshmen, they had opportunities to play in that spring, so to ask them to go down and play fresh-soph last year wasn’t an easy decision, by any means,” Clark said. “But we’re excited to be back this season. And not just the players, but the community really wants this and really needs this. Everybody I talk to, they ask me ‘Are we going to have a team this year?’ I think everybody around here is excited.”
Junior co-captain AJ Boardman said is was tough not playing varsity football last year after taking some lumps as a freshman starting linebacker in the spring of 2021, but he also realizes that it was a good opportunity for the team to gel and learn against more evenly matched competition.
“Getting some reps as a team down at our own age level again was really nice. We could work as a team, understand that we weren’t going to get pushed around as much as we would have if we were playing varsity,” he said. “We were at our own level and doing the things we needed to do, learning the system and how we needed to play the game. It really was a bounce-back year to understand the new offense with Clark, let him set his tone here, as well as the new coaching staff.”
Boardman will start at quarterback for the Thunder, and both QB and coach are confident in the receivers and running backs. They also believe the line will grow together and mesh well as the season goes on.
“We’re excited to be able to pass and run. I think we’ll be able to attack with everything,” Boardman said.
No matter what happens as the Thunder try to find their footing again, the players understand and appreciate what it means to be back at the varsity ranks, and it’s not something they take for granted.
And they’re ready to embrace whatever 2022 has in store for them.
“We’re a lot more excited to come into this year, be back on varsity and keep going forward as a team,” junior co-captain Laith Al-Saidi said. “I feel like being able to play Friday nights under the lights, and having a lot more players, we have a lot more we can do for the season and give our fans a good show.”
Ty Reynolds – treynolds@shawmedia.com West Carroll coach Teo Clark (right) watches his players during a blocking drill at a recent practice in Savanna.
Roster
No. Name Ht. Wt. Yr. Pos.
1 Aden Wiest 5-10 295 So. RB/DL 3 Wilson Bressler 5-9 140 So. QB 4 Kaiden McCutcheon 5-8 140 Fr. WR/DB 5 AJ Boardman 5-10 174 Jr. QB/LB 6 Aaron Becker 6-0 141 Jr. WR/DB 7 Austin Lahre 6-2 146 Jr. TE/DE 8 Raef Pickard-Schintgen 5-10 147 So. WR/DB 11 Angel Garcia-Magana 5-8 150 So. WR/DB 12 Roger LaBorn 5-11 146 Fr. QB/DB 22 Tyler McGinnis 5-7 153 So. RB/DB 24 Conner Townsend 5-6 139 So. RB/DB 29 Noah Rannow 5-6 140 So. RB/DB 30 Brock Ballard 5-4 130 Fr. RB/DB 33 RJ Clemens 5-7 140 So. OL/DL 44 Austin Behrens 6-1 175 So. TE/DE 51 James Longnecker 5-9 250 Sr. OL/DL 53 Logan Thulen 5-9 212 So. OL/DL 54 Maison Rihtar 6-0 180 Sr. OL/LB 56 Laith Al-Saidi 5-6 155 Jr. OL/DL 65 Dalton Duggan 5-10 222 So. OL/DL 67 Adair Pempilton 6-3 263 So. OL/DL 69 Killian Harrington 5-9 190 Jr. K/LB 72 Kole Harlock 6-4 215 Sr. DL 74 Ignacio Barragan 6-0 181 Jr. OL/LB 77 Durlin Richardson 6-3 263 Jr. OL/DL 81 Rayce Mix 5-4 119 Fr. LS/LB 88 Dallas Bunn 5-11 214 Jr. TE/DE
Corry Griffith 5-8 160 Fr. OL/DL
Winter Harrington 5-9 138 Fr. WR/DB
Angel Lopez Orozco 5-9 155 Fr. OL/DE
Christian Mitchell 5-6 145 Fr. OL/LB
Daniel Mitchell 5-5 140 Fr. OL/LB
Killyen Patrick 6-3 175 Fr. TE/DE
Bryar Sipe 5-5 168 Fr. OL/DL
Schedule
Game time Opponent
Fri., Aug. 26, 7 at Durand-Pecatonica Fri., Sept. 2, 7 Fulton Sat., Sept. 10, 1 Abingdon-Avon Fri., Sept. 16, 7 Lena-Winslow Sat., Sept. 24, 1 at Stockton Fri., Sept. 30, 7 Forreston Fri, Oct. 7, 7 at Eastland-Pearl City Fri., Oct. 14, 7 Dakota Fri., Oct. 21, 7 at Galena
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