19th Street August 2021

Southmoore is looking to take the next step forward under second year head coach Josh Norman as they hope to improve on last year’s 3-8 record and advance into the second round of post-season play.

The Sabercats will open the season with Noah Peters (Sr, 5’11”, 165) as starting quarterback. Norman has been impressed with the growth of his dual threat leader during the off-season and is expecting big things from his senior signal caller who threw for 1,182 yards and eight touchdowns last year and had another 378 yards rushing.

“He can make a lot of plays with his feet and throws the ball very well,” Norman said.

In the backfield, the Sabercats will look to Markus Means (Jr) who saw the ball quite a bit last year as a sophomore rushing for 338 yards on 64 carries. Joining Means will be Caden Durham (So, 5’7”, 175) who finished the season starting in the backfield during last year’s playoffs. Durham showed he has the speed for the position as he also ran one of the legs of the State Champion 4x100 relay team.

“We’re looking at being a young team this year,” Norman said. “That means more opportunities for a good number of young guys to get a lot of snaps. We’re excited about coaching these guys and going after our goals.”

Norman is also excited about receiver Bryce Rusche, (Sr, 5’7”, 160) a move-in who is expected to make an impact on the offensive side of the football.

Joshua Clay (Sr, 5’11”, 250) returns as the starting center for the Sabercats for a third consecutive year and the coaches will be looking for Clay to continue to be one of the team leaders.

Guard Jonquill Rogers (Sr, 6’, 250) is a great physical talent who had a really good spring and team camp during the pre-season. Norman said the Sabercats are looking forward to Rogers being the most dominant offensive lineman the Cats have.

Norman feels the Sabercats defensive line may be the deepest and best unit on this year’s team.

“We’ll have a good mix of sophomores, juniors and seniors,” he said. “Triston Dartez is a member of the Sabercat wrestling squad and played on the team two years ago and is ready to go after sitting out his sophomore year.”

Defensive end Riley Hoffman (Sr, 6’, 240) will be the leader on defense again this year, according to Norman.

“He was very instrumental in what we did last year on defense and we’ll look at him at defensive end and also some linebacker too,” said Williams. “He’s just a versatile kid who can play a lot of different positions.”

Javion Council (So, 6’1”, 260) is also going to be counted on as a big contributor.

“He’s a special talent, athletic and moves extremely well,” Norman said. “Once he truly gets the technique of the position down, he’s going to be a really, really special player for us.”

At the linebacker position, Norman said they’re still trying to find the right fit for a number of different candidates battling for the position and he feels confident that he’ll have developed several players by the time the regular season rolls around.

In the secondary, the Sabercats are led by Trenton Wetsiline (Jr, 6’1”, 152) who started as a sophomore last year and played extremely well this spring.

Kyus Henry (So, 6’, 155) looks like another key piece in the secondary. Norman said he is another guy that they’re expecting to be a special player. Skyler Mayer (So, 5’11”, 155) will start at safety.

“We’re going to be young but we’ve got a lot of talent at those positions in the secondary,” Norman said.

Norman had one word for what the key to improvement will be for his young squad this year. He said that is consistency.

“Our biggest problem early on will be consistency,” said Norman. “We have the effort. We have the buy-in. We just have to be able to do it consistently, consistently execute the details and the fundamentals and the technique of everything they’re being coached.”

The Sabercats host Booker T. Washington to open the season and then play at Deer Creek and Westmoore before opening district play against the Moore Lions. –19SM

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