No. 7 WCHS travels over to Baxley to open 2024 campaign
Class 4A pre-season seventh-ranked Ware County will get tested opening night as the Gators travel Friday to Baxley to face Class 2A second-ranked Appling County.
Head coach Jason Strickland, who is entering his sixth campaign at the helm, is one win shy of his 150th career vie- tory as head coach entering his 17th
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Strickland went 27-18 at Lamar County (2008-11) over four seasons winning a region title. He was 55-14-1 at Fitzgerald (2012-2016) in five years with two region titles and back-to-back state runnerup finishes.
Strickland went 18-7 in two seasons at Pierce County (2017-18) winning a region crown before being named the Gators’ ball coach.
Friday’s meeting at Jimmy Swain Stadium on the Appling County campus will be the 36th between the two programs. Ware County leads the series 1916 after notching a 20-17 victory in the 2023 season opener inside Memorial Stadium.
The two schools competed in the same region from 1962-1977 (l-AA) and again from 1980-1993 (l-AAA, 2-AAA).
“We’re going into a hostile environment Friday night,” Strickland said. “We escaped last year after they (Pirates) beat us up and took the physicality to us. They are going to chomping at the bits getting us on their field.”
The Gators enter having held off Class 5A Brunswick High 28-17 hi a home scrimmage last Friday night.
“I was proud of our effort,” said Strickland. “We played hard in all three phases and the guys played hard for each other. There are 10,000 things we’ve got to work on, though.
“The biggest thing I noticed on our sideline was the players talking to each other. That was something we (coaches) noticed and talked about Sunday in our meetings. We didn’t have that last year.”
Strickland has high praise for the Appling County program, which fell in the second round of the state playoffs last season to Cook. That followed consecutive semifinal appearances in 2021 and
2022 for the Pirates under Jordan Mullis.
“Their quarterback (senior Dayson Griffis) is an exception player,” said Strickland. “He does so many things good and can hurt you in the pocket and out of the pocket. He can make all the throws and does a great job with the play-fake.”
Griffis, who was a verbal commit to the University of Tennessee, recently broke the committment to play baseball at the University of Georgia.
“For us, the big things is winning on first down,” Strickland said. “Their (Pirates) quick game (short passes) is really an extension of their run game. We’ve got to stop the running game.
“That will be decided by our tackling. Last week hurt us because of the weather ... you can’t tackle in the gym. We’ve also got to do a better job of playing with our hands. They (Pirates) do so much with their blocking scheme.”
The Gators lost the turnover battle against Brunswick throwing two interceptions and losing a fumble.
“We’ve got to protect the football,” said the veteran coach. “Appling’s defense does a great job of creating turnovers. Our offensive linemen have to communicate up front because their box (linemen, linebackers) are disruptive.
“Their defense is pretty simple, but they do a great job of getting to the ball and causing havoc. It’s like beating your head against a wall on every play. We’ll have to use motion and shifts to try and find openings to be able to move the ball.
WCHS vs. ACHS Gators lead 19-16
WCHS ACHS
1958 ..........25..............7
1959 ...........0..............14
1960...........6..............10
1961...........25 .............0
1962 ...........7..............13
1963 ..........35..............7
1964 ..........21..............7
1965 ..........32 .............0
1966 ..........13.............41
1967 ..........22 ............25
1970 ..........12..............7
1971...........22 .............2
1972 ...........0..............14
1973 ..........23.............14
1974 ...........8 .............38
1975 ..........24 ............22
1976 ...........6 ..............0
1977 ..........20 ............10
1978 ..........27.............14
1979...........14..............7
1980...........7..............32
1981...........14..............0
1982 ..........19.............14
1983 ..........13.............14
1984 ..........14..............0
1985 ...........0..............21
1986..........29 ............50
1987 ...........0..............41
1988...........7 .............28
1989..........29.............13
1990...........6 .............34
1991...........13.............33
1992 ...........6 .............33
1993 ..........33.............14
2022 ........¢ xx ...........xx
2023 .........20.............17 ¢ - Cancelled due to thunderstorm.
