South Harrison football hopes to win with physicality as team jumps to AA

LOST CREEK, W.Va. (WBOY) — A new season of high school football is ready to get underway at Gary Barnette Field, and the South Harrison Hawks are set to begin their 2024 campaign.

With the start of the season less than two weeks away, Head Coach Brett Hathaway is looking forward to seeing what his team will bring to the gridiron this season.

“We feel pretty good. Just wrapped up our first week. We have a lot of guys back from last year, only had a handful of seniors, but we’re still pretty young. We feel good about the experience they got last year. Feel like we can take another step this season,” Hathaway said.

When you have a young football team, you always turn to your upperclassmen to provide the leadership needed. And most of that leadership will be found in the trenches.

“I try to show them all the stuff I didn’t know as a younger feller,” Offensive lineman Lucas Given said. “Try to make their lives easier, try to make the season go a little smoother, so they wanna come back and continue this good program.”

With the reclassification to AA during the offseason, South Harrison will have a brand-new challenge on their hands this season. But as the old saying goes, practice makes perfect.

“I tell them that all the time. You usually play how you practice,” said Hathaway. “If we come out and have a good week of practice, that typically means you’re gonna do pretty well Friday night. So just consistency in the way you prepare makes a world of a difference.”

And while preparation is a key to success in any facet of life, physicality and football go hand in hand. But the Hawks will have plenty of physicality to offer this season.

“[Our physicality] is gonna help against some of these bigger schools,” Senior Joel Fankhauser said. “They got more kids that come out. I’m sure they got some bigger boys than we got too, but I think our physicality will be able to match anybody.

“We’re gonna have to find some more aggression,” added Given. “Once we get on a streak, we’re gonna have to get going with it. Gotta build momentum and just roll with it.”

The Hawks will begin the 2024 season on Aug. 30 at Braxton County.

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