Catawba Ridge football hoping last year’s experience pays dividends

Heading into the 2023 football season, Catawba Ridge was looking to build off a campaign where the Copperheads were a game away from an undefeated region championship and advanced to the third round of the playoffs.

It started off well, with Catawba Ridge beating in-town rival Fort Mill 35-14 in their season opener.

That was as good as it got for the Copperheads as they would go winless for the rest of the season, finishing at 1-9 and last in its region, never scoring .more than 21 points in a game the rest of the way.

It was a tough season that forced the program to learn some even tougher lessons.

“Anytime you only win one game, it’s not what you set your goals and your sights on,” head coach Zac Lendyak said. “But we had a lot of adversity last year; we had a bunch of injuries and just a couple of things that didn’t go our way. In the game of football, when those things add up and momentum is a legitimate thing, and it worked against us last year, and it felt like anything that could go wrong, did.”

Those injuries, 14 by the count of Lendyak, caused several key players to miss significant time for the Copperheads.

Senior linebacker Jackson Burger missed five games after a 100-tackle season in 2022; running back Ira Mister had 462 yards and four touchdowns on the ground before missing the final four games; junior defensive back Sheldon Crawford recorded a team-leading 11 tackles and an interception in the team’s season opener before suffering a season-ending injury.

On top of all that, Catawba Ridge was also dealing with a midseason quarterback battle between DJ Latimer and Andrew Turner.

The Copperheads rotated the two at the beginning of the season, with Latimer a returning dual-threat option and Turner a more traditional pocket passer transferring in after the shutdown of Legion Collegiate’s football program.

After the team’s third game of the year, Turner transferred to Hammond in Columbia, leaving the team with just Latimer and no proven backup.

Latimer finished the season with 894 yards and two touchdowns through the air with 673 yards and five touchdowns on the ground.

“That was tough last year, when you have a kid leave halfway through the season that was getting reps for you,” Lendyak said. “It kind of throws you for a loop. But we were very proud of what DJ did, and he gave us everything he had and put us in some situations to win some games.”

With all of the roster turnover last season, several players were forced into larger roles.

Freshman Que Webb led all Catawba Ridge wide receivers with 15 receptions and 225 receiving yards. Freshman Josh Dobson led the team with three interceptions, while sophomore Ian Babcock had two of his own.

Fourteen of the team’s 15 sacks last season came from non-seniors.

Lendyak hopes that with all the experience the younger players got, next year’s team will be moving ahead of schedule in its development.

“The big thing we want to work on in the offseason is create depth across the board so if we get into a situation like last year, we have guys ready to go when their number is called,” Lendyak said. “We’re very, very excited about our four receivers and (defensive backs). We’re very deep at those positions. We got a lot of guys coming back in those spots. We feel very confident there. We like what’s happening on the defensive side of the ball up front. Our defensive line is returning all the guys up there.”

Catawba Ridge will open the 2024 season at home against Chapin on August 23.