By Gary Corsair
Sports Writer
Where you start isn’t important; it’s how you finish that counts.
Hayesville fans do well to embrace that truth as the Yellow Jackets turn the other cheek Friday night after being slapped 35-7 by Tennessee powerhouse South Pittsburg in a preseason exhibition game last week.
The practice game at Chattanooga’s Finley Stadium mismatched Hayesville against a team that’s tallied 60 Ws in the last five years and won seven of the 14 state championship games they played in.
“We got it handed to us pretty good. They really just dominated us. They have a really good team,” said Hayesville Head Coach Chad McClure, who accepted the invitation to the prestigious annual Prelude to a Championship and Jamboree not to win, but to learn.
And South Pitt did plenty of teaching.
“It was good because they have a lot of speed and that’s what we’re going to see again this week. It was good for us because we saw some things we need to adjust. We’re looking at some things we may do differently.”
At the top of the list is getting off to a good start. That didn’t happen in Chattanooga.
“The environment got to us and we came out really tight and nervous,” McClure said. “We settled down and did some good things. We had some good runs but we weren’t consistent.”
One of the best things was a long touchdown pass from Lance Coker to Ben Bethel.
Hayesville’s season-opener at Asheville School Friday night could be another bouncy ride.
Plenty of key players return from a Blues team that lost last year’s North Carolina Independent High Schools Division II title game by one point in overtime after winning championships in 2022 and ’23.
Asheville School manhandled the Yellow Jackets, 49-7, a year ago on the way to a 7-2 win/loss record.
The Asheville roster is once again loaded with speedsters and behemoths — 19 Blues players weigh more than 200 pounds and two strain the scales at 300 pounds plus.
The top returning offensive threat is Marvyn Larozar, who gained 401 yards rushing last year with a gaudy 7.6 yards per carry average.
Hayesville also returns impressive firepower. Tre Graves has a legitimate shot at eclipsing 3,000 career rushing yards. Graves collected 1,088 yards last year to raise his career total to 1,931 and the All-SMC running back scored 11 touchdowns, of the team’s 19, for the second consecutive season.
All-Conference trenchman Will Brown, 60 tackles in 2024, anchors a line that’s big and experienced. Rayland Martinez and E.J. Mapasua are other “big” reasons Hayesville should be able to move the ball.
There’s also experience at quarterback. Coker threw 59 passes and carried 26 times a year ago as a sophomore and Peyton McGaha had some big moments at Towns County despite a bum knee that’s since been surgically repaired.
Bethel gives Hayesville’s quarterbacks an experienced, reliable target.
For once, Hayesville’s roster is deep and there’s decent size. The Black-and-Gold will win games. They may even challenge for the Smoky Mountain Conference title.
Expect the Yellow Jackets to surprise some teams this year, but don’t expect the list to include Asheville School.