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These Three H’s Headed For a Playoff Run
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When we watch high school football as we do around the state, there are teams (mostly ranked in the GPB poll) that are expected to come out of the starter’s blocks firing. A certain number of wins, escalating as the season grows, and a small number to the right of the decimal place as they parade through the schedule put in front of them.
But that’s not always the case for some folks. We get surprises caused by various factors early in the season and we wonder about the future. Can these teams hold on? Can they revisit where they may have been in the past? It never hurts to see some of these stories early on and go full-on tracking mode.
And they’re all brought to us by the letter H.
Haralson County
Randy Crutchfield is in his third season at Haralson County in Tallapoosa. He took over from Scott Peavey’s second term and won once last year. They’re already off to their best start since 2020 when they started 6-0 before finishing 7-3. They have only given up three touchdowns as they get ready for a big game against Putnam County this week.
“It’s been great here in the community,” Crutchfield tells me. “Our fans have always shown up win, lose or tie. We’ve always traveled well but they are really buzzing right now. This is something, in my mind, that we’re capable of doing as a team.”
Crutchfield is quick to give a lot of credit to his coordinators in all three phases of play to be successful early on. But he also admits the philosophy at Haralson is to “out-physical and outlast” the opponent. He has players going both ways in game and conditioning is really important.
“They haven’t missed a beat so far this year,” Crutchfield admits, saying a roster of 53 has 17 to 21 players going both ways in a game. “We manage our practice during the week. It’s 2 1/2 on average. And, if we spend 30 minutes with special teams, that leaves 50 minutes on offense and defense.
“We try not to put too much on the kids and we may have to get a little creative on offense if we can’t get to everything. Our approach, though, helps us home in during practice. We’ll watch film after practice. As a matter of fact, the offense just watched about 35 minutes of film for this week. There are a lot of mental reps.”
Crutchfield knows Putnam will be the toughest opponent they’ve faced to date. They have seen a lot of film and are really diverse in presentation. “It’ll be a challenge for us. We have to prepare for everything. Our question is: ‘What kind of team do they want to be?’ We’ll adjust to that and it’ll be a tough test in the trenches.”
Hawkinsville
Tim Suttles has Hawkinsville off to their best start in over a decade at 3-0. Knocking off three fellow Class A-D2 teams in Marion, Schley, and Lanier has them in their bye week- still unranked in some polls but ranked No. 10 by GPB. The Red Devils have improved their win-loss record every season since Suttles has been in charge.
“They’re hungry to be successful again,” Suttles admits as he was walking off the practice field. “There have been some really successful years here and six state titles in our history. And they’re itching to get back to that.”
Suttles says their defense has been the “bend, don’t break” variety so far.
“The Lanier County game, we had three fourth-down stops and a blocked kick. Schley scored on their first three possessions, but we get seven straight stops. Our offense has been balanced with a bunch of different people being active. Last week, we had nine ball carriers and four receivers catching passes.
“The week before against Schley County, we had 23 different tacklers on defense and special teams. We had 57 players get on the field versus Lanier. So, basically, everyone that dressed got the chance to play -- and 23 of them got tackles.”
With Labor Day being Monday, it presented a choice for teams heading into their bye week. How do you handle it? Suttles tells me that a few of his players wanted to have practice, but they were in a minority. He gave everyone the day off and backed practice up a day. From his view, the team had been playing for five straight weeks.
“We have six players starting both ways and we rotate 42 players on offense and defense,” Suttle says. “We actually have 63 on the roster this year. We went from 41 to 53 to 63 this year and we had a large freshman class.”
I also asked Coach about his two-way players -- six in number -- and how the staff handles the teaching week to week.
“We’re fortunate that those six have been here for three years, so they know what we’re looking for on both sides of the ball and in the playbook,” he said. They do have one day of offensive emphasis, spending three-quarters of the time on that before the rundown flip-flops and they’ll do it as they prep for Rutland next Friday night in middle Georgia.
Lincoln County
Our third visit is Lincolnton and Lincoln County under head coach Lee Chomskis ...
I know what you’re asking ... you gave us Haralson and Hawkinsville, where is the third H? Well, it’s in the coach’s last name. Pronounced like the “C” is silent -- “Homs-kiss.”
Lee’s win last week was his 150th in his career as the second batch of Red Devils in this column are top-ranked in Class A-Division II. My dear friend John Koon gave me the heads-up on the milestone -- complete with a plaque to celebrate the occasion.
“I didn’t know that was going to be a part of the win. My son sabotaged his dad on that one. He called the Principal and the AD and they presented me with it,” he said.
Will Chomskis is in his first year coaching football at South Effingham and sent word north for it. Lincoln County had a forfeit win against Augusta Christian, plus wins over Jenkins County and McCormick (S.C.) and have only surrendered six points all season.
“We’re a very veteran team,” Lee says. “This senior class were freshmen when they played Bowdon in the semifinals a few years ago. We also have a talented junior class behind the seniors. We’ve got a good front five on offense and we’re deep at running back. As a matter of fact, two of them were on the 4x100 relay team that was a finalist at state.”
Chomskis admits Lincoln County has a good core, a three-year starter at QB, and a defense where almost everyone returns (eight of the starting 11). He also tells me they have a lot of room to improve. As another top-ranked team in Class A-D2, they have players that go both ways and, in Lincolnton, it comes down to the structure where every player is taught about both sides of the ball.
You get fundamental groups early in the week with priority coaches looking at starters with assistants teaching the younger players. Both sides of the ball are learned each day.
“There is a lot of learning,” Chomskis admits. “A wingback might have to learn about being a linebacker as well as picking up keys, reads and calls. It’s about repetition, repetition, repetition.”
One of the things that sticks out for you is the Lincoln County schedule. With their place in Region 8A, it’s a four-game region schedule. That means you have to schedule six non-region games -- half this year are from South Carolina to fill out a schedule.
Is it tough to fill out a grid?
“We live near Augusta, so you’d like to try scheduling teams near us. But if you want to play someone like a Harlem, that region has only two non-region spaces. Evans and Greenbrier are 5A schools, but with their region schedule they don’t have any space, either. So, having to go to South Carolina was where we went.”
With the history there and a name like Larry Campbell as your coaching legend, a bigger school is really in a no-win situation. They could play you, sure. But if they win, they were supposed to and, if they lose, they’ll never hear the end of it.
“It’s the reputation of a good team,” Chomskis says prepping for Elbert County next Friday night. With the roster being the size it is, Lincoln County practiced in the morning early in the week and will get Thursday and Friday off with a JV game Thursday that would have taken a lot of your scout team for practice away from you if you opted to work out.
“It’s a long season and they’ve been going at it, really, since June. We figured we’d shake things up a bit.”
And for the three “H’s” this week -- Haralson, Hawkinsville, and (C)homskis, the towns that are watching early on have a lot to talk about at the table. And that’s the fun part of this around the state.
Play it safe, everyone... I’ll talk to you soon!
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