KINGSLAND, Ga. – On Wednesday after school, it was a breezy high 50-degree day at Chris Gilman Stadium, the home of the Camden County football team. Head coach Jeff Herron was leading practice for their next opponent, the Walton Raiders.
This time of the year is special and Herron summed it up perfectly: “These semifinals don’t come around every year.”
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Camden County is one of four high school football teams in Class 7A that is still competing in the Georgia High School Association playoffs. It was not easy for the Wildcats (10-3) to get to the semifinals, but they are ready to travel to one of the best high school football teams in the nation.
“They got a great football team and they probably got the best football player in the state of Georgia playing quarterback for them,” Herron said. “They’re undefeated. They’re now the currently number one ranked team in the state, eighth in the country, so we know we got our hands full. This is our fourth straight trip up to Atlanta and we’ve been saying all year ‘we don’t have to go, we get to go.’ We’re excited about getting to go up there. Again, it’s a tall order, but we’re not going up there to lose. That’s our mentality.”
Camden County is making its eighth trip to the state semifinals, six of those campaigns have been with Herron. It has been some time since the Wildcats competed in the semifinals, their last trip was back in 2009. According to the Georgia High School Football Historians Association, this is the third time Camden County and Walton will play each other with each team winning one game in the series. Friday night, the Wildcats are hoping to add another win to their record and for a chance to advance to the state championship for the first time since 2009.
“I’m extremely proud of them because they’ve gotten better as the year’s gone on,” Herron said. “We were not a very good football team at the beginning of the year. A lot of people questioned us and everything else, but they just kept believing and kept working hard and we are playing our best right now, which is what you’re supposed to do.
“I’ve always felt like when you get to this point it’s a little bit easier quite honestly. The kids are more focused. They’ve improved during the year. It seems like everyone is playing better, whether it’s us or our opponents. Everybody is going to play, coach better. If you’re a competitor you like to be in these moments. So we’re excited about the opportunity.”
Walton will be a tough task. The Raiders are averaging 50.3 points per game. The offense is led by quarterback Jeremy Hecklinski who has an impressive stat line: 3,390 passing yards, 42 touchdowns and only one interception. Herron says a goal to the game is simple: keep Hecklinski on the sideline.
“Nobody has stopped them this year,” Herron said. “So our plan of attack is to try to slow them down some way. We’ll do some things defensively that maybe can slow them down and do somethings offensively to keep them standing on the sidelines. That’s our best defense against them.”
Herron favors old-school football and emphasizes his ground game attack. Running back Jaden Dailey leads the team with 1,267 rushing yards, though the Wildcats have four options to run the ball. In addition to Dailey, Jordan Hardy (733 rushing yards, 6 TDs), Jamarley Riddle (575 rushing yards, 8 TDs), and Antonio Laws (312 rushing yards, 10 TDs) each have multiple touchdowns and hundreds of yards this season.
“We believe in running the football and throwing when we want to, not when we have to and we’ve been very successful at that lately,” Herron said. “I’m sure Walton has a good plan and we’ll have to figure it out. We’ll try to do whatever we need to do to win the game. Whether that’s run or throw we’re going to try to do what we got to do. But we do like to run the football and we do have some great running backs.”
Camden County has a five-hour road trip north to Cobb County. The game plan is simple: win. But no matter the outcome, Herron is proud of his team for the success they’ve worked for this season.
“I think the most special thing about them is the longer we’ve played, the closer they’ve become, the more they believe, the more they’ve encouraged each other,” Herron said. “All the things that as a coach you preach to them all the time. It just took us a little bit longer to figure it out this year, but they’ve figured it out in time. They’ve been a really fun group to coach.”