Strong must find a way to replace senior standouts

In their first season of playing eight-man football, Strong's defense was rather stingy, posting two shutouts and opponents scored 20 or more points on just three occasions prior to their epic 66-60 win in double overtime over Mountain Pine in the 2A 8-Man state championship game.

But the Bulldogs will have to find a way to replace several key contributors who graduated.

On the line, Jayme Correa had 131 tackles, including 20 1/2 for a loss, but the Bulldogs have a sophomore who quickly grew into an impact player at the end of last year.

Ja'Kiem Woods, a sophomore who had 49 tackles with a whopping 15 for a loss and two sacks in just five games, is at defensive end with senior Devin Osgood and freshman DanQuez Crayton at defensive tackle.

“These two guys are our horses up front,” Strong coach Jason Porter said. “They both have great size and I'm looking for them to control the line for us.”

Byron Maze turned in a spectacular senior season at outside linebacker, registering 142 tackles with 32 1/2 for a loss and 11 1/2 sacks.

He forced 12 fumbles, returned one for a touchdown and returned an interception for a touchdown.

With Maze gone, the Bulldogs are working juniors Amari McHenry and Cedrick Brown at outside linebacker and sophomore Jamarion Mitchell and senior Quincy Shelton at middle linebacker.

“We will see most of the skill guys rotating through the linebacker group,” Porter said. “Eight-man is different from 11-man as far as formations, so you have to have a lot of flexibility in this group.”

The secondary is not only experienced, it has plenty of depth.

Senior Kanye Hawkins, sophomore Kaiden McHenry, Brown, junior Treyvon Andrews, Amari McHenry and senior Shundarius Shelton are all working at cornerback.

Shelton, who racked up 103 1/2 tackles with 8 1/2 for a loss and 1 1/2 sacks from his free safety spot as a junior in 2021, is back to help anchor the secondary when he's not helping at linebacker.

Shelton also had five interceptions, returning one for a touchdown along with six pass breakups and three fumble recoveries.

Sophomore Germyren

McHenry and Shundarius Shelton are competing for playing time at strong safety.

“We have a fairly experienced secondary,” Porter said. “We will be shuffling a lot of guys in this group as well. Quincy sort of played center field for us last year, so he will help with the back end.” For the Bulldogs to match the success they had last year, Porter said tackling would be a key. “We have to tackle well,” Porter said. “In eight-man, if one tackle is missed, it usually results in a big play or a touchdown. The limited number of players out there just puts pressure on tackling, so we have to be good at that.”

The Bulldogs also came up with big plays on special teams last year with Maze blocking a punt that resulted in a touchdown and Treveon Daniels scoring twice on kick returns.

This year, Quincy Shelton will handle the punting chores, as well as punt and kick returns along with Kaiden McHenry and Germyren McHenry. Woods will be doing kickoffs.

“We see a lot of onside kicks in eight-man, so we will be working heavily on that aspect in the preseason,” Porter said. “We mainly do squib kicks and out-of-bounds kicks on our kickoffs to prevent big returns.”