Waccamaw football looking to rely on senior leadership for 2022 campaign

PAWLEYS ISLAND — Amondre Johnson is entering his third season as the head football coach at Waccamaw High School and will have a relatively young group this year.

The Warriors will have five returners on offense and six on defense in 2022.

‘We’ll be young at a lot of skill positions this year,” Johnson said. “We’re going to rely on our core leadership group, our seniors, this year. (They) have been outstanding. This group of seniors is the same kids when I first started at Waccamaw (as an assistant coach). They’ve been with me since eighth grade.”

Key players the team will rely on this season include senior quarterback Jaret Yonker, senior offensive/defensive lineman Jackson Mattox, senior linebacker Antonio Robinson and junior linebacker Miles Robinson (no relation), and senior defensive back William Cooper.

The Warriors will need senior leadership to navigate a tough schedule, including a Region 7-AAA slate that has 2021 lower state runner-up Dillon, Loris and Aynor, all playoff teams from last year. Waccamaw reached the AAA state playoffs last year but fell to No. 1 seed Brookland-Cayce, 33-0, in the first round.

“Our region consists of a bunch of teams who are all good, well-coached and always going to be a challenge,” Johnson said.

Waccamaw was originally scheduled to play at St. James for both teams’ season opener on Aug. 19, but the Sharks’ new turf wasn’t ready in time, so the game was played at Waccamaw instead. The game was also pushed back a day to Aug. 20 due to weather.

However, the location change didn’t seem to matter to the Sharks, as they took care of the Warriors, 38-6. On the bright side for Waccamaw, at least it got to debut its new turf.

Waccamaw Football 2022 Schedule

Aug. 20 – vs. St. James — L, 38-6

Aug. 26 – at Carvers Bay, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 2 – vs. Eugene Ashley, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 9 – vs. Johnsonville, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 16 – vs. Andrews, 7:30 p.m.

Sept. 23 – Bye Week

Sept. 30 – at Georgetown*, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 7 – vs. Loris*, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 14 – at Aynor*, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 21 – vs. Dillon*, 7:30 p.m.

Oct. 28 – at Manning*, 7:30 p.m.

*Region game