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 Region Title on Line: Unbeaten Rebels Host Gilbert - Senior Night By Tim Crane web posted October 20, 2011 SPORTS – Strom Thurmond will put their unblemished 8-0 record on the line Friday night when the 3-5 Gilbert Indians come to Johnston. A win would give Thurmond its 7th region title in the previous eight seasons but more importantly the Rebels would earn a first round bye in the playoffs. Under the new system in 2A, all region champs get a first round bye this season. Gilbert started the year slow, opening 0-3, but they’ve turned things around winning three of the last five games. Seems the Indians come to play when facing the Rebels; in 2008 they scored more points on Thurmond (28) than any other team and in 2009 with a 5-5 record they played a strong Thurmond team within two touchdowns 21-7. “We had a huge lead in 2008 they came roaring back. They recovered an onside kick, then we put the starters back in and they scored on them too. For whatever reason it’s been hard to put them away over the years.” Lee Sawyer. The Rebels haven’t been challenged much this year and the starters have been playing only the first half of most games. Of the first eight games, the Rebel’s average margin of victory has been 33 points. With the post season nearing, the starters will need some additional quality snaps over the next few games to keep in shape and avoid ring rust. “I’ve been thinking about the time my starters have gotten to play this year and they haven’t played much in the 3rd and 4th quarters of many games. They need to get some quality time in the next few games, possibly playing into the third and fourth quarters if need be. I’m not saying we are going to try to run the score up if we have a big lead, but we have to keep our legs under us going into the playoffs.” Lee Sawyer on the limited amount of time the starters have played in the second half this season. Since Sawyer took over in 2004 his record in region games is an extraordinary 36-2 with six region championships. He has the best region win percentage in Thurmond football history (.947). If Strom Thurmond gets a victory Friday, Lee Sawyer will be tied with former Rebel head coach Keith McAlister for tops all time on the Region Title list. “That would really be something special. I attribute a lot of my career to Keith McAlister. I was a young man that didn’t know a lot back in 1986, when he gave me my first chance at coaching varsity football. At that time I was the head middle school coach at Batesburg Leesville. I grew up in Saluda, so I knew a lot about Coach Mac. I played a lot of softball back then and one of my buddies on the softball team told Coach Mac about me and then Mac gave me a call. I went to talk to him about the job one day after school and had to meet him at W.E. Parker because he was filling in for someone over there. I thought I would just talk to him and that would be it for the day. I showed up in khakis and a golf shirt then after we finished talking, he said we were going to talk with the Superintendent. I said, I’m not dressed to go meet the Superintendent and Coach Mac said “Son it don’t matter what you’re wearing, if I tell him to hire you, he will!” John Peachtrie, Robert Maddox, Dusty Triplett and I, all worked together under coach McAlister at Thurmond. {Peachtrie, Maddox and me got back together at Swansea in the early 90’s and had a good run}. Triplet was going to Aiken, so John and I decided we would go with him. At the same time Coach Mac interviewed with Byrnes and got the job. He stuck his head in my Social Studies class and said I’m going to Byrnes in Spartanburg and you are going with me. I was too scared to tell him I didn’t want to go to Byrnes, so I asked him if I could think about it. He said, “Sure, sleep on it tonight and tell me first thing in the morning.” That wasn’t a lot of time because all I knew was Byrnes was way up there in the upstate. I ran to Triplett’s office to tell him what was going on, Triplet said he could hold him off for me. I told Triplet that there was no way he could stall Coach Mac for me and I was right. I had to break my word with my buddies on moving with them to Aiken because I was scared to death of Coach Mac at the time. I just couldn’t tell him no and that I had other plans. Well we went up to Byrnes together and the rest is history. Now I owe a whole lot to him for everything. He taught me a lot about winning; motivation, winning with class, etc. Nowadays Coach Mac and I try the best we can to link our eras together because we do a lot of the same things, the same ways. It helps keep the tradition alive too. I didn’t know that I would tie Coach Mac with my next region title, but would be a great honor and some great company to be in.” Lee Sawyer on his thoughts about tying Keith McAlister with seven region titles. It’s Senior Night! Come out to support the seniors on their last regular season home game. Rebel Seniors: #2 Shaq Dobbs, #5 Malcolm Watkins, #7 Raleigh Yeldell, #12 Marquez Mathis, #13 Javoris Gray, #21 Michael Cash, #30 James Bates, #31 Nick Clark, #33 Cullen Rhoden, #71 Luke McClure, #73 Chris Herrin, #84 Lavon Coleman, #85 Trevante Robinson. Blue Steel linebacker and the team’s leading sack artist with seven quarterback sacks, James Bates, will be back in action Friday night after two games out with an injury. Key’s to Victory: “Our defense has got to make them punt. They do good job of slowing the game down. They methodically move chains by running a Clemson-Auburn type offense; lots of misdirection, short passes and keeping ball away from opponents. Offensively, we have to take advantage of our speed. Got to utilize it by letting our speedsters get to edge and make something happen.”---Lee Sawyer By the Numbers: Offensively: ST 42 ppg G 24 ppg Defensively: ST 9 ppg G 33 ppg All time series: Thurmond leads 3-0. Last Game: Thurmond 48 Eau Claire 0 Gilbert 28 Keenan 24 Previous Meeting: ST 35 G 0 Matchup: Gilbert’s offense that averages 300yards and 24 points per game against a stingy Blue Steel defense that is only giving up 9 points and 196 yards per game. © Copyright 2011 All material is property of
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