Marion County Hopes to Regain Prominence With Young Team

Marion County has been one of the top teams in the Tennessee Valley this decade.
They went to the state title game three years in-a-row from 2014 to 2016.
But last year, they won only three games.
The evening sky in Marion County resembles the purple shade of the Warriors color.
But head coach Joey Mathis hopes he doesn’t have to look up this season searching for answers with a super young team.
Said Mathis:”We’ve got a small senior class of about eight, and then we’re going to have about 65 players, so you can do the math. We’ve got a lot of youth that’s going to be out there. Provides a lot of excitement. Lot of gray hairs. Gray hairs in the beard for sure coaching some of them. And I can’t give them experience. I can give them their cleats and helmets. Can’t give them experience. They’ve got to earn that.”
Can’t give experience, but the Warriors can give effort.
Said defensive end Drake Cardin:”Relentless. There’s no doubt about that. I love them all. They’ll all fight as hard as they can every play.
A relentless offense would be cool.
And the Warriors plan to use two quarterbacks.
Said Mathis:”Anthony Guevara and Taye Hutchins. Both can use their legs to get things done. Getting themselves out of trouble. They’re both going to play. They’re too good to be standing there by me if one of them is in the game. We are going to move them all over the field.”
Reporter:”Coach mentioned you’ve got two stellar quarterbacks, and you are going to use both of them and run kind of a Wing-T situation. How do you think that’s going to match up in your region?”
Said tight end Kris Layfield:”I think it’s going to do just fine. We’ve run it before. I’m sure we can run it again.”
And the Warriors would love to do a winning record again.
Mathis:”You have belief systems in your program, and you stick with those. We do those things. Fundamentally we want to be sound. We want to be mentally tough. We go back every year and try to improve our program.”