WASHINGTON COUNTY: Hawks in ‘wait and see’ mode, but could be hard to handle again if key players step up

On the verge of a new season, the Washington County Golden Hawks are at what head coach Robert Edwards describes as a “wait-and-see moment.” 

Though they had a promising summer, a lot of unanswered questions loom. 

And they’re counting on a preseason scrimmage against Putnam County (which was still to come at press time, but will have already taken place by the publication of this preview) to help determine a more definitive hierarchy of players at positions of turnover, and reveal a clearer picture of what and whom they’ll be able to depend on in several really big games early in the year. 

“We’ve got a mixture of old and new, then we’ve got some old that didn’t have a lot of experience,” Edwards said. “You never know how a guy’s going to react until he gets under the Friday night lights. Practice is practice, but when you get under the lights, it’s a different game. Nerves can get the best of you.” 

Getting things on the right track from the start will have a lot to do with those newer links in the chain, as an early gauntlet of matchups puts their team makeup to the test right away. But the Hawks have little apprehension about where their season is ultimately headed, because it’ll be in the trusted hands of some steady upperclassmen already molded by a year or more of varsity training.

The keys to the offense, and moreover the team, will belong to Mack May, who will be the first returning starter Edwards has had at quarterback since taking over. 

Last year, the rising senior guided WACO through a transition season on that side of the football with flying colors, tossing for 1,674 yards and 12 touchdowns as a seamless conductor of its quick-hit passing game. 

He’ll have the charge of doing much of that over again with a largely fresh cast of teammates at the skill positions, but goals of achieving some similar success and cutting back on turnovers. 

“I’m expecting a lot out of Mack,” Edwards said. “He’s been in the program all four years. He started when I started, so we came in together. I’m expecting him to take charge of the offense, make the easy throws and make the tough throws look easy. I’m expecting a great year from him.” 

Under Edwards, the Golden Hawks have been decidedly pass-balanced in their breakdown, with numbers through the air that have outpaced – by either a little or a lot – their total on the ground all three years. 

Contingent on how a fresh offensive identity shapes up, this season could see a reversal of that trend. 

Don’t look for the difference to be drastic, but WACO does intend to use the run to set up the pass a little bit more this season as it relies on two very effective ball-carriers – one familiar and the other new to the Friday-night scene – that should be strong producers. 

“We want to run the ball well,” Edwards said. 

The adaptable Rekevious Swint, who had 475 yards and five touchdowns last season along with 14 receptions in the screen game, will slide in to replace Jusden Culpepper as the new No. 1. 

Splitting carries, and providing a change of pace from Swint’s bruising, downhill style, will be a new name to definitely watch in sophomore Kamajae Johnson. 

“We’re looking for him to do really good things,” Edwards said. “He has the explosion and speed to take it to the house. He’s a big play waiting to happen.” 

A reason for underselling the passing game: The receiving corps is one great big unknown entering the season, following the graduation of four out of May’s five targets with double-digit catches in 2024. Swint is the only one who returns. 

“He’s working with a group of new receivers, so it’s going to be really important for him to build confidence in those receivers, because he lost all his threats from last year,” Edwards said. 

Senior Izavion Durden and Kam Shaw both got some limited play out wide or as tight ends last year, and are among the unproven names who’ve helped play “receiver by committee” so far. The rest are young newcomers whom Edwards declined to name until more is known. 

“I’m waiting on that one or two guys to step up in that receiving group to take on that role as being the lead guy,” Edwards said. “As of right now, we’re going to see what happens going into this first preseason game, and see who steps up in that game-type situation.” 

No matter what, the Golden Hawks plan to get some increased tight end involvement in the attack this year, both to diversify their route patterns and to bring an extra potential blocker into the package in situations that will put them in a stronger position to run it. 

The offensive line is one position where they’re already locked and loaded, with seniors Javyn Brooks, Zorian Reeves and Cory Hall carrying over as starters. WACO will be replacing two lost seniors with younger players at right tackle and center, but both those jobs have already been won by rising sophomores. 

“It’s a mixture of young and old, but we’re hoping the old guys will help the young guys mature quickly and give them the confidence they need to go out there and block well for our run game and our pass game,” Edwards said. 

On defense, WACO’s most inexperienced position will be outside linebacker, where big holes were left by Culpepper and Tayshawn Poole. 

Depth charts saw a good bit less turnover everywhere else. 

The defensive line, making use of a lot of two-way players in the rotation, will be led by veterans.

Top 2024 tackler Kam Shaw (59 total and eight for loss) will be a senior at linebacker. Junior Jakobe Poole and senior Cameron Battle (back off an injury) are expected to play a key role there as well.  

Aiden Watts, a freshman all-region pick at safety with multiple college offers, returns as a focal point of the secondary. 

The Hawks have some seniority at corner, though returners there were limited last year by injuries. 

“That’s the position we’re at a wait and see moment right now, to see who’s going to step in and fill those roles,” Edwards said. “Luckily, we don’t play a whole lot of teams that throw the ball as much as we do, so they get a lot of work in practice and they’re going to continue to get a lot of work that’s going to prepare them for the season.” 

Potentially biggest among question marks… who replaces the highly effective Christian Rountree at kicker? 

There are a lot of options (including several who belong to the less orthodox straight-on school of kicking), but WACO has yet to settle just who will handle that area of their special teams. 

“Teams don’t realize how important the kicker is until you don’t have one,” Edwards said. “We’ve been kind of auditioning players to kick for us this year, and that’s wait and see, too.” 

It may not have been exactly the next step the Hawks had in mind for last season, but they definitely took a big one on the back end of their schedule in some strong performances – and finally a few signature wins – that followed through on some long-awaited hopes of re-establishing themselves as a team to beat. 

The schedule, placing region runner-up and champion Northeast and Dublin back-to-back in games 3-4, wasn’t at all conducive to a strong start. But the 91-9 combined score in the two losses, combined with a 22-6 score in another to Jeff Davis in which the Golden Hawks got overwhelmed at the line of scrimmage, prompted some soul-searching in early September that got them on the right track. 

On the other side of a short break, they’d win five of their last six, throttling Central and pulling out four other barnburners vs. Bleckley, East Laurens, Southwest and ACE. The lone loss against Dodge County, only decided by 11, was a game they were in the whole way.

“After the Dublin game, we had that bye week, then we went to Bleckley County and we started to hit our stride on who we were and the identity we wanted to create, and we finished pretty strong,” Edwards said. “I thought we played well finishing out the season.” 

They also measured up a lot better to the Jeff Davis benchmark as the two teams rematched in the Pinelands as 16 and 17th seeds in the first round of the state playoffs. The game was all even until a tipping point early in the fourth quarter that brought on 16 unanswered points for the Jackets to run away with it. 

“It was a letdown,” Edwards said, candidly. “We thought we had a real good shot of winning that game, but they came out and played a little bit better than us at the end of the night.” 

But looking back at the finish in its entirety, WACO closed out with nothing but competitive performances. 

And the season as a whole continued a slow step-by-step improvement in several categories as the Hawks added a win to their record for a third year in a row, and cut down on average points given up by another 2.5 per game. 

Edwards is hopeful this team can pick up where last year’s left off, and potentially punch its way into the region’s upper echelon this year. 

“We want to build on the momentum of last year and not have to start over,” he said.  

A similar sense of mystery seems to surround many of the Hawks’ key rivals in the region, who all may be a different sort of matchup early versus late in the year, depending on how each develop and answer their own offseason questions. 

There’s nobody on the schedule that the Golden Hawks have down as a “gimme game.”

“We know that this region’s like the SEC,” Edwards said. “You can’t take any weeks off. That’s how we’re going to approach it, and you never know what a team has until you’re about there, ready to play them… Everybody has athletes, everybody has great coaches. So we know that we’ve gotta prepare each week to go out and be prepared to compete and have a chance to win a game.” 

There’s confidence this team has that next step in them, but a first look will give the Hawks a much better idea of where they stand.

“We can start to make the adjustments from there,” Edwards said. “Right now, I feel like we’ve just gotta stay healthy, stay true to cores and continue to get better. I think we will have a better season than last year, and continue to get on the right track of bringing WACO football back from the old.”

Golden Hawks at a glance…

HEAD COACH: Robert Edwards (4th season, 91-73 career)

OFFENSE: Spread

DEFENSE: 3-4

2024: 6-5 (6-3 region 2-High A)

FINISH: GHSA Playoffs (lost to Jeff Davis in first round)

RETURNING STARTERS: 5 offense / 6 defense 

KEY LOSSES: RB/LB Jusden Culpepper (Mississippi Valley); TE/DE Kam Foster; K/P Christian Rountree (Andrew); WR Jaden Jackson (Central Georgia Tech); WR/DB Javyn Watkins 

PLAYERS TO WATCH: QB Mack May, Sr.; RB/LB Rekevious Swint, Sr.; WR/DB Aiden Watts, So.; WR/LB Kam Shaw, Sr.; OL/DL Javyn Brooks, Sr.; OL/DL Zorian Reeves, Sr.

THE UPSIDES: Reliable running backs, physicality up front

KEY CONCERN: Uncertainty at several major positions 

Schedule…

8/15 at Jeff Davis ($)

8/22 Jefferson Co.*

8/29 at Northeast Macon*

9/05 Dublin* ($)

9/19 at Bleckley Co.* ($)

9/26 Central Macon*

10/03 at Dodge Co.* ($)

10/17 East Laurens*

10/23 at Southwest Macon*

10/31 ACE Charter* 

* –Region 2-High A

($) –Pivotal games