Scots deal with new challenges ahead of pandemic-affected season

LAURINBURG — The Scotland High School varsity football team might have to wait just a little bit longer to start its season due to being quarantined, but high school football season in North Carolina has arrived nonetheless.

The Fighting Scots are coming off a 12-3 season, during which they finished third in the Sandhills Athletic Conference behind Pinecrest and defending conference champion Richmond. Scotland made it all the way to the 4A state semifinals before eventually falling to Cardinal Gibbons.

This year, with the uncertainty surrounding the season due to the pandemic, head coach Richard Bailey said preparation for the season and the season itself are a “day-to-day thing.”

“Every day has new challenges,” said head coach Richard Bailey. “More than any season we’ve ever been a part of — it’s literally plan for the day and then see what hits you the next day. I just hope we can get seven games in, anyway, anyhow that we can. We always expect that we’re going to be competitive and that we’re going to have a chance to win every Friday night. Hopefully we can chase the conference championship and chase the state championship, God willing.”

Scotland will have a new offensive coordinator at the helm calling plays this year with Will Clark. Clark graduated from Scotland in 2001 and previously served as an assistant coach on the Scots’ 2011 state championship team. Before arriving back at Scotland this year, he had served as the head coach at James Kenan High School in Warsaw, NC since 2017.

Clark said he plans to continue to build on what Bailey and the rest of the coaching staff have built offensively. He said the Scots will continue to run a spread-oriented scheme, adding that they’ll be able to scheme to run the ball and take advantage of different matchups that the defense gives them on the perimeter.

“There are a lot of similarities for the plays that we will be running, with some changes and tweaks done to them,” said starting quarterback Tyler Barfield. “We are still going to be running the RPO game as well as the passing and running game with some changes done to them.”

Barfield returns under center after throwing for 583 yards and nine touchdowns in 11 games last season.

Joining him in the Scots’ backfield are running backs senior Darrius Dockery and junior RJ Nicholson. Dockery tore his ACL early last season, but is back and fully healthy for the Scots. Nicholson had 732 rushing yards and eight touchdowns on 101 carries as a sophomore.

“COVID actually helped (Dockery) because he got another four or five months of time to heal, so he looks really good and he’s ready to go,” Bailey said.

Out wide, both of Scotland’s top receivers from last year are back to assist Barfield in the Scots’ aerial attack. Seniors Mandrell Johnson and Trey Chavis combined for 45 receptions for 889 yards and 10 touchdowns. At tight end, the Scots will have a number of guys who are playing both sides of the ball, including junior Ladarius McNeill, senior Zy’Mere Reddick and senior Trey Morgan.

However, Reddick and McNeill’s primary positions lie on the defensive side of the ball. In recent years, the Scots have operated under a 4-3 base defense, but this year Reddick said they will be switching to a 3-3-5 stack.

“I’ve had to take on more of a defensive role than I have in awhile,” Bailey said. “I’ve always had my hand in everything we’ve done offensively and defensively, but I’m spending my time with the defense right now. We’ll be multiple on defense — we’ll do some three-man fronts, some four-man fronts.”

Bailey added they’ve become more of a man coverage and pressure team in recent seasons.

“I don’t think that will change,” Bailey said.

Reddick has played defensive end in the past, but the defensive shift will have him playing outside linebacker with McNeill. Senior Devin Chavis, who Bailey said will be the heart and soul of the defense and has started since he was a sophomore, completes the trio at middle linebacker.

Reddick led the team in tackles for loss with 10.0 last season, while McNeill had 80 tackles and averaged 5.7 per game and Chavis had 51 tackles a year ago.

The 3-3-5 allows the Scots to disguise their blitzes and where they bring pressure from the second level.

“I started getting a lot of double teams and stuff like that toward the end of the year coming from defensive end,” Reddick said, “and now I’m coming from all different angles at linebacker, so that should help me be freed up more.”

Reddick said most of the secondary returns this season, and added that, even though the linemen are young, he has high expectations for them and the rest of the defense.

“We want to be known as one of the best defensive units in the state,” Reddick said. “I think the past two years I’ve been playing varsity, we’ve been pretty well respected around the state, but you have to go out and earn that respect every week.”

There’s been no shortage of changes this season brought on by the pandemic, including the shortened season, practice time limitations, and the mask mandate during practices and games.

With the Scots in quarantine until at least March 1, they won’t play Week 1. The conference athletic directors have adjusted the schedules to accommodate Scotland, Lumberton and Purnell Swett’s quarantines, and the Scots’ new schedule has them opening at home against Purnell Swett on March 5, with the rivalry game at Richmond being postponed to April 5.

But, Bailey said he hopes the Scots can use this time off from quarantine to reflect on the importance of the safety guidelines and precautions so they can return to practice at the end of the quarantine and begin their season accordingly.

“I told our players,” Bailey said, “we need to treat every day like it could be our last day. All we can continue to do is do the best we can as coaches and players and emphasize the protocols. Our fans don’t want to hear that, our fans think we’re going to win and that’s what they expect to happen, and I do too. I fully expect this to be a very competitive football team.”