Southmont football the last two years has shown its true potential. Each of the last two years the Mounties have started at least 5-0 and last year they even started 6-0. Under longtime coach Desson Hannum, Southmont will look for that similar success again in 2023. The roster might look a little different but the Mounties still have a core group of players that they can rely on.
The Mounties start with the back-to-back JR Football Player of the Year in Wyatt Woodall who will once again look for a dominating year on both sides of the ball. Woodall ran for 950 yards and 12 TD’s a season ago and added 106 tackles. Southmont will also have it’s starting wide-receivers back in Aaron McMasters and Kyler McCandless. Where a new face to many will step in is at the quarterback position. Taking over the offense will be senior Nolan Boyer who spent the last three years backing up Nick Scott.
“This team is going to look different because we lost so many seniors that had played a lot of football for us,” Hannum said. “With that being said we do return quite a bit too because last year this team was very junior and senior led. We have four of our offensive lineman back. Our half-back positions will be some new guys as well as on defensively. We hope to answer some of the questions we have rather quickly but this is still a very good group coming into the year.”
Unlike most teams that will get their season started on Friday, the Mounties have to wait an extra day to kick off the 2023 year at home against Fountain Central. Due to a referee issue, their game was pushed back to Saturday a few weeks back. Hannum noted how that’s just a situation that’s out of his teams control and they’ll have to manage it the best way they can.
“The crew that we were going to have disbanded and it was too late to find a new crew for that Friday,” Hannum said of the situation. “On the front end for us we’ll have an extra day to prepare but at that point we’re ready to play. We like to keep things in a routine, but we’re going to have to adjust because on the back end a day gets taken away from us to prepare for week two.”
Having a new signal caller at the helm, it’ll help that Boyer is surrounded by experienced players including Woodall. Hannum noted how his senior fullback has really accepted a large leadership role both on and off the field.
“Wyatt is a good football player and everyone, not just us knows it,” Hannum said. “Everyone who watches our film notices that No. 9 is pretty good. He’s one of the best players in the area and it’s nice to have a player with that much experience who’s been that good in your backfield and then you combine that with what he brings defensively, teams just have to know where he is 24/7.”
South’s game against Fountain Central on Saturday night is still scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
