“Tough times don’t last, tough people do.”
That’s a quote by Robert H. Schuller, but it has become a motto for this Midland Valley football team with all of the adversity it has faced this season.
“We’ve learned from the summer until now, how to face some adversity,” said interim head coach Brent Dorn. “[The players] are slowly learning how to face it on the field and off the field, so that is definitely an area we’ve improved in.”
Dorn took over unexpectedly as the interim program leader back in the summer after the departure of former coach Earl Chaptman following an arrest and charges for domestic violence. Those charges against Chaptman have since been dropped, and the former coach remained at Midland Valley as a teacher.
But because of the whirlwind nature of all that happened, Dorn had limited time to prepare what became his team for the season.
Then, the Mustangs got off to a 0-4 start coming off of an historic one-loss, region championship season in which its only blemish came in the SCHSL Class AAAA quarterfinals to Westside (S.C.).
So to say it was tough times at Midland Valley might even be an understatement, but that didn’t stop Dorn and his team.
Finding their footing
They fought and defeated Brookland-Cayce, 42-21, in week five, they then dropped another game, this one to Gilbert by only seven points.
Finally facing a favorable schedule, the Mustangs dominated their next three games winning over Aiken, Airport and South Aiken, with the closest margin of victory being 27 points.
It’s hard to turn a season like this around in the middle of the year, especially when you have a group that did a lot of winning in the past couple of seasons.
Not only did they turn things around, they also found a way into the Class AAAA playoffs and will have a chance to make some noise just like a year ago, despite dropping their final regular season game in a 45-21 defeat to North Augusta Friday night.
They were tied at 14 with only six minutes remaining in the first half before their inexperience and youth came back to bite them with some costly turnovers that put North Augusta up by 17 at the break.
They fought in the second half, but it just wasn’t enough, and that’s props to a really good Yellow Jacket team that only has one loss this season.
Postseason playmakers still present
Though lacking last year’s offensive power and scoring punch that came largely due to having 3,000-yard rusher and now-West Virginia freshman running back Traevon Dunbar, Valley’s still got offensive weapons.
Senior Preston McNair has filled in admirable with close to 1,000 rushing yards for a team that averages close to 200 yards on the ground per game. Freshman Preston Smith has been impressive as well as the team’s second leading rusher averaging 6.9 yards per touch.
And 6-foot-1, 185-pound sophomore Xavier Geter has emerged at quarterback with 641 passing yards and six touchdowns with a 64% completion rate before Friday’s game with North Augusta.
Despite a 4-6 regular season finish with a 4-3 Region 4-AAAA mark that’s much different than last year’s success, Dorn is still optimistic for the postseason.
“Like I told our guys, we’re in the playoffs now, so everyone’s record is 0-0,” said Dorn. “Thank the Lord we have a bye week next week so we can kinda get healthy, and it gives us a chance to rebuild and refocus.”
