Interview with River Bluff head coach football Perry Parks

Thomas Grite here with High School on SI, here with Coach Perry Parks of River Bluff. Year two, just safe to say there's more of an urgency as compared to last year. Yeah, absolutely man. Our culture is definitely in place. We've got a lot of kids returning and we're excited about the possibilities this season for sure. Of course, you're in the same region where, as the coach of Widenar put it, sort of the mountain you have to climb with Dutch Fork, but just when it comes to your team, how do you sort of get themselves in position where y'all can contend with a Dutch Fork? Yeah, we know exactly what we're facing. Part of the intrigue for me to be interested in this job last year, get a chance to play against the best we can week out, but it shows how that helped us last year in the postseason. You play against stronger opponents, stronger region play, that always gives you a chance to make a run in the postseason. Nobody has to get up to play Dutch Fork. Everybody knows what type of task that is and we're excited that they're in our region this year for sure. When you look at your team itself with the returning guys, who are some of those key leaders? Yeah, we start with on the offensive side of the ball. We have both of our quarterbacks returning, so both of those guys and Brady Moore and Davis Taylor. We got Darius Carter, receiver, Brady Barineau, another receiver that we have. Caleb Pinckney, one of our better athletes, who was in the running back. And then, you know, our tight ends coming back. Last year was a good player for us in our offense and a slew of others. Offensive line, a lot of guys, maybe not name recognition star power, but guys that are scrappy guys and excited for those guys for sure. On the defensive side of the ball, we got a really big transfer and Bubba Alexander coming back to his home school, which is going to be huge for us. Provides some leadership with our linebackers, a group that struggled last year. And then you got Reeve Hustetler playing beside him, Charlie Walton, Levi Gibbons. Our defensive line, we got two young kids that are just phenomenal football players. Brady Williams, Byron, those guys will step up. You'll hear a lot more of their names along with some guys like R.J. Jacobs, Preston Miner. And then that secondary, we got one of the better secondaries, I say, in the state of South Carolina with Caleb Pinckney, Caleb Renwick, Jarry Grady was a freshman phenom for us last year coming back, and then Nick Washington. So solid group on the defensive side of the ball for sure. Those guys will have to carry the first couple games a little bit as we find our way as an offense. But super proud of those guys, excited for those guys coming back. Special teams, we got Liam Flynn, one of the best kickers in the state returning. So we're very optimistic about this team we have and excited to kick it off next week. And just going into next week, just what's the one area that you want to see the most improvement on from last year? Yeah, early is just of course tackling, man. We had that scrimmage last week and that was one of my worries, especially early in the year. And I was very proud of the defense flying around the field and tackling. Of course, we missed a couple of them, but that's something we can serve this week in practice and understanding that they know the importance of tackling, blocking early, protecting the football early in the season. Perfect.