11/13/2025
SEASON REVIEW & INTERVIEW WITH COACH WILL YOUNG
By Leland Burch
Frustrating. That one word sums up Greer’s 2025 football season that ended on a sour note at Camden in the opening round of the 4-A playoffs.
“This year was extremely frustrating, especially not being able to score in the red zone,” declared Coach Will Young of the Yellow Jackets’ 4-7 performance. “We had many chances to score in the last three games with Seneca, Daniel and Camden, but we didn’t do it.” Young attributed the failure to “sometimes poor ex*****on, and sometimes our kids were not able to win their individual matches in the red zone.”
Young traced the failures to the previous off season, explaining “we had a terrible summer. A lot of kids just did not show up to work in the weight room, and that did not help.”
The coaching staff has begun meetings this week “to figure out how we can convince kids it is worth their time to work out in the summer, because we were not nearly as strong or as fast as most of the teams we played. The way you get stronger and faster is working in the weight room. As coaches we have to make sure we are on the same page and doing what’s best for our kids.”
Looking toward 2026 Young said Greer’s offense is returning mostly intact. “We will miss lineman Dallas Williams and wide receiver Tucker Hudson. But we had a junior, Calvin McCoy, at running back, and he was surrounded by three freshmen, Zavier Sammet, Zay Moseley and Tyler Hanson. Most of the offensive line also is returning, but they need to do a better job in the weight room between now and next fall. We also have got to find some speed with our receivers.”
Graduation will wipe out much of the defense including linebacker Sammy White, who is the kind of guy who has been great to have around for four years,” tackle Paden Armstrong “who really came on strong this year,”, and nose guard Aiden Jones “who missed the entire season with an injury, and not having Aiden really hurt our ability to stop the run,” he said.
Young said the Yellow Jackets freshmen who came up to the varsity for the playoffs have great potential, especially “Nate Wilcox and Cooper Trauger” plus sophomore Cooper Hannon. He added, “the D Team has some really good athletes who are big and fast, but the only downside is they will be freshmen next year which is not an ideal situation. But they will play if they are better than our juniors and seniors.”
The 2026 schedule will be different with the biennial S.C. High School League realignment coming up in several weeks. Young said he “has no idea what region and class we will be in. I think we will still be at the bottom of 4-A or at the top of 3-A because of our size, but we won’t find out until the day the Christmas break begins.”
Meanwhile, Young has begun making a stab at drawing up a schedule for next fall. “We have made some contacts, and we will be playing Byrnes, which is the second largest school in the state, for sure. We may also have to continuing playing some other larger schools like Hillcrest and Boiling Springs because Eastside and Riverside won’t play us.”
This week the coaching staff is packing up the equipment and taking inventory. “At some point we will have as banquet and recognize the kids who played this year, especially the 14 seniors who will be graduating,” Young concluded.
