by Mark Turner
White County News
In case you missed it, the 2025 high school football season started early Monday morning with the opening of summer workouts.
While the opening game is still two months away, for the
White County Warriors and the rest of the teams around the state.
The Warriors will spend three weeks of June with four workouts each week, along with multiple passing league events and a lineman camp.
“We're excited to get it going,” WCHS head coach Chad Bennett said Tuesday afternoon. “This is the time of the year when you want to go from good to great. Championship teams are built in the summer. This is the time when the guys have to learn how to do hard stuff together; you have to suffer a little bit to be great. We're here for four hours a day. We're in the weight room and on the field, and it's going to be hot. So far, I love the energy of this group.They are coachable and accountable. This is the start of finding out how good we can become over the next nine weeks.”
The Warriors jumped right into the 7-on-7 schedule on Wednesday with a trip to Athens Academy. The Warriors played games against Monroe Area, Rabun County, Oconee County, North Oconee, Parkview, Greene County and Lake Oconee Academy.
“We'll be playing some really good teams,” Bennett said.
The start of the summer schedule comes just a couple of weeks after the Warriors scrimmaged East Hall to wrap up spring practice. The Vikings won the varsity portion of the scrimmage by a 7-0 margin, with each team scoring a touchdown in the second half when the junior varsity and freshman players got on the field.
Bennett said he saw some good and bad things during the scrimmage, and he was excited to see the Warriors' defensive effort against the Vikings' explosive offensive unit.
“We were pleasantly surprised with the defense in the scrimmage since we had so many moving parts with the coaching staff and some of the players,” Bennett said. “We only have two starters back, so I thought we played really well defensively. We gave up seven points after a turnover on a short field, and then they scored again in the third quarter when we were subbing and they still had a lot of the starters on the field. We also got a Pick 6 for a touchdown from the young guys (Jaxin Hoosline).”
The Warriors had a hard time getting the offense started in the scrimmage, working with many new faces in several skill positions along with trying out a handful of new linemen.
“Offensively, we are a work in progress,” Bennett said. “We are going to look different this year because of personnel, and we're still trying to find our identity. It's start in the trenches and we've got to find the right combination of players up front. We've got three returning starters, so we have two spots to fill. We played a lot of people so there is going to be an opportunity for other guys to win a job. We've got to be able to run the ball and we weren't able to do that against East Hall.”
One of the biggest tasks Bennett has faced this offseason was putting together a coaching staff. Bennett had several staff openings after the 2024 season, including needing to rebuild the defensive staff. Thankfully, Bennett had a full staff on hand on Monday when the summer program began.
“I'm really excited to rebuild our staff, especially on the defensive side,” Bennett said. “It's been a seven month process, and I've literally talked to people from all over the country. I talked to coaches from California, Texas, Michigan, and it seemed like every where in between. It's been a process, but I'm excited about our new coaches”
Zac Grace is taking over the role as the Warriors' defensive coordinator and will coach the safeties. Grace joins the WCHS staff following a stint at Houston County.
“Coach Grace is coming from a really good Class AAAAA program, and I've been impressed with his knowledge of the game,” Bennett said. “We will still base out the 3-4, but it will look a little different from what we've done in the past. I like the multiplicity of what he wants to do, and we'll use some 3-man, 4-man and 5-man fronts. The terminology is a little different than what our kids are used to, but it's still some of the same stuff, especially on the back end of the defense.”
The Warriors' new defensive line coach is Jayden Barron, who played at Kennesaw State University, and has coached at Calhoun and Flowery Branch.
“I really like his juice and energy,” Bennett said. “He's a great fit for our kids. We've got a couple new kids out in that position and I think he can take this group to a new level.”
Seth Deering joins the staff and will coach the outside linebackers. Deering has more than 20 years experience with stints at Denmark, Creekview and Pickens.
“He's a really good football coach,” Bennett said. “He's coached on both sides of the ball, and brings a lot of experience to the defensive staff.”
Tre' Luttrell is the final new member of the coaching staff, and he will serve as the program's strength and conditioning coordinator as well as coaching the wide receivers.
Luttrell was a standout player in high school, playing at Gainesville, Buford and Habersham Central. Luttrell followed his father Stan, who is one of the top strength and conditioning coaches in the state, to those three high school programs. Luttrell played quarterback at Lenoir-Rhyne and Carson Newman during his collegiate career. Luttrell was a graduate assistant coach last year at Anderson University.
“Tre' comes from a football family,” Bennett said. “He grew up around the football and he played at some really good high school programs and played at the collegiate level. He will do an unbelievable job in the weight room and I'm excited to see what he can do with our recovers.”
Along with the team's daily workouts, the Warriors will head to Athens June 12 for a 7-on-7 event at the University of Georgia, and then will compete in another passing tournament on June 19 in Waleska at Reinhardt University. The WCHS linemen will head to Mill Creek in Gwinnett County on June 18-19 for the Elite Lineman Camp.
The Warriors will be off during the final week of June and the opening week of July for the GHSA-mandated dead week before returning for workouts on July 7. The WCHS program will host it's annual Future Warrior' Camp July 7-9 at the WCHS football complex. The team will compete in a padded team camp July 15-16 at Cherokee Bluff and then hold the first practice in pads on July 28.
The Warriors take on Fannin County at Warrior Stadium in a scrimmage Aug. 8, and open the regular season with at Rabun County on Aug. 15. The home opener is Aug. 29 against Habersham Central.
