Athens Messenger Preview: Athens Bulldogs

[AHS_Stephens]

Young but experienced group ready to turn Athens football around

Age matters, but not quite as much as experience.
Despite returning seniors at some of the more crucial positions, the Athens Bulldogs are looking to bounce back from a 3-7 record in 2021 by relying on a bevy of underclassmen and newcomers.

“I’s really an interesting year because we have 10 juniors and seniors on our entire roster of 58 kids. We’re in a unique situation where a lot of the sophomores we’re going to ask to play played last year as freshman,” Head Coach Nathan White said to the Messenger. “Some of them played in all 10 games last year. I tell these guys all the time, ‘seniors cannot be the only leaders on this team,’ and we have leaders in every single class.”

The Bulldogs have these young leaders already set in place.

They return a vast amount of their receiving yards last year with Marcus Stevers heading into his junior year and Alex Pero now becoming a sophomore. Stevers looks to build off a season where he had 28 catches for 482 yards and four touchdowns. While Pero had 32 grabs for 292 yards and a pair of touchdowns in his freshman season at Athens.

These kids are not just offensive weapons however, they played the old ironman style of football where they’re relied on both sides of the ball. Stevers led the team with three interceptions last year while adding 51 tackles. Pero, himself, was able to rack up 26 tackles in the limited action.

“Alex [Pero] is going to be another sophomore for us. Levi Neal, who’s lettered three times for us is going to be a senior. He’s going to earn four varsity letters in his four years in our program which doesn’t happen often around here. Marcus [Stevers] is coming back as a receiver and a corner and had a really good year for us last year,” he said. “You’re hoping these guys go from really good players in this league to great,”

It’s not just the coach who understands the importance of the youth movement for the Bulldogs.

Quarterback Landon Wheatley is heading into his senior year and second at the helm of the Athens offense, but even he gushed about the love and excitement he has for the younger guys on this team.

“We saw what happened last year and we don’t want it to happen again. The young guys are getting older, getting stronger and getting bigger. Everybody is focused in every day so it’s definitely a lot of improvement,” Wheatley. “I kind of like the young guys because we’ve got a lot of guys who can move, they’re quick. We’ve got a freshman who’s bigger than all of our seniors. I feel like we’ll definitely be fine with the underclassmen.”


It’s an added bonus to know that you have a younger group of guys who are already experienced and prepared to go to battle. Still though, to make it to the promised land you’re going to have to rely heavily on some seniors and older veterans to keep everything balanced and under control.

Wheatley and a few others are prime candidates to do just that.

It’s become more of a recent phenomenon due to the success of a certain former Bulldogs signal caller, but holding the position of quarterback just seems to mean a little more at this school. Despite the disappointing team record from last year, Wheatley showed signs of excellence in his first season as the starting QB and gave the fans reason to believe that he can take a massive leap forward in 2022.

He finished off the 2021 season completing 61% of his passes for 1,455 yards and 15 touchdowns through the air compared to only seven interceptions. He’s a dual threat athlete as well, carrying the ball 78 times for 393 yards and a couple of scores on the ground. There’s reason to believe he’ll surpass both those figures this time around.

“As a quarterback coach for a really long time, it’s fun to have a kid like Landon,” White exclaimed. “It’s been amazing for me to watch him. As a freshman Landon was a great athlete that we put at quarterback and to see him transform the last few years into a really good quarterback that happens to be a great athlete, it has been fun to watch and a testament to how hard he’s worked. He is asking questions and wants to understand why we’re doing stuff.”

“You never want to be too confident as a coach. It sounds crazy but I’m focused on every single day and Landon has done everything to this point to be successful at quarterback and has made huge strides as for as scheme and understanding what we do in the past few years.”

High School is the perfect time to focus in on sports and try to reach your full potential in a sport that is so difficult to reach higher levels. It prepares us in so many ways to move on further in life as a successful human. But we all know the future is never guaranteed. So yeah, there’s some obvious emotions that comes with going into your senior year and your theoretical last ride as a Bulldog.

“The guys, everybody that’s always had my back, like all the players if anything ever happens, they’re right there with me. It’s been a heck of a ride and fun. I’m very excited for this year.” Wheatley said when asked about what the high school football experience has meant to him.

One of those he was talking about was Luke Brandes, the starting middle linebacker and running back who’s also heading into his senior year at Athens. Like Wheatley with the offense, Brandes is the de facto leader on the defensive side of the ball, and he seems pretty content with the group of guys he has around himself.

“Knowing that most of my guys are coming back. My outside linebackers, that’s my group. I think we’re pretty confident with what we can do, having another year of experience,” Brandes said. “I think we can all do our jobs; fill our holes and we should be pretty good.”

Records and accomplishments mean a whole lot, but this staff and program obviously have bigger goals than just what happens on the football field. This is a program that takes pride in turning kids into growing young adults with incredible work ethics.

“The focus every day, the message these guys get from me is effort, attitude and toughness. Every single day. Obviously we have goals and we want to make the playoffs and we want to win the TVC [Tri-Valley Conference], we want to win every Friday night but I’m not a big goal setting guy as far as that goes,” White noted. “I think the only way to reach those goals I think everybody has is to make sure every day is a great day.”

[noreply66]

nice read