A new regime takes over at Lamar, looking for the same results
The Lamar High School varsity football team. Photos by Drake Horton
By Drake Horton
Contributing Writer
As the Lamar Silver Foxes get ready to start another football season, they are going to be doing it under new leadership. Taking over for Corey Fountain, who took the head coaching job at Clinton High School after this past season, is Cheraw native Chad Wilkes.
Wilkes comes from C.E. Murray, where he was head coach there for the past two years, compiling a 17-7 record and one lower-state championship appearance.
“In my first year, we went 11-2 and went to the lower state championship game, so that was a really, really great year,” Wilkes said. “I mean, my first year as a head coach to be able to come and have a lot of success and sort of win further in the playoffs than they had in years before I got there.
“We really felt like we had a chance to possibly go to state that year. We felt like we had a letdown in that lower state championship against Baptist Hill. We definitely felt like we could have played a whole lot better and had a chance to beat them, but really just didn’t play too well ultimately and lost that game.”
For Wilkes this job is both exciting and sort of comfortable, especially with his familiarity with Lamar and expectations placed on the program.
“It is really exciting for me; I mean, obviously, it is sort of a dream job for me because of the expectations because of the success they have had,” Wilkes said. “I grew up playing against Lamar, so I know what it is about, I know what the town is about, so it is really great to get back to a place that really, really cares about football and they really expect to win and they really have a chance to win.”
Wilkes’ career in football, starting all the way back from his high school playing days, has been quick moving, one step up after another.
“I played at Cheraw, won two state championships at Cheraw back from ’06 to ’10, and then I went and played college football at the University of New Hampshire, ended up finishing up my degree and graduating from Clemson,” Wilkes said.
“After that I went straight out of college back to Cheraw to coach for a year, went from there to Sumter High for a year and then right after that I got the head coach job at C.E. Murray which is where I was for the last two years. This is still only like my fifth year coaching, my third year as head coach.”
Now entering his third year as head coach, he is taking over a Lamar program that has known nothing but success over the last 20-plus years and instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, he is adopting a lot of what Fountain and company did, especially on offense.
“For the most part, we are going to base out of the same stuff that Coach Fountain based out of,” Wilkes said. “To me it really is basically the Wing-T; that really is what I consider it. It is the same way you run power and counter and trap and all of that stuff, but without a Wing-T. We are just going to do it out of the shotgun. All that stuff is going to be the same.
We kept the same terminology.”
But just because he is going to follow a lot of what Fountain did, it does not mean that he is not going to try to incorporate some of his own things. For Wilkes that is throwing the football.
“I did bring some of my old spread stuff, some of my old terminology, but some of the spread stuff we are going to be doing a little differently and I hope that we can throw the ball a little bit more than what they have the last couple of years,” Wilkes said.
“We will have to see obviously how good we are once we get going to scrimmages and all of those things. What we can actually accomplish with that, but I am hoping to throw it a little bit more. I am a big believer in having to be able to do both because eventually you are going to run into a team that can take away the pass or they are going to take away the run.”
A smart coach, however, plays to his strengths and for Lamar that is going to be to line up behind a massive offensive line and be a physical football team that can run the ball down the throat of its opponents.
“We have the size of a 5A school up front,” Wilkes said. “Our skill guys may not be as big as some of the bigger schools, but from an offensive line standpoint we are as big as anybody.
“We have a lot of size so it wouldn’t make any sense for us to go out and say, yeah we are just going to throw the ball around and do that stuff when we got a bunch a 275-pound-plus guys up front. So we are really going to try to use them like Coach Fountain did and really try to run the ball behind those guys.”
While Lamar’s strengths are in the trenches, the Silver Foxes have talent at the skill positions as well.
Yes, Wilkes faces the daunting task of replacing the tailback duo of Jacquez Lucas and Malik Johnson, both who combined for roughly 70 to 80 percent of the offense last season and that includes receiving as well, but players like Rashard Johnson, Derrick Higgins and Cam Galloway are back for the Silver Foxes this season and that is just to name a few.
Wilkes believes his running back stable goes as deep as six along with a group of receivers who can make plays.
“For me, I do feel like we have a lot of good athletes,” Wilkes said. “You know, obviously we have a lot of guys that we feel like can do something special with the ball when they get it.
“We are definitely going to look to spread the ball around more, especially from what it was last year when it was really predominately those two kids. We have five to six running backs that we really feel good about, not just guys that we can just run out there and get carries, but we have five to six that we feel like can be dynamic which again is rare at 1A.”
Last season, before going down with an injury, Galloway was the starting quarterback for the Silver Foxes offense and that will be the same this season and while Wilkes knows that his size, with such a massive offense line, can hinder his ability to find throwing lanes, he likes what he sees so far.
“Cam is a kid that, if he was taller, he’s got the arm and he’s got the throwing ability to really throw the ball,” Wilkes said. “If he was taller we would say hey we are going to spread it out and we are going to do it. His height is a disadvantage for him throwing the ball, but he has the arm to do it, he has the accuracy to do it.
During seven on seven season this year he made all the right reads, is a really smart kid, he is just one of those kids that is just a real good football player.”
Wilkes discussed things like rolling Galloway out and repositioning him outside of the pocket to help create clearer throwing lanes.
“He can throw it, he’s got the abilities, he’s got the arm, it is just about moving him around because he is a little bit shorter and he is playing behind a huge offensive line,” Wilkes said. “Our left tackle is 6-5 and our right tackle is 6-4 and Cam is 5-8. That is a bigger hindrance to him than his ability to throw.
“So for us we are going to have to be creative, moving him around and letting him use his arm to be able to throw because he can do it, it’s just going to move him around the pocket, get him outside the pocket some, let him us his feet to create throwing lanes and things like that.”
But while the offense looks to put points on the board in a very similar style this season the defense is going over a makeover, not in players, but scheme. Instead of mixing in multiple fronts like last season, Lamar is going to be running a four-man front mostly, to help utilize all of the returning talent, including those massive linemen.
This scheme change, however, will do more good than anything because it allows Lamar to utilize its biggest strength this season — big players on the line. The more down linemen in the scheme the more Wilkes can put on the field and Lamar has a lot.
“We got a good bit coming back, we are changing the scheme a little bit,” Wilkes said. “Last year they were very multiple. They were a lot of three down with a little four down mixed in. This year we are pretty much going to be four down, but we do have a lot coming back.”
And with that it looks like Wilkes might just have the winning formula to keep the tradition going at Lamar. He has an identity on offense, size in the trenches and an experienced group returning on defense. Now all he needs is a championship.