By Mac Banks and John Turner
The Nation Ford Falcons football team is coming off another strong season and looks to improve on last year’s playoff appearance.
Nation Ford finished 5-6 overall and fell to Hillcrest in the first round of the playoffs losing 37-29. The Falcons bring in a new offensive coordinator in Jason McManus replacing athletic director Dave Johnson, who is concentrating on his administrative duties.
McManus is known for his time at South Pointe during the Strait Herron era and was key in building those high-powered offenses that won state titles. He has been a head coach before at Myers Park as part of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School system as well.
Nation Ford head coach Michael Allen said McManus and Johnson have similar offensive styles.
“It’s not just throwing the ball around,” he said. “It is based on situational football and based on what the defense gives you.”
The Falcons will have a senior quarterback in Carson Sanford, and Nation Ford’s top receiver Josh Ameo is also back. Last year’s starter Kaden Barnett is rehabbing his arm from an offseason injury.
Allen named running backs like Patience Andrews along with Malachi Drayton and Brandon Johnson. At the receiver position, along with Ameo, there is Lucas Barz and tight end Jeffrey Papin.
“In the backfield, we have three or four running backs,” Allen said. “We feel pretty good at the running back position. We are pretty deep there at the moment.”
The offensive line is anchored by seniors Savyion Drayton and Nolan Koncz as the rest of the line is younger in sophomores and juniors.
“With the senior leadership from those two guys, they will keep grinding on,” Allen said.
Defensively, Will Mitchell will return as the defensive coordinator for the Falcons.
“He is a ball coach,” Allen said. “He can coach anywhere. This year’s defensive squad can be pretty good barring any injury.”
Allen said the defensive front will be anchored by Zyon Neely, who is a two-year varsity starter. Allen said the defensive line could be the largest in numbers they have ever had.
“We will be able to rotate people in and out of there,” he said.
On special teams, Allen added players with good hands like Ameo and others will be used for punt and kick returns.
“We will be able to utilize a lot of people in our special teams,” he said. “It is a pretty decent pond to pull from. We have some guys to make things happen.”
Kicker Austin Sarvis will be back this year doing the punting and kicking for Nation Ford.
Nation Ford will have new region opponents in Indian Land, Catawba Ridge, and Northwestern, all teams there are familiar with and have played consistently in the past. The Falcons will open Aug. 23 against a Region opponent from last year in a non-region game this year and will travel back to Blythewood.
“I am not going to schedule someone to win a football game,” Allen said. “We always need to be improving whether we are winning or losing. It’s a tough schedule.”
After Blythewood, Nation Ford travels to York and then will host River Bluff and Richland Northeast before opening Region 3-5A schedule at Northwestern. Nation Ford will also travel to Rock Hill and Catawba Ridge for region games, while hosting Indian Land, Clover, and Fort Mill.
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
