Summary of last season:
2015 saw the end of a seven year playoff run for Coach J.T. Pollock’s Pirates. Appling struggled through a .500 season. They started with two losses but rebounded with three straight victories over Tattnall, Beach and Toombs. After two tough region losses, the Indians had their biggest game of the season, a 55-42 victory over rival Pierce County. After a win over Brantley County, the Pirates were 4-2 in the region but fell in the crossover region play-in against Southeast Bulloch to miss the state playoffs.
What is your outlook for this season?
“Offensively we have all of our skill kids returning, but we are going to have to replace a good deal of our offensive line. We have a couple of kids who are returning, but they are going to have to step it up a notch as far as effort and consistency. Defensively, our defensive front should be our strength, emphasize on ‘should be.’ Our linebackers are going to be young and inexperienced and we are expecting solid play out of our secondary,” said Coach J.T. Pollock.
What has realignment changed?
Appling County moves from Division A of 1-AAA into a new Region 2-AAA. The new region includes Brantley, Liberty, Long, Pierce and Tattnall. Gone is the separate A and B divisions of the region and the end of year region play-in game to determine who goes to the state playoffs. Now, it will be the top four teams in the region going to the GHSA playoffs. “We’re going to concentrate on the first game and go from there. Hopefully we will improve week by week,” Coach Pollock said. “We have a tough region with Pierce and Liberty as the front runners. Tattnall is going to be very improved because they were young last year. Brantley County has a great athlete at quarterback (Mikell Collins); we have a very challenging non region schedule. We’ll use those as building blocks for the region schedule.”
Big games this year:
The Pirates open the season on the road in Vidalia and then host Charlton County and Dodge County. They travel down Highway 341 to Jesup to face Wayne County then are back in Baxley to play Statesboro. The final five games are region-tilts at Long, Brantley and Tattnall while hosting Liberty and Pierce. The annual border war with the Bears is scheduled for Halloween weekend, October 28.
