By Betsy Finklea
With a young team full of new talent, Dillon High School Junior Varsity Head Coach Kevin Roberts hopes to develop great people, great football players, and a great team who will one day continue the winning Wildcat tradition.
This is Roberts’ first year as the Junior Varsity head coach. He plans to stick with the same offense and defense that brought the team a 7-0 season last year. Also new to the coaching staff this year is Twin Lester, who will help coach the defensive backs. Zack Hayes will be serving as the offensive coordinator.
The team lost a majority of their players because many of them moved up to play on the varsity team, but Roberts said they have some young players with a lot of potential to be great varsity players within the next couple of years who will be filling the void.
Roberts said their off-season conditioning has gone well. “Our off-season conditioning has been as great as it has been the past eight years. It has played a huge part in our success. I feel confident when I say that nobody works harder than us. Our JV players take part in these workouts along with the varsity and I feel that has played a part in our success on the JV level the past couple of years,” said Roberts.
The team’s offensive line is probably the strongest, Roberts said, because they had two guys back who played last year, but he says they are young everywhere. The key position they need to fill is quarterback.
Roberts said their toughest opponents this year will be Marlboro County and Loris.
“My expectations for this season are to work hard, develop, and mentor our players on and off the field so they will be great players, great people, and go undefeated in the process,” said Roberts.
“We want to make sure our players are developing and learning our system so they will be great players in our varsity program. We also want to make sure they are developing as students and young men because one day football will come to an end for them. We want our players to be great men, great fathers, and productive members of society,” Roberts said.
