Cougars Football Season Ends In First Round of GISA State Playoffs

The curtain fell on the 2018 season for the Piedmont Academy football team but thoughts are already turning ahead to next fall.

The Cougars lost to St. Andrews of Savannah 28-0 last Friday in a home game in the opening round of the GISA Class AA playoffs. It was a disappointing end to the 2018 campaign but coach Mike Parris said the returning players know what they need to do in order to improve.

“We played as well defensively in the second half last Friday as we have all season,” Parris said. “That is the kind of progress you like to see.”

In analyzing his first season with the program, Parris said he looks for certain things.

“What you want with a young team is for improvement,” the coach said.

“We are not trying to build a good team. We are trying to build a good program. We saw some teams this season playing at a level we want to be at.”

The Cougars earned wins this season against Monsignor Donovan, Westwood and Crisp Academy. The victory against Crisp saw some of the improvement Parris wants as the Cougars had fallen to the Wildcats earlier in the season. The team also tied Thomas Jefferson in late August.

“For us it will now be about the weight room and our offseason work,” Parris said. “The things we need to get better at are things we can fix and you like that as a coach. We have a good nucleus of kids coming back. We lose four seniors and it will be tough to replace them but we will have to find a way to do that.”

Typically teams show vast improvement from year one to year two of a coaching regime and Parris is certainly hopeful for that for his Cougars.

“As a coach you certainly look for that,” he said. “I also have a lot to learn. For me depth has never been an issue. I have to find better ways to practice and to rest our players. Everyone has room for improvement from the coaches to the players.”

Piedmont has several standouts on the defensive side of the football this season. In the recent game against Robert Toombs, Eric Tobler had 11 solo tackles while J.T. Webb and Tanner Locklear both had five.

The following week against Gatewood Wall finished with a team high eight tackles while Logan Conner had six and Owen Brady and Tobler both recorded five tackles.

On offense against Gatewood, Tate Marks rushed for 40 yards and passed for 52 on a 10-of-16 night with a score. Webb had five catches for 38 yards and a touchdown.

Conner finished with 25 yards rushing against Gatewood while Brady had 20 and was also 1-for-2 passing for 23 yards.

“We improved our number of wins so that is a step toward improving,” Parris said. “Step two for us right now is to have a good offseason.”