**Our podcast interview with Coach McClain will be released on Friday, August 10th. Stay Tuned as Coach McClain takes a deeper dive into the Raiders upcoming season.**
The Skinny
The West Laurens Raiders advanced to the second round of the state tournament last season. As a matter of fact, the Raiders have qualified for the state tournament for 4 straight seasons. However, Coach McClain knows that each new season brings its own set of challenges. One of the biggest challenges this season, according to Coach McClain is youth.
“We are going to be very young” said McClain regarding the 2018 Raiders.
While the Raiders will be young, they do return Junior Quarterback AJ Mathis to lead the offense. Mathis passed for over 1,600 yards and 12 TDs as a sophomore in 2017. Mathis will not be alone in the backfield as West Laurens returns leading rusher Dorian Edmond. Edmond ran for 867 yards for the Raiders last season.
West Laurens lost their 3 top receivers to graduation, but EJ Holmes could be poised to step up and take a leadership role within the young receiving corps.
Defensively, D’Eryck Jackson is poised to improve on his 99 total tackles and seven sacks, from last season. He won’t be alone, as fellow defensive tackles Que Mack (4 sacks) and Spencer Dacus (5 sacks) look to make running the football difficult on opposing offenses.
There is no one ‘most important game’ for West Laurens. Instead Coach McClain said that all the region ones are circled on the schedule this season.
While the Raiders will be young, the goal seems to remain the same as last season.
“Our goal is to play hard, be physical, and compete for a playoff spot,” he said.
