By Worth Evans
•
20 Dec, 2023
By WORTHY EVANS For a school that has won 21 football state championships and has won seven straight state championships, Hammond could be considered a dominant force in SCISA football. Yet, head coach Jon Wheeler , who has coached in the last three state championship wins, says that what the Skyhawks do is nothing special. It’s just a dedication to excellence, and keeping cool under adversity. Nowhere was that more evident than at the SCISA 4A state championship game at Charleston Southern’s Buccaneers Field Nov. 17. Laurence Manning Academy scored the first two touchdowns of the game, and it appeared that the Swampcats were well on their way to snapping Hammond’s streak of crowns. Until, that is, Hammond stopped digging its hole and refocused its handle on the game. “Just stay even keel. If you’re up 14, down 14, it’s a long ballgame,” Wheeler said to his team in the midst of a 14-0 deficit in the first half. “They’ve got quick-strike guys over there, so try to stay even keel, be in the moment, because it’s going to pass by really quick. Play without any regrets, just try to stay even keel. Even when we start making a comeback, stay even keel.” Before halftime, Hammond got on the scoreboard with Manny Johnson’s 19-yard touchdown run. Later in the third quarter the Skyhawks evened the score at 14 with a 74-yard Johnson dash, and on the first play of the fourth quarter went up 20-14 with Andrew Turner’s 6-yard TD run. The Swampcats scored to make it 21-20, but Turner’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Mike Tyler put Hammond in the lead for good. Wheeler had plenty of praise for Laurence Manning, whom his team faced in the 2022 championship game as well. “Tip your hat to Laurence Manning, well coached, really good football players over there, and you can see they had a chance to win,” he said. “It could’ve gone either way.” With that said, Wheeler did not leave much to chance. He knew the Skyhawks put in the work year in and year out of staying at the forefront of SCISA football, and Wheeler said he had a good feeling about the matchup. “No offense to Laurence Manning, I just said, hey guys, we’re going to win this ballgame,” he told the team before the game. “We’re going to come out here, we’re going to execute, we’re not going to point fingers.” The victory closes out a season that was similar to the Skyhawks’ 2022 effort. That year they suffered early road losses at Prince Avenue Christian (Athens, Ga.) and at then-defending SCHSL 5A champion Gaffney . This fall Hammond hosted Prince Avenue Christian and fell 42-13, and hosted SCHSL 2A power Gray Collegiate and lost 52-14. In both seasons, the Skyhawks won out the rest of the season and took home state titles. This year the Skyhawks played pivotal games against Cardinal Newman . In their Oct. 6 regular season matchup, Hammond beat then-undefeated Cardinals 35-20. On Nov. 10, the Skyhawks took on Cardinal Newman again, this time to play for the right to move on to the state title game. Hammond won 33-20. “They’ve been battle tested,” Wheeler said about the team this season. “They faced Prince Avenue early on. They got hit in the mouth by Gray Collegiate, both on our home field. They were humbled, and getting humbled allowed them to create some hunger to get better. They faced it, they didn’t run from adversity and they got better each week. That’s why they were able to get to this point because they got better and learned from their mistakes.” With three of his teams now crowned state champions, Wheeler himself is becoming a part of the program that was strong long before he came there. “It feels awesome just to be a part of it,” Wheeler said. “All the credit goes to our players and the culture that was set way before I got here with Coach (Erik) Kimrey, Coach (AD Jeff) Barnes. I’m very glad to be a part of it and learn from it, to get better as a coach and a person.”