Silver Bluff has first spring football practice under new head coach Matt Hayes

Aiken – Matt Hayes has been a part of many spring football practices at Silver Bluff High School, first as a player and then as an assistant coach. Now he’s got one under his belt as the Bulldogs’ head coach.

Hayes was happy with the way things went in the 10 full practices last month, five of them in full pads.

         “I think everyone did a great job,” said Hayes, who returned to SBHS after serving as the associate head coach and special teams coordinator at Strom Thurmond the past two seasons. “I’m still meeting the guys and learning them. The assistant coaches I retained from the previous staff have helped me with that.

         “There are some things we wanted to see accomplished, and we were able to do that. I’m very pleased with that, but not all of them were accomplished.”

         Hayes said the biggest goal was to find the next group of leaders for the Bulldogs. They graduated three standout defensive players in lineman Jordan Boyd, who signed with Georgia Tech, linebacker Jayden Fuller, who signed with Miami (Ohio), and defensive tackle Jaydon Eason, who signed with Catawba.

         “We were looking for leadership candidates, players stepping up and taking vocal leadership roles,” he said “We had a pretty dynamic trio. When your best players are your best leaders, you’ve got to replace them too.”

         Some of the players Hayes identified as having stepped up are All-Region senior defensive lineman Garris Chambers,  senior middle linebacker Jordan Walker and sophomore lineman Trevone Parker.

         Silver Bluff had a spring game to close out its spring practice with over 200 people in attendance, according to Hayes.

         Hayes is really impressed with the rising sophomore class. He has a trio that will be battling for playing time at running back in Drelyn Brown, Aiden Coates and Dorian Jones.

         “Dre Brown, he was a guy who was a pleasant surprise. Each one of them had an exceptional spring, and they’re all sophomores. It’s a good problem to have.”

         Hayes is all too familiar with the tradition of Silver Bluff football. His senior football season, 2000, the Bulldogs won the state title. He was part of head coach Al Lown’s staff the very next year and SBHS defended its title.

         After several years as an assistant at Silver Bluff, Hayes went to South Aiken and was the defensive coordinator there for five years. He then moved on to Strom Thurmond for the 2-year stint before returning to Silver Bluff to replace one of his old high school teammates in De’Angelo Bryant. Bryant took a similar job at Gray Collegiate Academy.

         With the South Carolina High School League’s realignment and reclassification, Silver Bluff has moved up a class to AAA. The Bulldogs will be part of Region 4 along with Swansea, Newberry, Keenan and Fox Creek. Swansea is the only school that was AAA last year; the other three were also AA.