NOTE: There are only 31 days left until the start of the 2015 high school football season -- both around the state and right here in northeast Georgia. With that in mind, AccessWDUN is already in full preparation mode. Over the next three weeks we will give you a sneak peek of what’s in store for 2015 with our "Two-A-Days" series. We will bring you two key questions -- and answers -- for each program in our coverage area, twice a day. Each morning will start a new program, with another highlighted each afternoon. And at the end of each week we will also provide some video footage and commentary from area coaches. Programs will run in alphabetical order.
In the three years since coach Lee Shaw took the helm at his alma mater, Rabun County football has become a model of upward mobility. From 6-5 to 8-3 to a 9-3 2014 campaign that included the team’s first solo region crown and first state playoff win since 1998, the Wildcats have made stride after stride.
As it preps for 2015, Rabun County is aiming even higher. It won’t be easy to maintain their climbing ways, however, and Shaw knows this -- even with a major recruit like safety/receiver/running back Charlie Woerner set for his final varsity campaign.
With that in mind, Shaw talked about his team’s work and how it can better 2014.
QUESTION: In each of the last three seasons your program has taken a step forward, including an historic campaign last year. How hard will it be to maintain that upward trajectory in year four?
ANSWER: There’s a lot of expectations. We’ve been climbing the mountain every year and setting the precedent for Rabun County football for right now. And it’s going to be difficult. I’ve been preaching all summer that you can’t live in the past. It’s very cliche, but when you’re talking to 15-, 16-, 17-year-old kids it’s very easy to live off what you did. Is a region championship good enough? Is going to the second round (of the Class AA postseason) good enough? They’ve got high expectations among themselves, but it’s really easy to fall back on, ‘this is what we did last year,’ and kind of enjoy that and never reach what your abilities can get you to.
QUESTION: Certainly your team and program is made up of far more than just the versatile Chalie Woerner (a major contributor in all three phases of the game), but he is an outstanding player and a major recruit. How explosive do you expect his senior season to be?
ANSWER: You would hope that he would have his best season. It’s his senior year, he’s a national recruit with offers from everybody; he’s 6-foot-5, 238 pounds, just a freak of an athlete... But as I told Charlie it’s not a given that you’re going to have a great senior year. Your teammates help control that, you control that; some luck controls it a little bit. He’s been grinding away. He’s been training as hard as he’s ever trained, so that’s a positive. But what he’s done for Rabun County is not only given some recognition and pride back to the community, he’s upped the play of everybody else on this football team. His surrounding cast that he’s been with since his freshman year, really since his middle school years, are all now seniors -- which I have 22 seniors on this football team. He’s dialed up everybody’s play, and that’s really been a positive for us. It’s not just the Charlie Woerner show. I guess outside the program looking in it may look like that, but we have a lot of contributors like Eli Gipson and Alden Wright, Tyler Harris, Jack Johnson, Peyton Backer and upcoming quarterback Bailey Fisher, so they’ve all been in the fire, and they’re good football players, so hopefully they’ll all lean on each other this season, and we’ll do something special again.
COMING UP NEXT: Riverside Military Academy
