A 5-7 finish like last year, including the playoffs, will not be enough to satisfy Gatewood head coach Jeff Ratliff this time around.
The Gators opened last season with two wins but then went on a four-game skid before putting together another pair of victories followed by two more losses to end the regular season.
To start the playoffs, Gatewood knocked off Augusta Day Prep. The Gators looked good one week later, too, holding a 14-13 lead well into the third quarter over Central Fellowship Christian Academy.
However, at the game’s end, CFCA advanced to the final with a 43-14 victory.
“I was generally pleased with how we finished,” Ratliff says, now entering his 12th season with the Gators and his 11th as head coach. “I mean, we had to figure a lot of things out and at the end of the year we made it to the semifinals. Got beat by the state champions (CFCA). But last year’s team accomplished and improved as much as any team I’ve ever had. I think we got a lot of miles out of that team considering the inexperience.”
After losing four seniors on the offensive side of the ball, including All-State tailback Justin Jameson, and four seniors on defense, Gatewood returns 14 starters on its 22-man roster for 2023.
Ratliff points out he had several more first-time starters last season, too, though not all first-year players. He considers those players now battle-tested, so they’re much more aware of what’s to come.
“We’ve got guys coming back this year that have been in the trenches, they’ve been in the war, they know what it takes to win,” the coach points out. “They also know, unfortunately, how we can lose a ballgame. You know, if we don’t do this, this and this. And yeah, knowing that is huge. “The biggest thing for us is we’ve got to compete every play.
"Everyone has got to compete as if you don’t have a starting position and you’re earning it every play,” Ratliff continues. “Of course, that’s how I always want it to be, but I feel good from the vantage point that last year we had four returners starting and this year we have 14. So, I feel pretty good about those numbers.”
Leading the charge for Gatewood will be North Carolina commit Evan Bennett, moving from fullback to tailback this season, but also playing on both sides of the ball.
Fellow seniors Lawson Wooten, Sean Harvey, Luke McNeill, Blake Callaway, and Jayden Daniel are all critical members of the team, too, Ratliff stresses.
“I’ll tell you right now, it’s got to start with my seniors, and it’s got to start with leadership. You know, you’ll hear that every year from me, but that’s just because it’s the truth," he said. "If my seniors don’t lead, if they don’t take care of the locker room, if they don’t lead by example on and off the field, if they don’t get the team behind them, making sure they do things right by setting the example and then having others follow, we’re going to struggle.”
Also key to any hope for Gatewood’s success will be the play of junior quarterback Ames Johnson, who perhaps more than anyone benefited from his role as a starter last season.
“Ames having one year under his belt is huge. Just being able to take charge of the offense,” Ratliff says. “He was green his first year as starting quarterback and as a sophomore, but he looked so much more confident at the end of the season than he did at the beginning.”
On defense, Ratliff will be looking to Bennett as a linebacker, of course, but also to Wooten and sophomore Mason Sinclair as defensive ends, with Harvey leading the secondary.
Bottom line?
“We’ve got to be unified. If you’re unified, no matter what happens, you can get through it,” Ratliff said. “And it was a testament to last year’s group, all the close losses and the games where we’d fall behind and battle back, they were still able to hold it together. That’s what we’ve got to do again, only a little bit better.”