It’s a different kind of season for Sprayberry football. Winners of six of the first seven games and in the hunt for their first region title since 2008, it’s clear to me that this season the Yellow Jackets have something to say. Brett Vavra is in his eighth season as head coach at Sprayberry and is more than happy to talk about it.

 “We have a new theme or mantra every season,” says Vavra. “This year it’s LTC. LTC stands for Love Trust and Commitment. It is the foundation of what we believe in and what it takes to be a successful football team. You have to care about the people that you're working with, care about your teammates, care about your coaches and you’ve got to love each other. You better be trustworthy. You’ve got to learn to trust each other. You’ve got to learn to trust the coaching staff, you’ve got to be committed to the cause. They’ve got to do their role to the best of their ability, to show up every day and work. Our kids have bought into it and they're doing a fantastic job with it.“

Sprayberry is 6-1 with three games remaining in the regular season. The theme, slogan or mantra might be making a difference and serving a motivation. It could be the fact that last season’s 6-5 season ended with a stinging 56-0 loss to Rome in the first round of the state playoffs. It is a different year and this is a different team.

Sprayberry

Coach Brett Vavra, a Sprayberry grad, has returned to lead the school back to the playoffs.

Credit: Sprayberry Football Facebook

“Last year we had eight seniors,” recalls Vavra. “That's not a very big senior class. This year we have 25 seniors, and we have a lot of kids that played ball on Friday night as sophomores and juniors. There is no substitute for experience. That’s a huge factor. You can't really mimic that in practice. We've got talented players, and we've got kids with a lot of experience. That’s been the difference this season.”

Coaches just love to practice. When the team has talent and experience it allows the coach to go deeper into his playbook. Sometime new pages get added or the routine gets expanded.

“It allowed us to do a little bit more in the summertime,” says Vavra. “We always focus on fundamentals, but we were able to play with our scheme a little bit on both sides of the ball because kids had done things last season that we could build on. When you’ve got a young team, you have to keep it really simple, and you can't do more than they can handle. You might have a great plan on paper and everything's going to work, but if your kids can't handle it because it's too much, then it's not going to be effective. I think the experience has allowed us to do a little bit more.”

The Yellow Jackets talent and experience coincide with being reclassified from Region 7-6A to Region 6-5A. It meant the return of familiar foes from the past and the prospects excited the coach .

“The teams that are in our region are solid,” says Vavra. “Without sounding a certain way, you look at the region we were in the last two seasons, and it seemed to be kind of top-heavy with Roswell, Blessed Trinity and Alpharetta. I felt like it was a tough matchup for us. When you look at the new region, it's a region that we're familiar with, minus Woodstock and Riverwood. River Ridge, Creekview, Sequoyah … Those teams were in our region before the last region alignment. We played them every year. It’s a better matchup for us. Athletically, physically we feel like we can compete with anybody in our region. You may not have the top-heaviness that you did the last two years, but you're going to go into every game and have to fight your tail off to compete and win.”

A seven-team region leaves room for three non-region opponents. Sprayberry kicked off the season with wins over Alexander, Etowah and Kennesaw Mountain.

“It just builds momentum,” says Vavra. “It gives your team confidence. You never really know what you're going to get until you play that first game. We were able to be successful, then you're able to build upon that in the next game and build upon that in the next game. It was a really good confidence builder for our kids, and it validated the things that we thought our team could be.”

Sprayberry

QB Jaden Duckett has thrown 11 touchdown passes and rushed for 11 TDs.

Credit: Marietta Daily Journal

Then came the region opener against an improving Pope team. The Greyhounds served up a dose of reality in a 34-23 loss.

“We had a slip up in that first region game,” recalls Vavra. “Looking back, it probably needed to happen. You don't consciously become complacent, but I think subconsciously you get settled into what you're doing at practice and lack a little bit of attention to detail. Those little details matter. I hate to lose any game, but the loss to Pope reset us, refocused us, and our kids and our coaches don't want to have to go through that feeling again. That’s what we've learned from that loss against Pope and the wins that we had early in the season.”

During the early season’s success, a number of leaders and key contributors have emerged for the Yellow Jackets. None more than a pair of talented receivers that form a dynamic duo – Missouri commit Mark Manfred (18 catches, 22.1 yard average, two TDs) and Jorden Edmonds (24 catchese, 20.0 yard average, four TDs).

The quarterback is Jaden Duckett, who has thrown for 1,285 yards and 11 touchdowns, with only one interception, and rushed for 506 yards and 11 touchdowns, four of them last week.

“He’s just a baller,” Vavra says. “He runs the show for us on offense.”

Tailback Rayshawn Simpkins has emerged from a role player to a featured back. He has rushed for 407 yards and two touchdowns.

On defense, Everett Currie picked up where he left off last year when he led Cobb County with 132 tackles. Currie has 57 tackles, two sacks and six hurries. Roman Spink, a three-year starter at safety, has 43 tackles, one interception and six passes defended. Inside linebacker Jaymarion Cooper has 48 tackles, 5.5 sacks and eight hurries, and lineman Gabe Clarke has 32 tackles, a team-high 6.5 tackles for loss, three sacks and 10 hurries.

With the Yellow Jackets enjoying a great start to the season, last week was a rare moment. Their game with Creekview was televised and the coach likes how his team rose to the occasion.

“It’s a special moment for our football program,” says Vavra. “Not having been televised or anything like that made it pretty cool. Our kids knew how important that game was and did a pretty good job of handling all that. Friday was an unbelievable atmosphere. It was homecoming. Our kids went out and played ball and did a really good job. I was proud of our defense. Our defense is playing well this year. We were able to get some stops, we were able to get a couple turnovers, one on special teams.”

Duckett threw for 200 yards and a touchdown to Edmonds and ran for 96 yards. Simpkins ran for 105 yards. Kashe Hall intercepted a pass.

“It was just a really good night for us,” Vavra says. “It was a fun night. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go because we all knew Creekview was a really good football opponent. Coach Trevor Williams does a fantastic job with that program. I knew it was going to be a physical game and it was. So very excited for our kids and it was awesome to come out on top with a huge region win.”

The Yellow jackets are one win away from reaching seven wins, something that hasn’t happened since 2008. It’s big for the school and community, but perhaps it means even more to Vavra. He is a Sprayberry graduate who got his first coaching job, out of college, at his alma mater. He would return as an assistant to Billy Shackelford and was on the staff at Etowah when he got the call to return as head coach eight years ago. He hopes that this year’s team will appreciate the moment.

Sprayberry

Junior quarterback Jaden Duckett has nearly 1,800 total yards for the Yellow Jackets.

Credit: Marietta Daily Journal

“I want them to understand the opportunity that they have,” says Vavra. “They have a chance to put themselves in a position to win a region championship and make a deeper run in the playoffs. It’s right there for the taking. We've got the tools, we've got the players, we've got the ability to do that. We’ve just got to put it all together. They are more talented than they realize. I don't think we've even reached our potential yet, but I think we're headed there.”

The opportunity is there, but it won’t be easy. This Friday night Sprayberry will host a River Ridge team that is 5-1 overall, 3-0 in the region. The Yellow Jackets will have to be at their best.

“We’ve got to be extremely disciplined on both sides of the ball,” says Vavra. “We cannot turn the ball over, and we cannot have penalties which we at times have had. We have not turned the ball over a lot. Forcing and creating turnovers is something that River Ridge does a really good job of, so we've got to take care of the football. We've got to be disciplined. Their quarterback, Ethan Spector, is a really good player. We're familiar with them because we played them in the last two years, and he's done a good job against us. They’re very disciplined and sound. So, we're going to have to match and be more physical than them. I think if we can do that, we’ve got a chance to be successful on Friday night.”

This week Football Friday’s in Georgia will feature Marist at St. Pius. Kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on the great GPB!