Class 5A blog: Familiarity produces success for rising Whitewater

The Whitewater football team prepares to take the field as part of the Fayette-Coweta Kickoff Classic.

The Whitewater football team prepares to take the field as part of the Fayette-Coweta Kickoff Classic.

In the spring of 2020, Chad Frazier accepted the position as head football coach at Whitewater. Then COVID happened. Frazier was unable to meet his new players face-to-face until July. No spring workouts or spring game. No seven-on-seven camps. No padded camps. No time to build personal relationship.

And no time to teach the tenets of the wing-T offense that Frazer’s teams run so successfully. When they finally met, it was akin to asking a Gen-Xer to use a rotary telephone. There was a steep learning curve.

Despite the hurdles, the Wildcats won four of their final five regular season games and made the playoffs. The 5-6 season was a good first step, Frazier said.

This year has been more normal and the off-season work is evident. After losing the season opener to Class 7A East Coweta, Whitewater has won four in a row. The program is 4-1 for the first time since 2014 and opened Region 2 play last week with an impressive 40-6 win over previously unbeaten Northside-Columbus.

“We’re just kind of finding out who we are and knowing our identity, both offensively and defensively,” Frazier said. “These last four games we’ve been playing well and the kids have really executed well and bought into the game play. We’ve still got some areas to improve, like everybody else, but so far it’s worked out pretty good.”

Whitewater’s option offense has been accumulating yardage and scoring points. The Wildcats have averaged 35.5 points over the last four games and allowed only eight. It has certainly helped to have a full year of experience in the system, along with eight returning starters.

Whitewater has a solid offensive line that is capable of launching their ground-chewing, time-consuming offense. Center John Raines and left guard Ethan Crawford are a pair of seniors who anchor the group, which averages 299.8 yards on the ground. T.J. Hill and Will Snellings bring need size, skill and toughness to the tight end position.

And the stable of running backs is deep and diverse.

“There are six different kids on the varsity that we feel good about and have different skill sets than others and we try to utilize those guys in those situations,” Frazier said. “They all know the entire offense and you don’t feel like there’s any dropoff when you sub them in.”

The top three rushers are junior Braxton Miller, a speedy A-back who has run for 370 yards and four touchdowns and averages 9.3 per carry, and senior B-backs Dalton Bonner (207 yards, four TDs) and Adeoluwa Erinle (231 yards, three TDs).

Quarterback Austin Williams has taken to the offense. The senior has run for 317 yards and five touchdowns and thrown for 250 yards and two touchdowns.

The defense has been rock solid. Frazier said, “We felt like we were going to be pretty good on defense and once we got past that first week, things have kind of come together and we’ve played well defensively.”

That defense will face a serious test this week when the Wildcats host Griffin, one of the perennial contenders for the region title. The Bears, under new coach Rusty Easom, are 2-2, but one of the losses came against Class 7A power Lowndes.

“The biggest challenge for us is probably their overall team speed,” Frazier said. “So adjusting to that speed, that we haven’t seen since East Coweta, will probably be the biggest challenge.”

Griffin has won five of the six meetings between the two schools, but prevailed only 28-21 a year ago.