Berryhill Team Preview

Get 25% off your subscription by entering Knight25 in the coupon code area. Enjoy! Stay tuned to Prep Redzone Oklahoma every day as we release more individual team previews as we get closer to the start of the 2021 football season. In case you missed it, you can check out our Preseason Rankings <a href="https://prepredzone.com/2021/06/2021-preseason-rankings/">RIGHT HERE</a>. Overview (Class 3A Preseason Ranking: #7) A theme that has certainly popped up in doing these previews is that 2020 brought some very strange results. Rightfully so considering the year we had and I still claim the fact that we got the entire season in was a borderline-miracle. One of those strange results was certainly the season that Berryhill had. Normally, the Chiefs are a powerhouse that you can mark down for 9-10 wins and potentially making a deep run in the playoffs. This was obviously anything but a normal year. The Chiefs would finish the 2020 season at 3-5, losing to district foe Verdirgris in the second round of a 3A playoff that in normal years, Berryhill would have been left out of. More on that later. The Chiefs didn't get their first win over a varsity team until October 23rd, in week eight against Central. They had five regular season games get cancelled. They were able to replace one of those cancelled games with a week four game against Broken Arrow's JV squad, which would be their only other win during the regular season. And if you're a Berryhill fan reading this, which there's a good chance you are, you're probably ready to close out of this and move on with your day. Enough salt in the wounds. The 2021 season could certainly be one of redemption for the Chiefs. They bring back six starters on both sides of the ball, including their starting backfield at quarterback and running back. The Chiefs are ranked at #7 in our preseason rankings, which might seem a little high considering their 2020 record but this is a ranking for 2021, not last year. We expect the Chiefs to have a big bounce back year but they will have some pretty big hurdles to deal with. The top two teams in our 3A rankings are Holland Hall and Verdigris. Both are district foes, including a Verdigris team that beat Berryhill twice last year. We're willing to predict the Chiefs will absolutely be ready for the test this season as they get back to normal. <hr /> 2020 Results (3-5 Record - Lost In 3A 2nd Round) Sept. 4 - Game VS Fort Gibson Cancelled Sept. 11 - Game VS Cascia Hall Cancelled Sept. 18 - Lost To Cushing 27-17 Sept. 24 - Beat Broken Arrow JV 35-7 Oct. 2 - Lost To Verdigris 31-14 Oct. 9 - Game VS Jay Cancelled Oct. 15 - Lost To Holland Hall 31-7 Oct. 23 - Beat Central 62-20 Oct. 30 - Lost To Vinita 21-13 Nov. 6 - Game VS Mannford Cancelled 1st Round - Beat Seminole 35-0 2nd Round - Lost To Verdigris 27-21 <hr /> Players To Watch [player_tooltip player_id="48197" first="Chase" last="Burke"] - 2022 Running Back It would be very easy to overlook Berryhill running back [player_tooltip player_id="48197" first="Chase" last="Burke"]. At 5’7, he doesn’t have the physical stature that other running backs have. However, if you overlook him, you might miss him as he runs right by you. In his last five games of a very limited 2020 season, Burke had at least 100 yards in each game. As a sophomore, he ran for over 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns. Burke has a fantastic offensive line in front of him and is ready to get another full season of work in. When it comes to recruiting, he’ll have to overcome questions about his size. When it comes to this fall, he could be one of the top backs in 3A football. Jaxon Waite - 2022 Quarterback Joining Burke in the backfield is senior quarterback Jaxon Waite. The Berryhill senior took over for 2021 QB [player_tooltip player_id="38639" first="Jake" last="Miller"] late in the 2020 season and made the most of his three opportunities. He completed nearly 50% of his passes and the yardage numbers went up in every game. However, the three interceptions in their playoff loss to Verdigris did not help matters. We’ve seen Waite this offseason as he came and participated at our Showcase Camp in June. He was one of a few quarterbacks who stood out to our QB coaches throughout the afternoon. The 1-2 punch of Waite and Burke in the Berryhill backfield will be dangerous. More Names [player_tooltip player_id="135491" first="Davis" last="Dotson"] - 2022 Offensive Lineman Dmitri Apostolides - 2022 Linebacker <hr /> Notable In 2020, Berryhill made it to the playoffs for the 12th consecutive season. Berryhill’s playoff streak should have been snapped in any normal year. Granted, in a normal year, the Chiefs wouldn’t have had to deal with all the starting and stopping. Because of Covid, the OSSAA made the decision to allow every team that wanted to participate in the playoffs able to participate in the playoffs. The Chiefs, after finishing sixth in their district, would have been on the outside looking in. We wrote about this type of situation with Mustang in the 6A-D1 playoffs last year as well. And just like with Mustang, the Chiefs took advantage of making it to the dance and didn’t dwell on the road that got them there. In their first round game against Seminole, they shut them out 35-0. They would then get tripped up by district foe Verdigris, but as noted earlier, they would play them much closer in the playoffs than the regular season. The Chiefs kept their playoff streak alive in 2020, even if it might have an asterisk next to it. They’ll certainly be gunning on making it into the postseason on their own this fall. <hr /> 2021 Schedule/Games To Watch Sept. 3 - Fort Gibson Sept. 11 - AT Cascia Hall Sept. 18 - Cushing Sept. 25 - AT Inola Oct. 1 - Verdigris - The first of two of the bigger revenge games for the Chiefs happens on the first Friday in October in week five as Berryhill will host Verdigris. In a three-week stretch, Berryhill will host Verdigris and Holland Hall. Those two teams are currently ranked as the top two teams in our 3A preseason rankings. The Chiefs got two opportunities at Verdigris in 2020 and dropped both of them. The second meeting came in the playoffs and the Chiefs played Verdigris much closer but eventually fell. A win here will give Berryhill some serious momentum as they head into the rest of the district schedule, including the showdown with Holland Hall in week seven. Oct. 8 - AT Jay Oct. 14 - Holland Hall - A couple weeks after their first district showdown, the Chiefs will have another with the defending state champions from Holland Hall. Berryhill actually gave the Dutch one of their closest games of 2020, despite being beaten by 20+. The Dutch were that dominant in 2020. Coming into this season, Berryhill has to have this date circled as they'll welcome in the Dutch on a Fall Break Thursday evening for a showdown that will certainly have district championship implications. Win and you stay alive for that title. Lose, and you become in serious danger of finishing third or lower and have to go on the road. Oct. 22 - AT Central Oct. 29 - Vinita Nov. 5 - AT Mannford <hr /> Championship History 1 State Championship 2004 - Beat Victory Christian 27-6