2021 Season Preview: West Florence Knights

The excitement over a new on-campus stadium with synthetic turf and a half-a-million-dollar weight room is already working wonders for the West Florence Knights. Coach Jody Jenerette has seen his players feed off it. "When we scrimmaged Cheraw, kids were jumping around," Jenerette said. "I have seen a turn in atmosphere around practice. We’re not prodding them. I think it has a lot to do with the surroundings. It hasn’t been as hard to coach, as far as motivating them." West Florence will be replacing quarterback <strong>George Henry Floyd</strong> and big tight end <strong>Dylan Snyder</strong>, a pair of players who are now in the college ranks in baseball and football, respectively. It will do that with juniors <strong>Orlando Hudson</strong> and <strong>Pate Marlowe</strong>. They’re inexperienced at the varsity level (Hudson transferred from Darlington and primarily played basketball), but Jenerette has seen enough during preseason drills to start to gain confidence in both of them. They’ll get some time to grow, especially with as much attention as senior tailback <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="91198" first="Terry" last="McKithen"]</strong> will garner, especially in the early going. McKithen is the most dependable player back in uniform for the Knights. As a junior, he put up 761 yards and six touchdowns on the ground and also catch 15 passes for 160 yards and another score. Offensive lineman <strong>Logan Locklair</strong> will provide some stability up front after a few departures. On the outside, West Florence will also turn to senior receiver <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="153221" first="Avion" last="McBride"]</strong>, a 6-foot-6, 215-pound receiver who stood out on the basketball court last year. McBride is starting to pull some significant NCAA Division-I football interest. Junior kicker <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="91360" first="Sam" last="Spence"]</strong>, who recently received a PWO offer from South Carolina, has also taken the next step in his game. Defensively, sophomore <strong>Frank Emerson</strong> may develop into the centerpiece after getting quality varsity reps as a freshman. Emerson tallied 16 tackles, a tackle for loss, one interception and one forced fumble last year. On the back side, sophomore defensive back <strong>Kelvin Hunter</strong> could pad the blow from the loss of <strong>Nyke Johnson</strong>, now at Virginia Tech. Together, they’ll be tasked with competing in the toughest region in Class 4A. And Jenerette would be just fine if opponents are concentrating on his new digs, too. "I really, really like this team," he said. "We’ve raised these guys since they were freshmen. It’s not that last year’s group was a bad group of the year before was a bad group. This is just a good team. I don’t walk into the locker room and [find a mess]. Our seniors handle it. The core group that we have absolutely expects to win."