2022 Preview: Myrtle Beach Seahawks

Myrtle Beach has little choice but to be patient over the next few weeks. Heavy losses on both sides of the ball - including two now-NCAA FCS players - leave the Seahawks playing a game of Tetris without much room for error. “It’s trying to make the right personnel fits,” coach Mickey Wilson said. “And, hey, they may not be the right fit right now.” All told, Wilson’s squad will be replacing nine starters on defense and another six on offense. Gone are quarterback Ryan Burger (Appalachian State) and Adam Randall (Clemson). So, too, are the likes of <strong>Tre Phillips</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="267459" first="Ricky" last="Escobar"]</strong> and <strong>Josh Gunn</strong>, several of the defensive standouts who led Myrtle Beach to a Region VI-4A championship and a trip to the Lower State semifinals. It’s time to see how well this team can re-load. For that, Wilson will turn to one of the parts of the game he knows best - his receivers. Talented returner [player_tooltip player_id="272701" first="Jon" last="Simmons"] (16 receptions, 184 yards, three touchdowns) and [player_tooltip player_id="336119" first="Jake" last="Doty"] (28, 383, nine) will be joined by incoming starters <strong>Jason Nash</strong> (10, 108, three) and Waccamaw transfer <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="347890" first="Ethan" last="Stokes"]</strong>, who moved into the school midway through last year. The team will also be turning most of the running back reins back to [player_tooltip player_id="146360" first="Cam" last="Ward"], a three-year starter who has dabbled on offense while developing into one of the more influential linebackers in the region. Ward has missed parts of each of the last two seasons with arm injuries. As far as who is gonna run an offense that also includes returning offensive linemen [player_tooltip player_id="146376" first="Wade" last="White"], <strong>Cooper Abernathy</strong> and [player_tooltip player_id="208344" first="Brady" last="Pickett"]? The quarterback battle between West Virginia transfer <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="58826" first="Trey" last="Dunn"]</strong> (pictured) and <strong>Wyatt Cannon</strong> is alive and well and might not be officially settled until mid-August. At that time, Wilson hopes his defense is also starting to gel. He’ll be relying on safety <strong>Michael Gillard</strong> (36.5 tackles, four TFL, interception) and linebacker <strong>Ashton McSwain</strong> (31 tackles, 5.5 TFL) to stabilize a whole bunch of new faces. Among the most notable changes will be last year’s starting tailback, [player_tooltip player_id="208336" first="Malachi" last="Washington"], moving to cornerback, former starting receiver <strong>Kenny Brown</strong> switching to safety and linebacker <strong>Shammond Sutton</strong> taking over Ward’s former spot on defense. Wilson hopes any prior experience will keep things moving in the right direction, sooner rather than later. After all, Myrtle Beach opens the season against Camden, one of the top squads in Class 3A, and then moves into a trio of games against local opponents who would love to knock the normally powerful Seahawks down a peg. “We’ve got some guys who were back-ups last year and who don’t have a ton of experience. We have a lot of uncertainty,” Wilson said. “We have some guys moving up from the junior varsity and guys [changing positions]. It’s a work in progress. And we’ve deal with that before.”