WAGENER – A history-making ten-win season (and counting) for the Wagener-Salley War Eagles may have caught some area high school football fans by surprise, but head coach Willie Fox says he could see success coming for this year’s team from a mile away.
Fox, now in his fourth season leading the War Eagles (10-1), says he saw something extra special brewing even during summer workouts.
“I could see it coming because this was the best summer we have had since I’ve been here,” Fox commented. “We’ve always had great participation in summer workouts, but this summer you could tell it was special. Our young guys were growing up. We knew we were going to have the opportunity to be special, it was just a matter of putting everything together.”
“It’s really cool to see where we’ve come from in trying to build something at Wagener-Salley,” Fox added. “We weren’t very successful when I first got there, but I feel like we have built the program the right way and these kids have worked so hard in the offseason, year-round really, and this is really the culmination of all those things coming together. This is a good group of kids and a talented group of kids. It’s been a fun year.”
Wagener-Salley, ranked third in the latest Class A football poll by Max Preps, travels this week to face top-ranked Lamar (9-1) in a 7:30 p.m. kickoff this Friday night.
“We won four ballgames my first year here and then we won eight games each of the last two years and made the playoffs,” Fox stated. “We have been a good football team, we have been in the top ten in the state and everyone knows who we are now, but we haven’t been doing that little bit extra needed to get us over the top.”
“Our motto this year has been 212 degrees. The past couple of years we have been at 211 degrees, but water doesn’t boil at 211 degrees, it boils at 212 degrees so that’s our thing – grow up a little bit more, work a little bit harder on that next rep and the kids have really bought into that,” Fox added. “They have really grown up this season. We aren’t young anymore.”
Fox says the War Eagles may need to turn the temperature even higher for this week’s game against the high-powered Silver Foxes who are averaging 40 points per game.
Fortunately, Fox will have nine War Eagle standouts in Dalton Fields, Kaleb Shaw, Antonio Swedenburg, Jakobe Schofield, Jeremiah Bynem, Westin Williams, Nathan Chandler, Elijah Davis, and Josh Davis selected as All-Region players to call upon.
Fox says when he watches both teams on film he doesn’t see a lot of difference between the two.
“We are going to have to get to about 214 degrees on Friday night against Lamar no doubt about it because they are a good football team, but I think we are pretty good too,” Fox stated. “They have some players, but we have some players too. When I look at the film, it is like I am looking in the mirror. I told the kids that the team that prepares the best this week and makes the fewest mistakes is going to win the ballgame and get to keep playing. That is what it’s all about. You work hard in the heat so you can keep playing when it gets cold.”
(Photo: Kyle Dawson/The Aiken Standard)
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LINK TO DISTRICT PRESS RELEASE: 2018 PR WAR EAGLES FLYING HIGH