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Records won’t be the true measure of Harding’s chances this season; the records of senior running back Rod Smith or even the win-loss record.
The Hawks, who have been known to float around the .500 mark in the regular season before putting on a show in the playoffs, will be led by several capable returning players, including the record-setting Smith.
Smith, who committed to Ohio State in the summer, is the school’s career leading rusher (4,770 yards) and has his sights on the city (5,328) and state (7,560) records.
Quarterback Zac Haydock, receiver Diamond Lymon, defensive backs Darius Griffin and Jastin Stephans and linemen Marvin Smith and Dominic Stephens also are key returning players.
“We have a pretty good amount of players coming back from last year, and everybody got experience on varsity so we should be all right,” ” Smith said.
“It is good to know we have a lot of players coming back, and a lot of teams lost a lot of people. We just have to work hard and stay focused and make the best of it.”
Haydock, son of coach Sherwood Haydock, will be a constant for the Hawks after coming in at midseason last year and stabilizing the quarterback position. He threw for more than 1,000 yards and 11 touchdowns in six games.
“We have a main quarterback, so we know there won’t be any switching going on,” Smith said. “That’s all he has to work on, and he’s the focus and he will be all right.”
The Hawks were the 2006 Class 2A state champions and 2003 2A state runners-up, but any postseason success will now have to come a class up as the program moved to 3A.
Smith doesn’t expect moving up a class will seriously affect the team.
“Everybody is going to be watching us to see how we did, but everybody has their heads right, so we are ready,” he said.
“We are going to make sure everybody is well-conditioned. We just want to stay in it for four quarters and play as a team.”
The goal again is to reach the final postseason game, according to Stephans.
“We are just trying be successful and get our way to state since this is our last year,” he said of his fellow seniors. “We should be good.
“Basically all of our skilled players from last year are coming back, on offense and defense. We should be cool. That’s big for our leadership. If anything could set us back, that would be leadership, and we can’t let that happen.”
