By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Graham’s football team has been in this situation often in recent seasons: the Red Devils hope their 2024 story takes a different path.
They’re optimistic about the possibilities despite a small roster and limited experience.
First-year coach Mykel Searcy has the task of reviving the Red Devils.
“This community really wants to turn the page and become a successful program again,” Searcy said.
For senior running back/linebacker Jaylen Lea, there’s renewed hope.
“It feels like a new beginning,” Lea said. “The coaching staff and a change of scenery. It hasn’t gone how we wanted it to, but we got to keep our heads up.”
Again, the Graham roster will be thin on numbers. Perhaps the total will be about 30 players.
A group of players who’ve been committed is what encourages the new coach. He said more than a dozen players have demonstrated a strong level of commitment.
“The kids have bought in,” Searcy said. “These kids are working their tails off. That core group has stuck together and been galvanized. It’s about the young men and student-athletes who are out there.”
Six seniors are on the team.
“We were trying to get people out,” Lea said of in-school recruiting. “We got the ones who want to be here.”
Junior Brayden Wardlow is set for key roles as a running back and defensive end. He was a Williams junior varsity player in 2022 and then last year played just one game for Graham because of an eligibility issue.
For Wardlow, there are reasons to be encouraged.
“It has been better than last year,” he said. “It’s a lot of younger people we have to develop.”
There will be shifts in how the personnel is used. Lea played as a lineman on offense last year, and now he’ll be in the backfield.
“It has been a transition for me, but I think it’s going to be better,” he said.
Either way, Searcy said he knows many players will be called upon for offensive and defensive positions.
Searcy is a first-time head coach after roles on coaching staffs at Rockingham County, Eden Morehead, and Greensboro Page.
In two seasons with former NFL player Bobby Houston Jr. as coach, the Red Devils turned in 4-6 and 1-9 records.
The last winning season for the Red Devils came with an 8-5 record in 2004 under the late Mike McCauley.
So Searcy has heard the questions from players. He understands.
“What’s going to be different? What’s going to change?” he said of what’s on their minds.
It begins with something basic, yet essential.
“Competing, that’s the No. 1 thing we talk about,” Searcy said.
Graham’s opener comes Friday night against visiting Southern Alamance, which won the Central 3-A Conference last year and reached the fourth round of the state playoffs.
While that specific assignment seems massive, the Red Devils embark on a bigger challenge that they’re ready to embrace.
“We’re just building something,” Searcy said. “August 23 means something to us.”
