Huntingdon looks to reclaim the USA South Title in 2024
Huntingdon Football
After coming in second in the USA South Conference last football season, the Huntingdon Hawks will look to reclaim the conference crown from Belhaven in 2024. With the exception of the Covid season in 2020-21, that was the first year that Huntingdon had not won the title since the 2018-19 season. Head Coach of the Hawks, Mike Turk explains that last year’s runner-up finish will be somewhat of an added motivation for his team this year.
“You know it’s something that we’ve talked about. There’s reminders placed in strategic places around the facility that hopefully keep their mind in the right place. Regardless of if we did or didn’t last year, it’s not going to matter this year. And, that’s what we used to say when we were the defending champion, and that’s what we’re still saying. What we do from this point forward is really all that matters,” explains Turk.
The Hawks will be without three big pieces of last year’s team including quarterback Carson Daniels, running back Kahari McReynolds, and wide receiver Tyler England. Last year McReynolds led the Hawks with 804 rushing yards while England led the way in receiving yards with 552. So, Turk and his coaching staff are looking for their next group of leaders to step up and lead the team.
According to Turk, most years he has a hunch on who the captains will be, which is determined by player votes, but this year it’s not so clear to Turk. However this was not a negative to Turk, he just believes there are multiple players on his team that will step up and fill those leadership roles.
“A lot of the players that are older in the program right now were around here when things were rolling, and we’ve kind of challenged them to make sure they do their part to step up and fill those leadership roles. It’s a difficult thing in today’s world to be a leader, and so we have done our best to develop those guys and challenge them to step forward and be the guys that take us where we need to go,” says Turk.
The Hawks open up their 2024-25 campaign at home against Berry on September 7th and kickoff is set for 6:00.
