RAEFORD —After a split decision from coaches and media at last year’s Sandhills Athletic Conference Media Day, the Richmond Senior football team walked away from Bayonet Golf Course at Puppy Creek with a knockout on Sunday.
Both groups agreed that the Raiders are the prohibitive favorites to win the conference crown this season.
Richmond earned six first-place votes in both polls, while rival Scotland earned two first-place votes from the coaches and four first-place votes from the media.
The news from Media Day comes on the heels of another preseason laurel, as the team was slated No. 2 in HighSchoolOT.com’s preseason Top 25 football rankings released earlier in the day.
The Raiders return a host of starters on both sides of the ball from an 11-2 team that went undefeated in SAC play last year. Junior quarterback Caleb Hood and senior inside linebacker Gavin Russell were both in attendance on Sunday to represent the team.
“It’s some pressure, but I think our guys are focused,” Hood said of the polls. “We can’t let the hype get to us.”
Russell struck the same chord with comments about the preseason attention.
“When you have a target on your back, every team wants to beat you, every team wants to take you down. They just going to bring their hardest and we just got to fight back harder,” said Russell.
Coach Bryan Till says it was an honor to be regarded with such high praise by the media and fellow coaching peers, but he is adamant that it won’t change how the group prepares from week to week.
He added that records are thrown out the window in a conference with such a storied past.
“It’s tough, I mean, physically tough. You gon’ get hit in the mouth every week,” Till said of the competition level in the league. “That’s the thing that’s represented and I think these kids would love to carry on that tradition.”
After Richmond and Scotland, the coaches followed with Seventy-First, Pinecrest, and Jack Britt. Hoke County and Lumberton tied for sixth and Purnell Swett rounded out the group at the bottom.
On the media side, rankings for the top five spots were identical to the coaches, but the last three spots were given to Hoke, Purnell Swett and Lumberton, respectively.
The Raiders’ season starts at home against Clayton on Aug. 23 and they host Purnell Swett on Sept. 27 to open conference play.
