Cheraw's White named coach of year

 Justin Driggers – Florence Morning News

Saturday, Dec 09, 2006 - 10:26 PM

Cheraw coach Johnny White has had a lot of success in his seven years with the Braves.

But he never had a season quite like this one.

Entering the 2006 campaign, White and his staff were faced with the unenviable task of replacing 23 seniors, including their starting quarterback, a 2,000-yard rusher and an entire offensive line.

As it turned out, White and the Braves not only found a way to win, they never lost.

Cheraw rattled off 10 straight regular-season wins, outscoring its opponents by nearly 30 points a game. In the end, White managed his most successful season to date and thus earned the Morning News Coach of the Year honor.

“We knew we were inexperienced coming into this season, but we thought that if we had some players step up, we could be a good ball team,” White said. “We have a goal, or I guess you could say expectation now, to win the region and make a deep run into the playoffs every year. The success we’ve had this season is a tribute to the players for all the time and hard work they’ve put in and to my coaching staff who handles the nuts and bolts of the coaching and do a great job.”

The Braves are 70-24 under White and have won 10 games in four of his seven seasons at the helm. Despite the lack of experience, White’s 2006 team surpassed all expectations.

Consider who Cheraw defeated for a 10-0 regular season:

Marlboro County (22-19) went 10-3 and made the third round of the Class 3A playoffs.

Darlington (33-7) went 9-3 and made the second round of the 3A playoffs.

Chesterfield (17-16) went 11-3 and made it to the Class A Division I state championship.

Marion (35-19) went 8-4 and made the second round of the 2A playoffs.

Lamar (42-14) went 9-4 and made the Class A Division I lower state final.

Central (24-0) went 8-3 and made the third round of the 2A playoffs.

Despite the success with a much different cast, White said he change little in his approach.

“We didn’t really do anything differently in terms of player development or anything like that,” White said. “We have certain things that we believe in that we try to instill in practices. We were a little concerned with our health and depth, so we only practiced in full pads one day a week. I think we were a little fresher on Fridays.”

One fresh face for the Braves this season was Andropulus Miller, who took over at quarterback. Miller, like a lot of the new starters, saw first-hand what White was expecting from his young team.

“Coach White did a great job of integrating all of the young players into the system and telling them what was expected of them,” Miller said. “I was the backup QB the last couple of years, and coach White and the staff really didn’t do a whole lot of things differently, they just made sure everyone was focused on what they had to do.”

The Braves offense flourished behind Miller and running back Travis Small, scoring an average of 36.1 points, while Cheraw’s defense gave up only 9.2 points per game. The potent combo helped guide the Braves back to Columbia, where the Braves finally won the state title in White’s third attempt.

“We’ve established a tradition here at Cheraw and we expect to win every season,” White said. “This year has been very gratifying. I expected to win, but I didn’t expect to be undefeated. It’s a tribute to the players and the coaching staff for the tremendous job they’ve done this season.