Shannon Rhea is beginning his fifth season as head coach of the Greenwood Junior High Bulldogs, and what a ride it has been. While the varsity Bulldogs have reached the state finals four consecutive seasons starting in 2015, the Jr. ‘Dogs have been making noise of their own.
Rhea’s freshmen teams finished 8-1 in each of the past two seasons, winning the River Valley Conference championship last fall, and the number of games lost since 2015 can be counted on one hand.
“This is my fifth year,” said Rhea, who asked for the junior high assignment after several years on the varsity staff. He was formerly a head coach on the high school level before coming to Greenwood.
“I think the reason we have success here is we try to do everything the high school is doing,” he explained. “We try to play as many guys as we can, and I think it’s a tribute to Coach Jones and his program. It teaches them from an early age, from our Pittbull program on up.”
The junior high coaching staff is also involved with the varsity team as well, said Rhea. “We’re there on Friday nights with them, and after our season is over, we’re doing what we can to help them.”
This past Monday the successful junior high coach talked about his team’s prospects for the season and their recent jamboree at Fort Smith Southside last week.”
It was [Ft. Smith] Ramsey and Darby,” said Rhea of the two teams Greenwood scrimmaged. “Chaffin had a bad injury and they weren’t able to participate after that. It was bad luck for Chaffin. But it was nice to be so close to home for the scrimmage.
In the recent past the Jr. ‘Dogs have traveled to Bentonville for their pre-season scrimmage, but a scheduling problem eliminated that option this year. Rhea said Greenwood was fortunate to get into the Fort Smith jamboree, even though it was plagued by the hot weather.
“The heat played a part, we had to move the start time back, and some teams couldn’t come,” he explained, but added that he was generally pleased with what he saw from his team.
“The first group did pretty well,” he said. “For eight minutes [the defense] didn’t give up a TD.” At the same time the Greenwood offense scored several times.
“We did alright. We’ve got a lot of things to work on. But I was pleased with the offense. We need to catch the ball better. But as far as execution, we did alright. I was happy with some things.
“We’ve got most of the eighth-grade team back [from last year]. We had a couple of players that transferred.” That team lost just once last season to North Little Rock, a much larger school.
“This is a small group, so depth is going to be a problem,” said the coach. “We’re going to have some guys go both ways.
“We’ve got almost 70 eighth graders out there now,” he said, which is more indicative of player numbers in recent years. But the current ninth grade class is unusually small for Greenwood.
“We had about 40 [kids], but we had three or four move off to other schools. So we’ve got about 30 [actually 31] ninth graders. We’re down about 10 to 15 from normal,” said Rhea.
“We’re trying not to move up eighth graders, but you never know,” he admitted.
But despite their smaller numbers, this group of freshmen were in top form at the end of last season as eighth graders. “They were executing better offensively than any team I’ve been a part of,” said Rhea. “We’ve got some really good quarterbacks and receivers in this bunch.”
“We’ve got three good ones,” said Rhea of his wealth at quarterback, “and there’s no difference between them. They’ve all got something they are good at. We’ve got three quarterbacks that can start for anybody in our conference.
“Right now Joe Trusty is working with the tenth grade to add depth at the high school. We don’t know yet what Coach Jones is going to do with him. But he’s a good quarterback. He’s big, about 6’1” or 6’2” and he’s going to help us defensively at rush end. He’s tough to bring down and he’s got a cannon for an arm.
“We’ve also got Hunter Houston and Storm Scherrey. We plan on playing all of them, and when they’re not playing quarterback, we’re rotating them in at receiver,” said Rhea.
“Houston is about 5’11” or six feet. He’s more of a pocket passer with a great arm. Storm is very athletic and mobile. He can throw on the run. He’s a great competitor about 5’9” or 5’10”. We’re not scared of putting any of them in,” said the coach.
Staying with the offensive backfield, Rhea also boasted of a large stable of tailbacks. “We’ve got Colton Castillow, Jake Glover, Javon Williamson, Evan Williams, and Steven Duran at running back.”
The Jr. ‘Dogs are also blessed with a nice crop of capable receivers including Adian Gray, Aiden Kennon, Tanner McKusker, and Brett Wood as starters, with Maverick Graham, Harrison Adams, Colin Marvin, Evan Williams, J.T. Stanfill, Tommy Lawyer, and Ty Griffith also in the rotation.
“Tommy Lawyer has come in and done some good things,” said Coach Rhea. “He’s new. He moved in from Tennessee. He’s really going to help us. He just needs to learn the plays a little better.
“We’ve also got really good size at receiver compared to everybody else [in the conference],” added Rhea.
The coach also talked about his undersized offensive line, another anomaly with this year’s team after several seasons of big linemen.
“At left tackle we’ve got Michael Killian,” said Rhea. “At left guard is Cooper Young, with Jackson Moffet at center. Right guard is Hayden Webb, and our right tackle is Powell Sanders.”
Reserve linemen include Hunter Stockton, Baylor Hossley, Matthew Ranney, Jesse Howard, and Cameron Cannavan, said the coach.
“We’ve got to get a little more physical on the line after the scrimmage,” added Rhea. “We’ve got to get a little bit tougher.
“These guys are going to have to come through for us. We’ve not blessed with big offensive linemen, but we don’t need to be as much as we throw the ball. We need guys to do the right footwork, and we’re going to have to run the ball too,” said Rhea.
“I just like how we execute on offense. I think we’ve got some smart kids at receiver. They’ve done extra work during the summer, so they’re not scared of working hard. I just like how they compete.”
On the defensive side, Rhea is confident in his starters. “On the defensive line we’ve got Powell Sanders at left end, Joshua Faulkner at nose guard, and Hunter Stockton at right end.
“Our outside linebackers are Jake Glover and Colton Castillow, with Evan Williams and Baylor Hossley at inside linebackers.
“Our corners are Adian Gray and Ty Griffith, with Tommy Lawyer and Harrison Adams as safeties,” said Rhea.
“We’re looking to keep them fresh, so there might be some movement later on,” he added. “We’re going to have to do a lot of cross-training.
“A guy like Evan Williams is going to alternate at running back and inside linebacker, and the same thing with Javon Williamson. We’ve got plenty of running backs, so we can alternate them.”
Rhea was asked about his general impressions of the defense from the scrimmage and from pre-season practice.
“I thought we tackled pretty well in the open field, and we did well covering the deep pass. They’re not scared getting after the ball. We just have to keep them fresh and ready to go.”
He concluded the interview by highlighting the top tier of the River Valley Conference teams with a shot at competing for the league title.
“Chaffin has some really good-looking players,” he said. “Harrison is always going to be good. Ramsey has a good quarterback. Van Buren has a couple of good players. So it’s going to be pretty even. It’s going to be a good conference race.”
Coach Rhea is ably assisted by offensive coordinator Josh Holloway, defensive coordinator Eric Daniel, and John Kincade, who oversees the secondary, receivers, and special teams.