By Jeff Whitten, Special to the Herald
It’s probably not a stretch to say South Effingham High School’s football team experienced highs and lows in 2023 under first-year head coach Loren Purvis.
The Mustangs went from a 3-0 start to just missing the state Class 6A playoffs after falling to Evans 35-20 in the season finale in a game the Mustangs led late in the fourth quarter.
That left South Effingham with a 6-4 record and a 2-4 mark in Region 2-6A – a game behind Evans in the hunt for the region’s fourth and final playoff slot.
An up and down year by any measure, though it’s one you get the feeling Purvis will take, given the turnover in coaching staff. Besides, the Mustangs experienced the school’s first winning season since 2019 and there are expectations in Guyton that what happened in 2023 will pave the way for better times to come.
“I don’t ever want to underachieve, and what we’re trying to build here from a program standpoint is something that is sustainable,” said Purvis, who was the offensive coordinator in South Effingham when last made the playoffs in 2019 under former coach Nathan Clark.
Purvis has coached under some of the best in the business, including Jeff Herron, who in 32 seasons at seven different schools compiled a 334-69 record and five state titles before retiring in 2023. Purvis also is from Ocilla, where he played quarterback for powerhouse Irwin County – where football is king and a down season is one that ends in the state semifinals.
It exposed the youthful coach to how successful programs work.
“I’ve had a very fortunate career,” Purvis said. “I’ve been fortunate I’ve been around some success. Now the goal is to put standards in place for our program where our kids hold each other accountable; our coaches hold each other accountable; our coaches hold our kids accountable, and our kids hold our coaches accountable in order to make our program a really good program. I would hope, and believe, that we’re beginning to take small steps forward to do that.”
The high spots in 2023 included the previously mentioned three-game win streak to open the season, as SEHS downed Vidalia, Islands and Bradwell Institute.
The first low came following a bye week, when the Mustangs ran into a buzzsaw called Effingham County and fell 42-7.
South Effingham traded wins (over Screven County, Lakeside and Grovetown) and losses (to Glynn Academy, Brunswick and Evans) the rest of the way out; but the Mustangs looked to be close to clinching a playoff berth late in the regular season finale. But disaster struck with some three minutes to go in the fourth quarter and SEHS leading Evans 20-14.
The Knights scored 21 unanswered points instead, leaving the Mustangs wondering “what if?” It also ended the high school careers of some 28 South Effingham seniors, including first-team All-Region linebacker Jeremiah Washington, first-team All-Region offensive lineman Ashton Anderson and first-team All-Region defensive back Dominic Martell.
The Mustangs also lost six seniors who earned second-team All-Region honors– offensive lineman Shane Alvin, running back Gannon White, receiver Aubrey Heath, linebacker Chase Whittle and punter Tyler Quick – as well as four players who earned honorable mention: quarterback Kaden DeGenerao, running back DaMyon McFarlin, wide receiver Ashton Troutman, and offensive lineman Peyton Kirby.
They’ll be remembered for helping SEHS post its first winning season since they were freshmen in 2019, but those returning say they won’t forget just how close they came to the playoffs last year.
“I feel like we left a lot of things on the table last season,” said linebacker Corbin McGuire, a senior. “Our potential was a lot higher than what we showed, and our schedule was pretty nice so we should’ve gone a lot further than we did. We missed the playoffs by one game. That left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths.”
Junior running back Kadin Ward and junior offensive lineman Braydon Sterns also thought they missed a golden opportunity, one they’re ready to put in the rearview mirror under Purvis, who gets high marks from his players for his approach to coaching.
“I feel like he cares about us as players, and as a team,” Sterns said, with McGuire adding, “He’s young. He’s fun to play for.”
Purvis said the goal is to build for the long haul, which can be the hardest thing to do in the sport for myriad reasons – not least of which is public high schools, unlike colleges and private schools, don’t recruit players.
But that’s also a good thing, in the coach’s estimation.
“That’s the beauty of public high school football,” he said. You take kids who grew up together with one common goal and get them to come together. It’s the last go-round of football where you’re playing on a team with the kids you grew up with. I think that’s something special and I hope it continues.”
Which gets back to the idea of building a program that moves the bar for success higher. After last year’s loss to Evans, Purvis told reporters he told his players not to let losses define them or what they do next.
On a recent July afternoon, he put it this way.
“We want to make our program a really good program, but that doesn’t always mean 10 wins a season,” he said. “Success is fleeting, it comes and goes; but through it all we’re trying to build a program that makes great kids. Success on the field is a byproduct of all the work you put in and believing in each other and being a team.”
Purvis related the history behind a slogan the Mustangs use now, something he said he first heard from then Prince Christian Academy defensive coordinator Richard Bell, the former South Carolina head football coach whose tenure in Columbia ended after one season because he refused an athletic director’s order to fire the defensive coordinator.
Bell was defensive coordinator at Prince Christian Academy when Purvis was there as an assistant coach, he said, and he admired Bell’s loyalty to an assistant in the cutthroat world of major college athletics.
“He said ‘Good, better, best, never let it rest until your good is your better and your better is your best’,” Purvis said. “That’s something we say every day in practice. It’s something we try to live out every day.”
