With the season drawing closer day by day, the Chuckey-Doak Black Knights gear up for another football campaign in Lower Afton with their sights set on improving with last season’s young core back.
After a down year going only 1-8 with 8-straight losses to end the season, Chuckey-Doak eyes to make it back to the playoffs in a tough Region 1-3A stacked from top to bottom. Head Coach Billy Kaylor is back for his third-straight season in black and gold. He aims to continue building culture with his young group and developing talent.
“Our weight room culture has really gotten a lot better in the spring and summer. So I guess as a blanket statement I’d say these kids have worked really, really hard in the weight room and the culture is improving tremendously. So, I’m proud of that for all of them,” Kaylor stated.
The Black Knights began last season with Dominique Atchison at quarterback, but as injuries piled up for him, they were forced to find a replacement. In stepped freshman Kiptyn Ball. Entering his sophomore season now, Ball will remain as the starter and Atchison will move to the edge as a wide receiver.
“Dominique is really, really important defensively. When you’re talking about the guy who’s going to handle the ball every snap then you’ve got to limit him somewhere else. It’s really hard to look at a kid that talented as a defensive back and limit his snaps at corner or safety because he’s the quarterback,” Coach Kaylor explained.
He continued by saying, “That and coupled with his ability on the edge and how much progress we’ve made up front and Kiptyn’s ability to get the ball where it needs to be. I think that we decided as a coaching staff that may be our best chance to get the best playmakers the ball the most consistently.”
A pair of receivers that could make a splash that Kaylor is expecting big things from are senior Dominic Hahnlen and sophomore Skylar Davis.
“Dom had a good year last year and really grew towards the end of the season. He’s had a good offseason. He’ll be kind of a lynchpin for us at outside receiver,” Kaylor said. He spoke about the potential he sees in Davis by saying, “Skylar Davis is poised to have a good year. He’s got all the potential in the world.”
The backfield is expected to be split by junior Brayden Greene and sophomore Marcus Britt.
“Both have had good preseasons at linebacker and running back so I think that’s gonna be a good little two-headed monster for us at running back,” Coach Kaylor stated.
Parker McMurray is expected to start at tight end and serve as a dynamic pass catcher for Chuckey-Doak.
The Black Knights remaining seniors on the team consist of Danny Turberville, Will Johnson, Peter Psahos, and Austin Schwartz. Their junior class runs thin with Sam Johnson, Sean Rayon, Caleb Stamper, Chris Bible, Jasper Kesterson and Spencer Nunley a part of that class.
The bulk of Chuckey-Doak’s roster consists of underclassmen. The rest of the sophomore class is Jaden Britt, Cobe Love, Logan Goins, Pierce Dodgen, Lance Turner-Armstrong, Conner Hall, and Christian Turberville. The large freshman class consists of Braxton Lowe, Avery Parkey, Braylon Fox, Nathan Casillas, Gustavo Alvarez, Colt Shull, and Shane Ducommon. Leland Inman is also a transfer student who is returning to the program again.
Chuckey-Doak will have a tough road ahead of them with a region consisting of Gatlinburg-Pittman, Pigeon Forge, Unicoi County, Johnson County, and Claiborne. They will make the trip through the county and play South Greene, West Greene, and renew their rivalry with North Greene to start the season. Their other non-region opponents are Sullivan East and Volunteer.
“My outlook is I’m excited. We’ve got a lot of young guys who have made a huge improvement. Our culture has improved, these guys are starting to buy in, our practices are better. Everything is starting to improve and the culture is getting close to where we want it to be. It’s never finished, but we’re a lot closer to what we want as a program than we were a year ago or anything like that. The outlook is optimistic, but I’ve been around this thing like enough this is year 14. You never know until you know,” Coach Kaylor detailed.
The Black Knights kick off the season at home against North Greene on Friday, August 22nd.
