APPOMATTOX, Va. – State power Appomattox County has dominated the Class 2 ranks in the Commonwealth for the better part of a decade. The Raiders reeled off five Class 2 state titles in six seasons — through the spring season of 2021. They have been region champs for the past two seasons but fell in the state semifinals for the second year in a row to Graham. And while that is a hugely successful season for most teams, you get the feeling the Raiders are hungry to get back to the top of the Class 2 mountain.
“Getting to Thanksgiving weekend has been the standard we t least wanna meet every year. But now we knew we had to work a little bit harder in the off-season if we wanna have a chance to get past that. Try to win a couple of our out-of-district games that we lost last year against really tough teams. Rustburg Heritage, Botetourt-they got us — and Buckingham’s going to be a tough county rival game. We know we need to get more physical to play with those bigger schools that we had early in the season,” Interim Head Coach Stephen Castello said.
”It motivates us because it’s like we came so far and ended up short. We don’t want to repeat that again this year. It’s happened the past two years and I think everybody’s just focused and dialed in on this season,” Raiders junior tackle Nadir Abdussallam said.
The Raiders have always had a wealth of speed and talent at the skill positions, but by playing larger schools they have realized a tougher style of play is necessary. They are delivering that in this year’s camp.
“Everybody’s getting stronger every day coming to work out every day not missing days and off and this team’s been way more physical like last week at a whole lot injuries cause people are getting physical — but that’s a good thing though,” Appomattox senior lineman Tyson Napier said.
I would be remiss if the 1st and 10 family didn’t send out our best to Head Coach Doug Smith. Coach is not able to come to practice every day as he undergoes another round of cancer treatments. Smith is still watching film and leaving notes on scrimmages and practice film for the players. So make no mistake, the leader of “The Power of One” is still watching over the Raiders.
The Raiders open at Buckingham on Aug. 25.