By: Mike Anthony

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

For the last two seasons, Wayne County has been the undisputed cream of the Region 2-AAAAA crop.

During that span, the Yellow Jackets have rattled off consecutive region championships with unbeaten marks in region play, as well as a 10-0 regular season campaign last fall and a pair of trips to the second round of the state playoffs.

Some tough losses to graduation and a quartet of region rivals that all appear to be on the upswing will make a region three-peat a tall order, but there’s every reason to count Wayne County as a favorite yet again until another school can prove otherwise.

At the helm for each of the last two seasons has been Ken Cribb, who has done an outstanding job of building the Jackets into a region power when things could have easily gone in a different direction.

The Yellow Jackets reached the state semifinals in 2013 and won a region title in 2014 under Jody Grooms, but the program was thrown into flux when Grooms was charged with theft in 2016. After a year under an interim coach, Cribb took over and immediately found success.

Cribb now faces the challenge of replacing many of the players who have paved the way to success recently. Six starters depart from a defense that was mostly good in 2018, but gave up its share of points.

They’ll be tested early and often as tough non-region games against Richmond Hill and Glynn Academy pop up in the first month.

Offensively, the Jackets can rest a bit easier as dual-threat quarterback Shamar Taylor returns for his senior season. Taylor threw for 1,689 yards and 12 touchdowns last fall while rushing for 247 yards and three more touchdowns.

However, Taylor will have to once again be a star as there is plenty of production left to fill in around him.

Running back and 1,000-yard rusher M.J. Fuller is gone from 2018 and Kaliz Hadley is the only Jacket other than Taylor with more than 200 rushing yards back on the roster in 2019.

Primary receiving target Ashby Cribb (60 catches, 748 yards, 5 TD last season) is also gone, leaving Hadley and Trevin Wallace as the only returners to put up considerable receiving numbers last year.

It will be hard for the Yellow Jackets to duplicate the 32.7 points per game that they averaged during the 2018 regular season, but if new faces are able to step up there should still be plenty of scoring in Jesup.