The SCISA schools kicked off preseason practice Thursday and for the Hammond Skyhawks, it’s another year of taking everyone’s best shot.
For the previous six seasons, Hammond has been up to the challenge, reeling off six consecutive state championships including a first 4A state championship which was won last November.
Head coach Jon Wheeler enters his third season at the helm of the program and in typical fashion, he gives credit for his current situation to the former Hammond head coach Erik Kimrey who spent one year on Shane Beamer’s staff at USC before taking over the Baylor School in Chattanooga.
But one constant at Hammond has been offensive line coach Jeff Barnes who enters his 20th year in coaching, all of those years at Hammond. A new addition to this year’s staff is G.A. Mangus, the former assistant coach at South Carolina and South Carolina State. Mangus is coaching the Hammond quarterbacks and will be serving as the offensive coordinator.