FLINT TOWNSHIP, MI – When Gary Lee arrived as Hamady’s football coach in 2011, the Hawks were floundering.
They were coming off a 3-6 season and had a 4-23 record in the three seasons prior to Lee’s arrival.
But how things have changed, especially in recent years.
Today, Hamady has made the playoffs a school-record five straight years and the expectations are always high, especially after they Hawks set another Hamady record by winning their first 11 games in 2018 before losing in the Division 5 quarterfinals.
So when Hamady went 7-2 last season and lost in the first round of the playoffs, it wasn’t exactly cause for celebration inside the locker room.
“The great thing about it is we went 7-2 and there were people disappointed,” Lee said. “And that’s a good thing. Because when we first got here, if somebody said 7-2, they’d be like ‘Oh, my goodness!’ They’d be happy. But the kids were ‘We missed out on something.’ So that’s a good thing.
“They take a lot of pride in Hamady now. When we came here, it was a little down. Now they expect to win. Last year, we had some young kids but the biggest thing was now we expect to be successful. And it didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to (last year) but that group gave all it could give.”
Hamady returns 12 starters from last year’s team, which won the Genesee Area Conference championship for the second straight year.
That said, the Hawks' veterans might not necessarily be well known to Flint-area opponents.
“We have a good number of kids coming back,” Lee said. “Except they weren’t the guys scoring the touchdowns.”
One who did was Kaleb Chapman, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound senior wide receiver who transferred from Grand Blanc prior to last season, when he had 632 receiving yards and scored eight touchdowns.
Joining him as returning starters on the offensive side of the ball are a pair of sophomores, running back DeShawn Douglas and fullback Darquavius Buck.
Buck is 5-foot-11, 250 pounds and Lee didn’t try to hide his excitement Tuesday when talking about Buck’s potential.
“He runs hard but he is very agile,” Lee said with a grin. “Crazy agile. He is one of the best players I’ve coached. This kid can play. And I’ve coached some good guys.”
Like Mark Ingram, who now plays for the Baltimore Ravens after playing for Lee at Flint Southwestern and then won the Heisman Trophy at Alabama.
When it was pointed out that Lee also coached Ingram, Lee just smiled.
At 5-9, 215 pounds, Ingram has a similar build to Buck, who isn’t just somebody that will simply punish opposing defenses to gain yards.
“This kid just turned 15,” Lee said. "He is really special. What people are going to do is, they’re going to brace to try to make a hit on him and he’ll dance around you and go. He ran through a hole the other day, he turned sideways and when he got through the hole, he was gone.
“He’s got some feet for his size that are incredible. People are going to brace themselves to hit and he’ll dance right around them.”
Delano Townsend started on the line for Hamady as a freshman last season. (Brendan Savage | MLive.com)
Two-way linemen Delano Townsend and Jalani York are also back after starting last season. Townsend is a 6-4, 265-pound sophomore while York is a 6-4, 311-pound senior who is getting looks from GLIAC schools.
Entering Friday’s opener against Flint New Standard Community, it’s looking like junior Terrance Kiff and senior Kelly Jones will share the starting quarterback’s job.
“It’s sort of hard to say who’s going to really start because one day one of them looks good and the next day the other one looks good,” said Lee, a former quarterback himself. "I don’t care about the good plays. I want the guy who is going to be consistent.
“We’re having a problem with that. We’re going to use both guys.”
MORE:
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