Snow Hill football squad surging with 'great leaders' under new head coach Hammond

New Snow Hill head football coach Raheem Hammond has been on the coaching staff for four years since returning back to the school he attended and played for. And the results during his years as an assistant were a mixed bag; a shortened COVID-19 season in the Spring of 2021, followed by a promising season in the fall, only to follow it up with a 2-7 record in the 2022 season.

But anyone who'd watched the Snow Hill teams in recent years could clearly see there was talent on the field, and that the Eagles could be potentially building a promising future for a program that has been down on its luck. And in this 2023 season, Hammond's first as head coach, it looks like that promising future has come together.

A 4-2 start, with the Eagles finding themselves at the top of the Bayside Conference's Class 1A Division through the first half of the season, has made the Eagles one of the more intriguing stories in Bayside football this year. And all of their wins have been convincing, with three blowouts and a clutch last-second victory over Nandua.

Hammond says the season they've had so far this year has been a result of a complete buy-in and great performances from the entire team, from the coaching staff, every player on the team and the community around the squad that has had its back.

New head coach says 'the kids have embraced it'

More: Soccer and Field Hockey stars highlight this week's Player of the Week nominees.

"I think they're performing really well, to be honest. They've responded to the call," Hammond said in an interview last week before their game against Colonel Richardson. "Our coaching staff has been phenomenal, the communities been behind us, and the kids have embraced it."

Coming into the season, Hammond says that he had a good feeling that they would be able to put together a good one, but even he has been a little surprised by the start they've gotten out to over a month into the season. But with the last three games of the regular season coming up, followed by Class 1A playoffs, the focus is still on just getting better week-by-week.

"I definitely had a thought that we were going to be good, but I didn't know we were going to be this good," Hammond said. "We just want to take it one game at a time and go 1-0 every week. We're not trying to look to for down into the future, we're just trying to take care of every opponent that's in front of us every week."

Snow Hill's key players have developed into 'great leaders'

A big part of Snow Hill's success this season has been the play of a core group of seniors who have stepped up for the Eagles throughout their four-year careers, and are now seeing the end results and success of the incremental improvements they've made each season.

For Hammond, having seniors like Zyheem Collick, Jayceere Fields, Ja'hki Boulware and Tyler Reddick has been huge for his first year as a coach, and watching them grow into the players they are now has been rewarding since he joined the staff.

"They've developed into some great leaders man," Hammond said. "They have their moments, but at the end of the day they perform at a high level. And they've been very coachable. Right now, they're getting their assignments, and they come through in big moments being playmakers."

And those players have also taken pride in bringing winning football back to Snow Hill, as well as proving any doubters who may have expected another season of losses for the Eagles.

More: Stephen Decatur football beats Kent Island in battle of Bayside undefeated teams

"People look at Snow Hill and say 'Oh, they're going to be bad this year.' We're 4-1," Fields said. "We haven't been 4-1 or 4 and nothing in a long time, so it's great improvement on our side."

After seasons shortened by COVID-19, players ready to win big

For those seniors, their football careers started with a strange and shortened spring season as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. What followed was a promising fall 2021 season where they showed improvement, followed by just a two-win season last year. For Collick, closing out their careers with wins that matched the talent they believed they had on the team was a motivating factor heading into their final seasons.

"Freshman year was a COVID year, so we only ended up playing like six games or what not. And I didn't really end up having high school football, what it exactly felt like because there no fans or limited fans," Collick said. "Sophomore year we went 3-6 and we were thinking then that we were back on the right track, and then last year, my junior year, we went 2-7. That kind of hit us hard and we realized, this is not who we are, our record doesn't show the talent.

"This year, we've been on that right side, we go hard at it every day. 6 o'clock in the morning practices. Practices didn't start until 7. Just getting that discipline going as a team. We all have been working as one and I think that's helped a lot. It feels good to see that progress."

Snow Hill lost on the road on Friday to Colonel Richardson, and will look to bounce back with another big Bayside 1A matchup at home against Cambridge-South Dorchester. And for the players, as the regular season winds down, the goal to keep winning and prove people wrong remains the same.

"Just winning honestly," Boulware says. "There's a lot of people that don't believe in us still up into this point, even though we've showed that we can play... We just want to prove people wrong and win games honestly, and have a good run in the playoffs."

This article originally appeared on Salisbury Daily Times: Snow Hill football thriving with new head coach, 'great leaders'