Ben Lippen football has eyes set on repeating
Ben Lippen football coach Derek White made sure his team wasn’t going to shy away from the expectations and target that go with being the defending SCISA Class 3A champions.
Shortly before his team hit the field for the first official practice Thursday, White painted a bullseye in the end zone. Other Falcon players showed up with shirts with the bullseye on the back of them.
The Falcons won their first state title last year with a 27-21 win against Porter-Gaud.
“We want to have the mindset that we are hunted, but we are still hunting,” White said. “We want to embrace that target and run toward it.”
White put his team through a high-energy first practice with music blaring. He also rewarded his team at the end by showing them new alternate white helmets they will wear this season.
The helmets are one of the benefits from winning a title. The championship has brought more notoriety to the school and more kids wanting to play for the program. Ben Lippen added transfers from schools such as Chapin, Lexington, Dutch Fork, Cardinal Newman and Blythewood.
The new players help ease the loss of Division I prospect Bryce Thompson, who transferred to Dutch Fork, and graduated players such as Patrick McClure and Garrison Moore.
“We have been blessed that people want to be part of it,” White said. “Key is if you do it the right way, people will want to find out what it is about. It recruits itself. We don’t go around calling anybody or any of that stuff.”
Quarterback Trad Beatty is the most high profile of the transfers after playing at Chapin his first three years. According to 247Sports, Beatty is the top-ranked quarterback prospect in the Midlands and committed to play at Temple. The 6-foot-5 quarterback has been on campus since January and is acclimated to his new surroundings.
“Coming in and playing with these guys, who know how to win a state championship, they are teaching me that,” Beatty said. “Our focus is to work hard, play within ourselves and get back to where we want to be.”
Running back/linebacker Kyle Wright said Beatty has had a smooth transition and brought strong leadership quality to the team.
Ben Lippen opens against Florida Class 2A champion University Christian. White said there also is talk of playing a team from Georgia to replace Oakbrook Prep in Week 3.
Those two games will present a challenge to go along with playing strong SCISA programs such as Hammond, Porter-Gaud and Laurence Manning.
“It is amazing to be defending champion, and to be a champion at all is great,” Wright said. “But at the end of the day, we’ve got to look forward. And we look forward to being champions again.”
This story was originally published July 27, 2017 at 10:28 PM.