- October 5, 2024
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Whenever a new coach is hired, things change — whether that be the style of play, the culture of the program or simply how good a team is. Sometimes, that change is significant, sometimes less so.
Sixteen games into the Jeff Conaway era of The First Academy football, it’s safe to say there has been a lot of change. None probably is more pronounced or noticeable than the style of football the Royals play.
In the last 10 seasons under previous coach Leroy Kinard (2012-22), TFA never threw the ball more than 120 times in a season, and the Royals never threw for more than 1,155 passing yards in a season nor averaged more than two touchdowns a game. In Conaway’s first 16 games at the helm, his offense already has done all of those things … twice.
A particularly jarring example of this dramatic change in the style of play is the production of two of the Royals’ first-year receivers. Senior Evan James and junior Demetrice McCray, both transfers from Leesburg High, have hit the ground running for TFA.
Through six games, James, a Furman commit, has caught 22 passes for 507 yards with five touchdowns, while McCray, in five games, has snatched 23 catches for 574 yards with seven receiving touchdowns. What’s more, both James and McCray are on pace to break The First Academy school record of 806 receiving yards, set in 2023 by Julian Anderson.
Want more? Well, did you assume Anderson’s record was for receiving yards in a single season? Because his receiving yards record actually is the most across a career at TFA. This means McCray and James, who have played just five and six games, respectively, are fewer than 300 yards away from breaking the school’s career receiving yards record.
With four regular-season games remaining, and at least one playoff game guaranteed (the Royals clinched the district title and the playoff spot that comes with it), James is on pace for about 40 receptions for 929 yards with nine touchdowns. McCray’s pace would have him at 46 catches for 1,148 yards with 14 TDs.
For Conaway, whose offensive philosophy mirrors the high-paced spread concepts that have taken over all levels of the game, the level of production of both these wideouts isn’t surprising.
“They are two of the most explosive players in this state, and when we get them the football, they know exactly what to do with it,” he said. “They get open, they create great separation and they create explosive plays. It doesn’t matter if we throw it to them at the line of scrimmage or if we push the football vertically to them. The two are always a step or two ahead of the defense or, more literally, behind the defense.”
Having these two dynamic weapons on the outside does wonders for the scheme Conaway and offensive coordinator Steven Moffett want to implement and makes executing it a bit easier for senior quarterback Salomon Georges Jr.
“Both of them just go and get the ball, and they know what to do (when) the ball is in their hands,” Georges Jr. said. “They know how to make people miss … and both (Demetrice and Evan) have the ability to fly, so I just throw them and they get up and go get it. So, that’s just our mindset, (I give) them a chance to get the ball, and they go and make a play.”
The two dynamic athletes command a scheme-altering amount of attention from the opposing defense. This makes calling plays for Conaway and Co. simpler.
“Because they draw a lot of attention when we have them on the field, the offense can stress the defense so much that it allows us to do a lot of other things,” Conaway said. “The threat of explosiveness that they have on the perimeter constantly gives us advantageous looks in the box that obviously allows us to run the football more effectively.”
Although both McCray and James bring a similar level of fear to the opposing defenses, they do so in different ways. The slimmer and senior James is the epitome of smooth; when he runs routes, it looks like he’s just gliding past defenders effortlessly, while McCray is the bigger and more aggressive athlete, the thunder to James’ lightning, if you will. He plays like he’s seeking out contact after he makes the catch.
“Evan’s just smooth with it,” McCray said. “When you see him run, he’s more of a long-strider — so he’s much faster than me out the block, while I have to pick up my speed as I run. But we’re both just ball players, you know. He can get the ball anywhere on the field, I can get it anywhere and either of us can take it to the crib when the ball is in our hands. Sometimes, we just take our own special route to get there.”
Because of the relationship the two wideouts have built with their quarterback — spanning almost an entire childhood in the case of James — the three have developed an understanding of each other’s abilities and tendencies, so that every time Georges Jr. drops back there’s a chance a simple football play can turn into poetry in motion.
“The familiarity they have and the trust they have with each other, we all can see it,” Conaway said.
“We see it in practice. We see it on Friday nights, and it’s been a lot of fun to watch. Because they’re so familiar with each other, there are things we can do as an offense that we couldn’t really pull off otherwise, so that part’s a lot of fun. That’s certainly a credit to their chemistry, the accuracy that Salomon has and the explosiveness that those two bring to the field.”
“Because we all know each other so well — I’ve been playing with Salomon since I was like 6 years old — we’ve developed a lot of chemistry on the field,” James said. “Because of that, Jr. just puts a lot of trust in me and Demetrice to go and get the ball when he throws it our way.”
That chemistry didn’t come from just being friends, though. It was forged through countless hours of work.
“People don’t know how much work we put in at practice and on our own,” McCray said. “Salo, Evan and me are always trying to get better and working on the weekends and through the week after practice. Nobody really sees that, but that’s why we’ve become such a special group and why we’ve been making a lot of noise this season.”
With four games left in the regular season — and possibly a deep run in the playoffs — if McCray and James keep a relatively similar pace in their production, they’ll cement themselves in the TFA record books as the best receivers in school history. But that’s not all the two receivers, their QB and the whole Royals roster want to come out of the season with. They’re aiming higher.
“State championship,” McCray said when asked what this team can achieve this season. “I just want us to win it all, man. Let’s go all the way.”
