Coach Bentley: Byrnes' Win Against Apopka Started Season Off Right

Going in to their first game of the season, Byrnes High School Head Football Coach Bobby Bentley knew it wasn't going to be easy for the Rebels to earn a win against Apopka, Fla.

Bentley spoke to members of the Greer Touchdown Club Thursday about the Week 0 game.

Apopka averages 50 points a game, Bentley said.

“I know that sounds crazy, but that's a true statement,” he said. “They were 8A State Champs out of Florida. They had eight starters coming back on offense, 10 coming back on defense. Winning the 8A State Championship, we knew we had our hands full. With ESPN in town, it was a tremendous challenge, but our guys played as good a first half as we could play.”

Soon the Rebels were up 44-20.

“I'll be honest with you, I really thought the game was over, I really did,” Bentley said.

The Blue Darters ran back a kickoff for a touchdown.

“That just gave them oxygen,” Bentley said. “We should stop the kicking game, get the kicking game out of football. That gave them new life.”

The Rebels had a big stop at the end of the game and “a touchdown pass to kind of secure it,” Bentley said.

The Rebels won 51-34.

“We threw six touchdown passes,” Bentley said. “Our defense played well enough to win against a very tough offense. Our kicking game was phenomenal. Our special teams performed very well.”

“It's great that football's started,” he said. “We opened up the season 1-0. It was a great win for us to get us going.”

He said the Rebels worked hard in the offseason.

The youth program has 352 kids currently taking part, Bentley said.

“We're very confident that our youth program is thriving,” he said. “We tweaked a few things to keep it going, try to make it a little more fun for our guys. We've got 104 playing middle school football at Chapel and 85 at D.R. Hill. We feel good about the talent. This eighth-grade class will be one of the classes that you'll hear about – very good speed and some lineman. We don't have many lineman in our program, big sized lineman. This eighth-grade class does have that. Our ninth-grade is pretty good, not as much speed as we'd like. Our C team is doing very well, also.”

The Rebels had an off week last week. They play Woodruff on Friday.

He thanked the club for its support.

“Football gets kind of the bad eye sometimes with youth,” Bentley said. “I appreciate all you do to edify the young people about this great game. Football can bind a community like no other sport. I just appreciate your support of it.”