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As the sun started to slowly slip away, bringing another end to a hot day in Blackville, Wayne Hutto was setting a football up on a kicking tee. He measured the distance between himself and the field goal posts, approached the ball and swung his foot through, making a solid thud on impact. Off it went end over end and over the crossbar. Simple enough, until you pack the stands at Blackville-Hilda High School with fans and put the pressure of winning a game for the Hawks on his shoulders.

Kicking’s not easy, and often times, it’s player like Hutto — the kickers — that decide if their team wins or loses on a Friday night. Hutto’s coach at Blackville-Hilda, David Berry, is a firm believer in running the football. Field position is important when you play that way, and so such things as the importance of special teams are not lost on him.

"[Special teams] is the one part of the game that can get you beaten as quick as anything in the world," Berry said.

Berry has worked with a number of kickers and punters at Blackville-Hilda, including his son Brandon Berry, who has signed on to kick for Newberry College.

"We’ve lost most of our kickers and punters over the last several years and we’re still working with several guys to try to get the job done," the coach said.

Throughout his coaching career, Berry has seen several games change hands thanks to a missed field goal or a blocked kick. These type of plays on special teams can snatch a victory out of the jaws of defeat and vice versa. For that reason, Berry and his coaches work with their players on a number of various special teams scenarios.

"We spend about a third of our time in practice on special teams," Berry said.

Denmark-Olar head coach Andrae Rice also spends time during his practices working with his special teams unit.

"Special teams is very important," Rice said. "It allows us to do a lot of different things."

Last week, the Vikings’ head coach got a first hand taste of how important special teams are when North Charleston blocked one of Denmark-Olar’s punts to set up a scoring drive.

"If you can’t cover those gaps and somebody comes through and blocks a kick, they could scoop it and score or put their offense in a good situation to score," he said.

While they feel the area of the game is important, both coaches do not have a specific assistant assigned to coach the unit. Instead, they divide the duties up amongst their staffs. And, they do so with the idea that Friday, when Denmark-Olar travels to Silver Bluff and Blackville-Hilda heads to North, that it just might be the special teams unit — not the defense or offense — that decides the outcome.

— T&D Sports Writer Emery Glover can be reached by e-mail at eglover@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5532. Check out his blog, Cover 2, at www.thetandd.com. —

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