OAKLEAF - The luxury of having a powerback in a football backfield is an obvious starting point for most high school football teams as, in Clay County, the sights of guys like Bilal Ally, Dehmir Jackson and Mike Mitchell blasting through lines of scrimmages then scorching the grass for 60-80 yard scores was a dominant scene in our football Friday nights.
For the upcoming 2025 season, the running backs of Clay County will be plentiful on all seven local teams, but Orange Park, Oakleaf and Keystone Heights offer up a double helping of anxiety for opposing defenses while Clay, Middleburg, Ridgeview and Fleming Island all have that one guy that can turn a game into a rout very quickly.

"You know we like our power football," said Orange Park coach Marcus Wimberly, who houses his two slightly smaller, but equally explosive ball carriers in juniors Austee'n Mills and Xzavier Jones, both compact, fast and able to break off a corner and bolt downfield. "Our game is built around our offensive line giving us some daylight so those guys can do what they do."
The Raiders have seen speed and power combined with guys like JoJo Restall, Brian Sumlar and Demetre Baker in past years with Tymious Goodman also on the list.
Last year, Wimberly had graduated Quinton Moore as a pseudo-quarterback, wide receiver, running back as his lead offensive weapon with quarterback Gabe Taylor banged up near season's end causing a switch in strategy for the Raiders.
Against ED White, in the Raiders spring game, both Mills and Jones showed explosive impact against a pretty formidable Commander front line and will be expected to be sharper with the Raiders offensive line, led by seniors Terrion Butler and Terrick Moore, looking to sync up so Taylor can keep moving the chains.
"We have to trust the process and keep moving forward," said Taylor, who led the Raiders in rush scores with four, but was much more mobile out of the backfield to secure first downs. "We know coach wants to get the run game going and Austee'n and Xzavier are tough guys to bring down."
Wimberly's run game produced a solid near six yards per carry on the run game which is about what his objective was in his encouragements in practices.
"Five, six yards on first down gives us a shot at bigger plays," said Wimberly, in a July second week scrum at Orange Park High with Mills bouncing for breaks against the Raiders' defense.


At Oakleaf, where speed and grinding was part of the graduated Chris Foy II's mojo that led the Knights for the first half of the their astounding region final season, it was returners, Fareed Coleman and C.J. Moses looking to be the one-two punch that offensive coordinator Bubba Horne and head coach Chris Foy liked in summer scrums.
Oakleaf's history of guys like Keshawn King (2,017 YDs/30TDs/Va. Tech), Devin Outlaw (1,130 YDs/15TDs/who earned baseball scholarship) and Keylan Brown (Davidson) lugging the rock for the Knights to solid seasons.
"We sent a few good offensive linemen to college; Reggie Houston, Hardley Germain, Mykel Mayo, Akeem O'Neal, but we are working to set our running backs free," said Foy, who saw Colemen, arguably one of the more ferocious runners in the Knights lineup who had the jets to F-18 a 96 yard off tackle score against 7A-West Orange in the Knights spring game in May. "We also got few young guys in the hopper that want to see action. C.J. was kind of our hero last year because he answered for Chris in the playoffs by giving us the same look of power and grind in between the tackles with Fareed the game breaker."
Coleman blasted for 159 yards with two scores in Oakleaf region semifinal win over Nease to put out his need for speed.
"He runs angry," said Oakleaf backfield coach Rodney Dubose. "With the outside weapons we have, it's going to be tough to catch him if he breaks because we have great blocking wide receivers."


For Keystone Heights, where running backs were the power point for many years, coach Steven Reynolds has a unique cadre with three guys that can bloody a nose or two when carrying the ball with Hulks Zane Leger and Kyle Perkins banging up the middle while, a bit smaller, Colton Hollingsworth has proven to be one of the toughest guys to bring down with one tackler.
All three are state level weightlifters with power to spare, but all three are guys that will stick a finger in your eye to get an extra yard; Keystone Heights pedigree, with the history of guys like Dalton Hollingsworth (big brother), Logan Williams, and, from past years, Matt Story and Ray Trimble, all hard-running crashers, is going to max out with their run game with passing mainly effective in the red zones where the Indians normally have a big-sized tight end guy to catch balls.


At Clay, returner Nehemiah Bailey is the big, strong back of Blue Devil lore with a few guys running shotgun in the new backfield attack from first year coach Jeff Gierke. Gierke has a knack for misdirection waves of attack and that could be a nice twist to the Blue Devil lore of power football.
Ridgeview's top guy is Christian Felder, a senior basher, with Malik Cole emerging last year as a strong downfield finisher. Panther coach Merlin Smith is known for his attacks on the edges.

At Middleburg, newcomer Gino Addison, a transfer from Bradford County after a year at Clay, is a tested state level runner with the Tornadoes finishing 10-2, region semis Class 2A, with Addison at nine touchdowns off 722 yards with little brother Iyen right with him at 688 yards.
With Addison will be rough tumbler Sam Craven, maybe Caiden Thigpen, both maulers; maybe Kadin Hanifen, maybe Jordan Williams taking jet sweeps. Oakleaf transfer quarterback Jayven Moreno is also a fast accelerator out of the pocket.
"We have a lot of versatility with the backs we have," said Middleburg coach Ryan Wolfe, who added sophomore Braydon Ventura as a possible ball carrier.

At Fleming Island, coach Derek Chipoletti lost his main jet in Dehmir Jackson and will have a backfield of small, tough, versatile runners with Brady Digman, a state weightlifter, Zion Longmire, a wrestler, and possibly a Trinity Christian transfer in junior Cedrick McNeil, maybe a 200 pounder with speed. Speedster Trace Burney has not been at summer practices and may be a question mark and trackster and mainly a defensive stalwart and kick returner Sebastian Cruz, sub-11 100, is always available for an occasional carry or wheel pass.