In year two, Belgreen football program aims to build off historic first season
After an historic first football campaign last year, the Belgreen High School football team is ready to kick off its second season on Friday, August 22.
There’s plenty to be excited about in 2025 if you’re a Bulldog player, coach, or supporter. Although Belgreen is not yet eligible for AHSAA postseason competition, the Bulldogs return a number of key players from the 2024 team and, with a year of training, practice, and game experience under their belts, are a decent bet to have improved significantly from last season.
“We’re excited about the new year, but (the players) also know now what’s expected of them on Friday night and the week-to-week routine and everything that goes with that,” Belgreen head coach Jonathan Raper said. “We’re a year older, we should be stronger and more experienced than we’ve ever been, and we return a lot of kids that actually played and have game experience.”
Raper said one of the biggest differences from year one to year two is now there’s enough knowledge and experience in the program to open up the playbook and do more scheming.
“We can do more stuff now offensively and defensively,” he told the Franklin Free Press. “You still have to teach the fundamentals, but we can move on a lot quicker now and get to the other things that we couldn’t get to last year.
“Offensively we’ve added some more formations and more motions. Defensively we want to do a little more blitzing and do a little more coverage-wise,” he added. “We’re showing them for the first time—we didn’t even discuss it last year—how to disguise coverages.
“There’s still a long way to go, but we got to the point where we’re able now to take the stuff from last year and build on it.”
Everything, both old and new, the BHS coaching staff has taught will fall, of course, to the players to execute. Bulldog fans will be familiar with many of the names that will play key roles this season.
Leading the offense will be the new quarterback Rush Berryman, a sophomore that was a jack-of-all-trades for Belgreen as a freshman last season. Berryman received some reps at the quarterback position in 2024 but mainly played at a few skill positions like running back and receiver.
Raper said that Berryman’s experience at so many difference positions on the offense will serve him well now that he’s under center.
“(Berryman) did not play much quarterback last year. He played running back and some H-back, tight end-type stuff, but he’ll be our main quarterback going forward,” he said. “The good thing about Rush playing a zillion positions for us last year is he knows what’s going on. He knows what everyone on the offense is supposed to be doing because he’s just about played it all.”
That knowledge will be even more valuable given the fact that BHS is breaking in three new running backs that were not a part of the team last season.
“If someone doesn’t know something in the huddle, they can go to Rush and he’ll know what they’re supposed to do,” Raper said.
The job of protecting Berryman up front will lie with an offensive line anchored by the “very smart” sophomore center Carter Raney and sophomore Ty Hamiton. Raper said Hamilton, who will also play on the defensive line, has done a “great job” in the trenches for BHS leading up to this campaign.
“He’s really stepped up and made life easier for us,” he said.
Alongsidee Hamilton there will be other younger players, but Raper believes this year’s offensive line could be one of the team’s strengths.
“I think we’re going to be vastly improved across the offensive line even though we lost quite a few kids last year,” Raper said. “I don’t know that we have a full-time starter returning on the offensive line, but all of the guys that we have playing there were one of the six or seven guys rotating in last season. They’ve had playing time.
“They’ll be mostly 10th graders and we may even start one ninth grader, but the thing is those kids have been here and they’re further along than what we were at this time last year,” he added.
Out wide the Bulldogs have sophomore receiver Brayden Messer returning. Messer is another player who got a lot of time on the field last season.
“He’s going to be a very big part of our offense,” Raper said of Messer.
On the defensive side, Raper mentioned Messer as a vital player at defensive back along with Berryman and sophomore Logan Alexander at linebacker.
Another name to keep an eye on on defense is eighth-grader Zed Wilson.
“He’s not your usual eighth grader,” Raper said. “He’s really starting to make some plays in the secondary. He’s got some speed and some length, and he’s starting to learn to read stuff. He’s been doing a good job back there.”
Belgreen will play an eight-game schedule this season in a final “tune-up” year before the Bulldogs join a region as a fully-fledged varsity football program in 2026. BHS will start the season August 22 on the road at Shoals Christian, who they beat 20-6 in week one last year to earn the program’s first victory. The Bulldogs will then host Sumiton Christian and county rival Tharptown before hitting the road to play Tanner and Cherokee on September 19 and 26. Sandwiched between two open weeks Belgreen will host Pickens County on October 10 before closing out the campaign against Victory Christian and Vina.
Raper said the goal, naturally, is to win all of those games.
“Are we there yet? I don’t think so, but who knows?” he said.
Either way, taking another season-opener against Shoals Christian would be a great way to fan the flames of that ambition.
“It’s huge if you can start out with a win, especially with young kids,” Raper said. “They love winning. It builds confidence, they’re more excited about the next week, and then you’re pointed in the right direction and it hopefully keeps carrying over.”
2025 BELGREEN SCHEDULE
8/22 @ Shoals Christian
8/29 vs. Sumiton Christian
9/5 vs. Tharptown
9/19 @ Tanner
9/26 @ Cherokee
10/10 vs. Pickens County
10/24 vs. Victory Christian
10/31 @ Vina
* - denotes region game