The Social Circle Redskins finished their 2023 campaign with a home loss to Rabun County in the first round of the Class A-Division I playoffs. Despite the outcome, a strong finish to the year left head coach Rob Patton eager for what is to come.

Going into the season, Patton expected challenges with a fresh roster that had many new faces in starting roles.

“We had a lot of growing pains early in the year with a bunch of new guys playing,” Patton said. “Our guys showed a lot of improvement throughout the year and that was huge for us.”

Though he was not a new face, senior Sean Crews won the starting quarterback job prior to the season. With the season behind them, Patton spoke about how versatile Crews has been in his career and what it meant to see him behind center as a senior.

“For Sean, he played linebacker for us his sophomore year and he played two quarters of JV football at quarterback,” Patton said. “He started some games at inside linebacker and outside linebacker. He has been on all of our special teams since his sophomore year. Just to see him fight it out and lead us this year was fun to watch.”

One key senior that played his final game for the Redskins on Friday was Kam Durden.

Durden has been a four-year starter for Social Circle at running back and linebacker. 

“Kam had an unbelievable four years. He has played varsity ball the entire way through,” Patton said. “[As a] running back and he has been on defense as well.”

Crews and Durden were named captains for the Redskins before the season, and Patton spoke about how both players shared the Social Circle core values of “toughness, effort, accountability and mindset.”

The Redskins started off the season on the wrong footing, with straight three losses to Morgan County, East Jackson and George Walton Academy.

In their fourth game, Social Circle got its first win via a 42-6 rout of Loganville Christian Academy.

After back-to-back losses to Lamar County and Commerce, the Redskins had their best stretch of the year when they needed it the most.

Social CIrcle went on a three-game win streak, defeating Mount Paran Christian, Jasper County and Oglethorpe County. Patton stressed how impactful the games were to changing the direction of the Redskins’ season.

“As far as coming out there in games eight and nine for region games against Oglethorpe and Monticello, we were down in both of those games in the second half,” Patton said. “We had fourth quarter comebacks in both of those to win it. So that was very promising moving forward.”

One key for Patton this season has been the development of the young players on the roster. After tough battles through their 11 game year, Patton feels good about his team’s development.

“I think [the development] has been tremendous,” Patton said. “From the first few games —

[Against] East Jackson, even though it ended up being a lopsided loss, we came back and took the lead in the second half before the wheels fell off. At George Walton, we were there neck and neck until we had a few busts there late in the game. Against Lamar County, we were down by one score late in the game. Just seeing us progress to games eight and nine and be in those same situations we were in and to come back and win was huge.”

Though the Social Circle football season is over, Patton expressed how happy he was with the team’s fight and their ability to stick to their mindset.

“[It was] our guys understanding the big picture of it,” Patton said. “At 1-5 with a small region, everything we wanted to accomplish was still ahead of us. To get that win over Mount Paran and to get those two region wins let our kids see what we preach to them [works] — control what we can control and improve ourselves each day. Even though we were not at a good spot in the middle of the season, it would have been easy for other teams to tank right there when you are 1-5. Our kids just kept fighting and continued to improve.”