BLYTHEWOOD – The Westwood football team posted its best record in years—7-5 and a second-round 5A Division 2 playoff appearance. Yet, the Redhawks bid farewell to 34 seniors from that squad and loads of talent that awaits significant playing time.
The Blythewood football team is coming off a disappointing 4-8 record that included a 1-5 run in Region 5-5A. Yet the young Bengals return many starters and have high hopes for the coming season.
Both Blythewood area teams face different challenges this season, but will come together in Week 3 of the season to rehash the annual Battle for the Axe matchup at Blythewood’s stadium Sept. 4.
“I give Westwood credit. They won the last two years,” Blythewood head coach James Martin said at the Blythewood Chamber of Commerce Meeting Aug. 11. “This will be my fifth time with the Battle of the Axe. I’ve been a part of two wins and I’ve been a part of two losses. And I know what it means.”
Because of Westwood’s 20-17 victory last year, the Redhawks lead the rivalry series 6-5. The rivalry officially became the Battle of the Axe in 2019. The Jean Schmidt Memorial Trophy, a large red-and-blue axe, was named after the wife of former Westwood principal and current Blythewood principal Ralph Schmidt. Jean Schmidt died of a brain tumor in 2012.
Over the last two seasons the rivalry has been a part of both teams’ Region 5-5A schedule. This year Blythewood remains in the 5A classification and is in Region 4 with Gray Collegiate Academy, Ridge View, Spring Valley, and Sumter. Westwood has dropped down to 4A and is in Region 4 with A.C. Flora, Dreher, Lancaster, Lugoff-Elgin and Richland Northeast.
Blythewood opens the season at Catawba Ridge Friday and opens its home slate against Richland Northeast Aug. 28. Westwood is also on the road Friday as it travels to York. The Redhawks play host to Clover Aug. 28.
Both teams have their challenges this season.
Westwood graduated 34 seniors, 32 of whom went to higher education.
“We’re very, very proud of that,” Second-year Westwood head coach Josh Burris said. “Our goal is always 100 percent placement, whether it’s going to be workforce, the military, or college. So we’re working on that.”
Those seniors included starting quarterback Carrington Carter, who passed for 1,015 yards and 14 touchdowns before going down with an injury; Carter’s backup, Josiah Henryhand, who passed for 403 yards and three touchdowns; offensive and defensive playmaker Jaden Boyd, who saw significant time as a runner, receiver, defensive back and kickoff returner, and running back/receiver Quentin McGill.
“We have an extremely young team this year,” Burris said, noting the school’s new 19,000-square-feet building set aside for a weight room and to house the school’s first-responder training program. “We’ve returned six starters from last year’s team, but they are working hard. We have a brand new, I think about a $2 million facility, so if you get a chance to come by the Castle, please come see.”
Running backs Jovan Howard and Angelo Rios return, but the rest of the offense is pending as four quarterbacks compete for the starting job under center. Two transfers, Isaac Austin from Richland Northeast and Chris Baker from Dreher, are competing with senior Elye Owens and sophomore K.J. Dopson.
The Redhawks defense returns more starters. At the top of the list is defensive lineman and East Carolina commit A.J. Veal.
“We’ve still got some things to clean up, we’re taking it one day at a time,” Veal said as the team practiced earlier this month. “We go to work every day to put the pieces together. Our defensive guys like (senior LB) Kameron Smith, (senior LB) Willie Caldwell, (senior DE) A.J. Mobley, all those guys are hungry.”
Knowing that the team will be largely new, Burris credited the Redhawks’ work in the offseason.
“We had about 100 kids over the summer working out every day at 7 o’clock in the morning until about 11 o’clock. They’re doing everything we ask them to do,” Burris said. “We were very intentional about our leadership training. So we started a leadership academy this summer where we took an hour a week and we talked about everything from being a husband to being just a man in general to being a leader in your community.”
Blythewood on the other hand has plenty of returners, and they are all itching to keep last year’s 4-8 season in the distance.
Among the top returners are senior quarterback James Veasey, who passed for 1,797 yards and 16 touchdowns but also 18 interceptions. Veasey also rushed for 641 yards and 10 TDs.
Junior running back Landyn Strong returns in the backfield. He rushed for 964 yards and eight touchdowns and also caught 14 passes for 117 yards and a touchdown last year. The Bengals lost several receivers to graduation including Ben Hendrix (37 catches for 571 yards, 9 TDs) and C Johnson (59 catches for 708 yards, 4 TDs), but Strong and Tay’Shaun Johnson (35 catches for 336 yards, 3 TDs) return, among others.
The top returner on the offensive line is Army commit and left tackle Reed Paolucci, who said the offense and defense alike is together in terms of making the season a success.
“I love the fact that we’ve gotten closer to God through our junior year. Our guys are all in with that, so that’s no.1,” Paolucci said. “No.2 is we’ve had a lot of participation and working out and conditioning and everything, which is awesome and I love that. They’re more committed than they were last year and I can’t wait to see what happens.”
Paolucci is one of six players who have committed or have gotten offers from NCAA Division 1 schools.
“We’re excited about that piece. And it’s always talking about the community. We talk about our school and our culture. And it goes beyond the football field and starts in the classroom.”
Another commit is linebacker Dylan Hutcherson, who chose Western Carolina. Hutcherson finished 2025 with 56 tackles, 11 for loss, five sacks and an interception.
Seniors Amari Fisher (60 tackles, 7 for loss, 1 sack), Chris Long (65 tackles, 10 for loss, 1 sack), James Willis (25 tackles, 8.5 for loss, 3.5 sacks), and Joshua Reaves (32 tackles, 16 for loss, 8 sacks) return to lead the defense.
“We’re really excited about just our senior group,” Martin said. “They’ve really bought into our culture and our vision of our school and also into the community when we do things.”
Martin likened building a football team every year to putting together a massive puzzle.
“You get a box of 300 pieces on the ground … and sometimes it’s like, man, where is this piece? Like, I can’t make it fit,” he said. “And you keep searching and searching, and then you find the piece, and you thought it was the right piece, and even later you found it’s not the right piece. And that’s what we’re doing right now. We’re trying to find our piece of our puzzle to make that thing perfect. Because we know the end result, when that puzzle’s done, it’s something beautiful.”