After another strong season on the gridiron last year, the Catawba Ridge Copperheads are looking to keep the momentum going into the summer.
Catawba Ridge finished at 6-6 last season falling to Northwestern in the second round of the playoffs.
This coming season, Copperheads head coach Zac Lendyak said his team will be young with only about a dozen seniors on the team.
“They aren’t afraid to be physical,” he said. “They are eager to learn. We have a lot of young kids to be playing for us. I feel good about where we are at.”
This summer the Copperheads will have two players battling to see who will be their quarterback in players Will Gambrill and Bradey Compton.
“Will started the last game of the season for us last year,” Lendyak said. “Bradey is back. Those two will be in a quarterback battle as we get closer to the fall.”
Lendyak said he feels the defense is a little ahead of the offense at this point coming out of spring practice. The offense, he said, is more technical, so it will take them some time to catch up.
“We have a lot of offense put in,” he said. “We will spend the summer making some tweaks in what we want to see. We are experienced in our wide receiver group. We are excited to do some different things with them this year.”
Catawba Ridge will be young up front as they break in about five new offensive linemen, Lendyak said.
The past couple of years Catawba Ridge has been the smallest school in 5A. They are moving back down to 4A for the next couple of years starting this coming August. Lendyak believes that will help.
“Being where we are positioned will actually help us,” he said.
Catawba Ridge will have non-region home games against Blythewood and Westwood. They will travel to Fort Mill and Boiling Springs. The Copperheads will open Region 3-4A play at Indian Land and then will host York, Nation Ford, and South Pointe. They will travel to Lake Wylie and finish the regular season at Clover.
2026 Catawba Ridge football schedule (*= region games)
Aug. 21 vs. Blythewood
Aug. 28 at Fort Mill
Sept. 4 at Boiling Springs
Sept. 11 vs Westwood
Sept. 18 at Indian Land*
Sept. 25 Bye
Oct. 2 vs. York*
Oct. 9 vs. Nation Ford*
Oct. 16 vs. South Pointe*
Oct. 23 at Lake Wylie*
Oct. 30 at Clover*
Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep
