Region 3 teams made their case last year for being the best in 4A. Is there an encore?

Region 3 has a credible claim as South Carolina’s toughest in Class 4A when it comes to football.

The region, made entirely of schools from York and Lancaster counties, was the only one with four teams to advance past the first round of the 2022 South Carolina High School League Class 4A state playoffs.

Each of the previous two upper state representatives for the Class 4A state championship game came from Region 3.

Winning the region proves you are the cream of the crop and, as Northwestern’s playoff run to the state title game showed, you’re one of South Carolina’s best.

“Everybody in our region has to bring their A-game every Friday night,” Lancaster head coach Marcus Surratt said. “Whoever wins the region probably represents upper state in the 4A state championship game, and it’s just a matter of being consistent.”

But this year’s success can’t rest on last year’s laurels.

Every school has worked this offseason to improve and prepare for a 2023 season that features a gauntlet of tough teams in non-region and region play.

Here’s a preview of the top Class 4A schools as we start Week 1.

Northwestern Trojans

How they finished: 13-2, 5-0; lost in 4A state championship game to South Florence.

Last year’s loss in the state championship game stung.

“It was not a good feeling at all,” fifth-year head coach Page Wofford said. “It wasn’t the result we wanted.”

However, out of that loss came a new mantra: “so what, now what?” A phrase intended to evoke a key piece of turning a negative to a positive: grit.

“Something bad happens, you got to put it behind you and move on,” Wofford said. “If something good happens, you got to put it behind you and move on. If you’re thinking about the last touchdown, you’re not going to make the next touchdown. If you’re thinking about the last play, you’re not going to make the next play.”

Northwestern did have a successful season.

It was their first season in Class 4A since 2015, after moving down from 5A. And they clinched the region championship. They swept through the region undefeated for their third consecutive time -- regardless of class.

“I think things went great for us overall,” senior quarterback and wide receiver Greer Hopkins said. “We put up a lot of points on offense; the guys up front did a great job and did what they needed to do.”

Wofford said the program didn’t make any major changes this offseason.

He, his coaching staff and the players have full confidence in the work they’ve put in, and they fully expect the dividends to show when the games start.

“We trust our process,” Wofford said. “We feel like our process is a good process and the process that got us there and the process that we’ve built and will keep building on.”

Northwestern faces 2023 with high expectations.

With key players like junior quarterback Finley Polk and senior running back Turbo Richard returning, many are expecting the team to pick up right where they left off.

The Trojans are ranked No. 1 in Class 4A.

However, for the players, “so what, now what” is the theme.

“Whatever happened then happened then, and we’ll worry about what’s going on in the present,” Hopkins said. “When you’re at Northwestern, you’re going to have high expectations. I think we fulfill those expectations every year. But we just have to play one play at a time, one down at a time and do what we got to do to take care of the job.”

Catawba Ridge Copperheads

How they finished: 11-2, 4-1; lost in third round to Greenville.

How do you build on the best football season in school history?

That’s the question head coach Zac Lendyak is facing.

Catawba Ridge opened the season by winning its first nine games before losing the region crown in the regular-season finale to Northwestern.

The Copperheads advanced to the third round of the playoffs for the second time in the school’s four-year history.

“Anytime you win double-digit games, you’re really excited,” Lendyak said. “To go 11-2 in the region that we play in and the competition in 4A in the state of South Carolina is impressive. We’re really proud of that. That’s kind of what we wanted to become.”

Last year’s team was Catawba Ridge’s first true graduating class. And with that, a lot of key seniors have left. The top passer, rusher and receiver all have graduated.

“We lost a lot,” Lendyak said. “We lost a bunch of offensive linemen, two quarterbacks, our middle linebacker, a great wide receiver, and we got a lot of guys stepping up.”

Some of the players coaches now are excited for include senior running back and defensive back Ira Mister, who ran for 654 yards and five touchdowns last year while also making 62 total tackles. There also is junior tight end Brody Ambrose, who caught 26 passes for 359 yards and three touchdowns.

There will be several impact players expected on both sides of the ball, like linebacker Jackson Burger, who had more than 100 total tackles last year, and Chayson Anderton, who played on both the offensive and defensive lines.

“We’re just looking at guys stepping up and taking that role and understanding that, ‘hey, you might be my starting tight end, but you got to play some defensive end for me, too,’” Lendyak said. You might be my starting center, but you also got to be my nose guard. Just have to embrace that mental side of football.”

Catawba Ridge athletics is rounding into form heading into year five. Last spring, the baseball and softball teams brought in the school’s first two state titles. Lendyak said seeing that success motivates his team.

“That’s what I want,” Lendyak said. “I’m exceptionally happy for softball and baseball, but there’s a little jealousy there that we want one for ourselves because you see how fun it is.”

South Pointe Stallions

How they finished: 8-4, 3-2; lost in second round to Greenville.

South Pointe’s 8-4 record and second-round playoff exit would be a solid season for some programs.

However, when you’re the defending state champion and start the season ranked as the No. 1 Class 4A team in the state, that finish can be disappointing.

Especially for now second-year head coach Bobby Collins.

“That won’t cut it,” said Collins, who took over after DeVonte Holloman left South Pointe to join Shane Beamer’s coaching staff at the University of South Carolina. “I thought the kids played well in spurts, but I thought we needed to get stronger. I thought we needed to get more efficient in all three phases of the game: offense, defense and special teams. That’s been our work since March.”

Collins said in the off season the team committed to work in the weight room and on the fundamentals of both sides of the ball.

He said he wants his team to be physically-imposing, in a good way, and wear opponents down to the point of surrender. The goal is to dominate. A key component of this is the talent the Stallions have at the line of scrimmage.

“The whole unit of our offensive and defensive line should be one of the best on our football team,” Collins said. “We expect big things out of those guys. Great leadership on both sides of the ball.”

One player expected to have a big impact is senior defensive lineman CJ Dixon, who tallied more than 70 tackles last year.

“We worked hard in the weight room and come out (to practice) every day to work hard,” Dixon said. “I feel like we have a lot more leaders on the team this year. We have a leader at every position group, leading their group and making sure that everyone’s here.”

South Pointe’s expectations remain high, even if tempered. The Stallions enter the year as the No. 4 ranked team in 4A.

A major focus will be how well the offense plays. South Pointe scored exactly 200 points less than in their 2021 state championship campaign.

Senior wide receiver Mikey Mann said the leadership this season should allow things to run more smoothly on offense.

“We need to move the ball more,” Mann said. “If we can’t throw the ball, we can’t run the ball. So we need to learn how to move the ball better.”

Indian Land Warriors

How they finished: 7-5, 2-3; lost in the second round to Westside.

Last year’s 7-5 record was the best the Warriors have put up since 2015.

It was somewhat a tail of two seasons: a 5-1 start and the 2-4 finish.

“We had one game (against Northwestern) that we really lost,” said coach Adam Hastings, who is in his fourth season. “The other three games that we lost (in the regular season), we had chances to win. Even if you take (the 39-35 loss to) Westside, we were in that game until the very end. We feel like there’s a lot of positive from where our program used to be to where our program was going for last year.”

Indian Land entered the playoffs as a 14th seed, then pulled off an impressive 41-20 road upset over 3rd seed Laurens in the first round of the state playoffs.

Hastings did that with young players.

“We really had to put a lot on our younger guys,” Hasting said. “We played a lot of freshman younger guys last year, so it was really good for those guys to get that experience to go on the road and play in a place like Laurens and Westside, opponents that we don’t know or see.

“To get that whole road experience of traveling for two and a half hours. It was just a good experience for those guys to have an idea of what it’s like and hopefully they’ll want to taste more of it.”

The Warriors are returning a lot of talent. Senior three-star linebacker and Florida State commit Timir Hickman-Collins will be a big part of the defense, while seniors quarterback Jaxon Scheidt and running back/linebacker Jaden Singletary will provide some spark.

Hastings said the struggles from last season will be valuable in his team’s development.

“The value of building off the loss is the value of understanding failure,” Hastings said. “You have to understand that failure is not final like a loss that ends your season, but it’s an opportunity for us to have feedback and build off it. So that was the most important thing, that we had picked those opportunities to build from them and be ready to go.”

York Cougars

How they finished: 5-6, 1-4; lost in the first round to James Island.

How you expected York’s season to go last year doesn’t matter. Coach Dean Boyd was not pleased.

He was not pleased with the team’s record. And he wasn’t pleased with his team’s late-game execution. He said they lost several games on the final drives.

Boyd has done his best through the offseason to make sure that won’t happen again.

“We spent a lot of time in the offseason, in the weight room, all summer working on attention to detail because we’ve got to be able to win those games like that,” Boyd said. “We play in a tough region, and we play a tough non-region schedule, so I’m not trying to say that we don’t play good people. We do. But we expect more out of our team and ourselves than going 5-5. And we’ve been working hard to try to remedy that.”

That message is echoed by the team’s senior leaders.

They know how talented the players on the roster are.

“I feel like we just fell apart,” senior linebacker and running back Dalton Russell said. “We faced adversity, and they were obviously up, and we just fell apart at the last minute. But I feel like this year, we’ve worked hard and gotten better at being able to keep our composure and fighting through the end.”

Boyd said the team leaders have stepped up to make sure everyone pays attention to details that can set the team apart from opponents. They’ve been holding their teammates and themselves accountable.

As far as key players, Boyd said he expects wide receivers and defensive backs to step up. Those groups have clearly defined leaders.

However, Boyd said he knows his offensive line will have some growing pains early in the season, and having leaders in other positions will help.

“We lost four starting offensive linemen, three went to college to play,” Boyd said. “We’ve only got one returning starter there, so we got to get the offensive line better quick, and it’s a young squad. They’re going to take their licks early. Our seniors at skill positions -- and we have a lot of those -- they’ve got to take charge and help those guys along until they’re ready to go. They’re going to have to win some ballgames until we can get our offensive line and defensive line ready to go.”

Lancaster Bruins

How they finished: 3-7, 0-5; no playoff berth.

No matter how good the teams in a region are, someone has to finish last.

Last season, it was Lancaster.

The Bruins kept it close in some games: a 27-20 loss to Irmo in Week 2; a 10-2 loss to South Pointe in Week 8; a 28-26 loss to York in the season’s penultimate game.

Coach Marcus Surratt says a loss is a loss no matter the score, but he likes the team he’s bringing to this upcoming season.

“Last year was a little bit of an adjustment year for us, getting guys acclimated to how to practice hard, work hard, and be consistent,” Surratt said. “This year, we brought back guys who understood the system a little bit more and the level of work that it takes to be competitive in our region, and our guys are playing pretty fast right now.”

Surratt said along with getting players who are mentally ready for the competition, he also had to ensure that his team was physically ready.

“During the offseason, one of the biggest improvements we made was with our weight program,” he said. “We got guys stronger. They really bought in, took care of their body. Nutrition became something that we focused on.

“And then, just becoming smarter football players. A lot of our sessions were where we were teaching guys and showing film and breaking down film. So I think we’re playing with not only smarter kids, but stronger and faster kids.”

The Bruins football team also will feature some members off the basketball team, which made it to the 4A state championship game.

Most of them will play wide receiver, which is the group Surratt says has the most potential.

Sophomore RJ Brown is the new starting quarterback. Surratt said they spent the offseason working with Brown and his decision-making. Brown didn’t play football last year due to injury.

“(RJ Brown is) very athletic,” Surratt said. “We’re getting to the point where he’s making good decisions with the ball. He runs well with the football. We’re just going to live with his bumps and bruises as he learns how to play the position. But overall, he’s learning. He’s picking up on the reads, and he’s doing the things that we asked him to do.”