HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL PREVIEWS: Calhoun County hopes last season’s success carries over into 2015 | PHOTOS

EDISON — First-year head coach Detrich Wadley said he’s hoping this is a year in which Calhoun County reloads rather than having to rebuild from scratch.

The Cougars enter the season with just five returning starters and will feature a new quarterback. Still, Wadley remains optimistic.

“I have a positive outlook,” he said. “We have a steep hill to climb, but I like what I’ve seen so far during summer workouts.”

Mobile users: Click here for a photo gallery.

With DaJohn Williams at the helm, the Cougars got off to a 5-2 start in 2014, the best start former head coach John Williams said he had seen in years. They made it to the Georgia High School Association Class A public state quarterfinals before suffering a disappointing 10-0 loss at Commerce.

Wadley believes the outcome to the low scoring affair could have been different if DaJohn Williams had not been out with a broken leg.

This year, 5-foot-11 senior Jerrek Solite will be the man under center. Solite is making the switch from wide receiver to quarterback and assistant coach John Williams feels his overall athleticism and ability to make plays makes him the man for the job.

Last season, the Cougars were working to erase a 2-8 campaign in 2013 in which they failed to make the playoffs. They entered last year with a 32-man roster — the largest the school’s had in years — with the goal of riding the wave of success the boy’s basketball team had achieved in the spring.

“I must say that is our best season since I’ve been here as far as early on in the season,” Williams said last fall after his team’s hot start. “They’ve been able to make some things happen that they haven’t been able to do before and it’s all the guys. They basically do what you ask.”

CALHOUN COUNTY