By Coach Danny Williams

<a href="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Sports-Hawg-Tuff-Challenge.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1950" title="Sports-Hawg Tuff Challenge" src="http://www.beaufortislandnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Sports-Hawg-Tuff-Challenge-225x300.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="300" /></a>Normally when you hear of football in Beaufort you don’t think of the offensive or defensive lines.  You think of quarterbacks, running backs and kickers. Danny Williams, along with Scott Dennis and Stanley “Scoop” Davis, asked and trained a group of young men to participate in an offense and defensive line challenge called the “Hawg Tuff Challenge.”  These young men trained every Saturday morning for two months, not knowing what to expect.<!--more-->

Beaufort High seniors Michael Bedwell, Rob Dennis, DeAndre Jefferson Fields; juniors Tiawo Adejole, James Ginn, Tyler Hatfield; sophomores Howard Graham, Kintrell Seabrooke; and freshmen Cody Graham and Alex Tokar trained at Byrnes High School to compete in the Hawg Tuff Challenge.

The events were diverse. The players were asked to bench 185 pounds and shoulder press a restrictive band as many times as they could in one try.  Another event was the tire flip.  Each player had to flip a tractor tire for thirty yards while racing a stopwatch. The Root hawg was the next event.  Each team member was timed pushing a sled with forty pounds attached to it for 20 yards.

The last event, Hawg On A Mission, was a 220 yard event; each player started by running 20 yards and then stepping through an agility ladder. Next, they ran 20 more yards and jumped over five different pads, ran 20 more yards and ran around cones, 20 more yards before bear crawling for 10 yards. Once this string of obstacles was finished, they sprinted back 110 yards to the finish line.  All players were racing against a stopwatch for the best time.

And to top off the challenge, participants faced off in a tug of war, the kind where a piece of meat touches the ground indicating a winner and loser.

Beaufort High football has made the playoffs for the last seven years. All of this would not happen if not for these underappreciated and sometimes forgotten young players from the offensive and defensive lines. These young men went and faced off against high school powerhouses like Byrnes High School, which outfitted two teams. With three first place finishes, these young men brought home an over all second place finish. The most prized first place finish was in the Tug of War. Many of the athletes finished first, second or third in the events listed individually.

Thanks to these young men for their hard work and practice they contributed in the off season. Good luck in the up and coming season.

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