North Myrtle Beach hopes full transition to triple option results in wins

Blair Hardin studied up on North Myrtle Beach before and after he accepted the coaching job in Little River in 2014.

One of the things that jumped out to him was a penchant for bad football. With a rate of essentially three losing seasons for every year with a winning record, he went to work.

Consider what could be the biggest piece of the puzzle to change all that officially in place.

Year two of the Hardin era will include the full transition out of the spread and into to the two-back option offense.

“It takes time. It takes patience,” Hardin said. “You have to have a certain mentality as a team.”

It was one that started to be instilled at the midway point of last season, when Hardin inserted Ronnie Bass in at quarterback. The Chiefs struggled at times during the adjustment with turnovers and penalties.

But at points, it was clear something was working, too.

Three of the team’s four highest-scoring games of the season took place in the final four contests. It was a big reason North Myrtle Beach rebounded from a 1-5 start, finished second in Region VII-AAA and advanced to the playoffs in Hardin’s first season. It wasn’t always pretty, but no one expected it would be.

“The coaches were lenient because they knew there were going to be mistakes,” Bass said. “Everyone had to know their own job. … Triple option was all new to us. Blocking schemes, they had to do something new on every single play.”

The midseason switch, as Blair has put it previously, was done after it was clear the Chiefs had little else to lose. That slow start, coupled with the fact Blair was going to change the scheme eventually, made the timing right.

But while the production didn’t shoot through the roof, there were dividends. There was a one-point win over Georgetown in the first game the team used it. Three games later, North Myrtle Beach pulled the upset of the regular season when it defeated Myrtle Beach, in part because of the time-sucking option’s effectiveness.

The Chiefs were bounced from the playoffs the following week after Midland Valley took advantage of North Myrtle Beach turnovers and penalties. Hardin hung up a picture of the score from that game (35-21) as an offseason reminder.

“It takes a while for the option to come together,” he said. “It’s a feel thing. We’ve got those kinks out.”

Said Bass: “I know we can finish better than we did last year. It’s the fact of executing and fixing the small things. The offense, we’ve had a lot improvement.”

This story was originally published August 14, 2015 at 6:11 PM with the headline "North Myrtle Beach hopes full transition to triple option results in wins."