Carolina Forest looking for returning skill players to lead way

It was around this time last year that Marc Morris was changing the conversation when he was asked about Dyverse Simmons.

The Carolina Forest running back put up 1,242 yards as a sophomore and it was clear Morris’ run-first system was going to give Simmons a bunch of touches as a junior. Still, the then-second-year head coach didn’t want to put too much upon his budding star too early.

Entering their third year together, Morris and Simmons have a different relationship, and the coach has less problem showing some love publicly.

Amazing what Simmons’ 2,000-yard outburst did for all that.

“He’s a big part of our system. Dyverse does a great job,” Morris said. “He gets a lot of carries. He’s been a great back for us for two years. … He’s a big reason we went to the playoffs last year. It ain’t like we’re playing a real good team one week and then a [bad] team the next. We played a really hard schedule. He rushed for a lot of yards against a lot of really good teams.”

Amidst Carolina Forest’s first trip to the playoffs as a member of the state’s largest classification, Simmons was a force throughout. He had three 200-yard games and eclipsed 120 yards in every game but one, an 83-yard performance against North Myrtle Beach early in the year.

It was the first time an area running back had reached the 2,000-yard mark since Conway’s Bobby Wallace did so in 2004. And with 1,800 or so yards on the ground this year, Simmons will join departed Myrtle Beach tailback Brandon Sinclair as the only locals since Wallace to reach 5,000 for their career.

But here’s where Simmons is now changing the conversation.

“Our offense didn’t have too many people to depend on. We didn’t have many receivers; we have a quarterback who was thrown into the fire last year,” Simmons said. “I would love to have another 2,000-yard season, but I’d rather win. I’d give up the whole 2,000 yards if it meant more wins.”

With the players around him, the chance for both certainly exists.

His backfield mate, Matt Beale, is coming off a season in which he threw and ran for 1,900 yards and 21 touchdowns. And while the team lost a couple of its receivers, it now has four ready to go who are all capable of providing consistent targets in Morris’ spread offense.

All of that is overriding the fact that Carolina Forest has another difficult schedule this year that includes five of the first six games on the road.

“It always helps when you have returning skill guys back,” Morris said. “You want to be good up front, but when your skill guys are back, you can progress during the year and even during the summer.

“I feel real good about it.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2016 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Carolina Forest looking for returning skill players to lead way."