White Knoll Middle School wide receiver AJ Edwards turned a reception from quarterback Landon Sharpe into a 46-yard touchdown play in the Oct. 7 game against Batesburg-Leesville at White Knoll High School.

It wasn’t just putting up the 1st points on the board for his team.

He was taking another step forward in a Lexington X League program designed to prepare middle school athletes for the opportunity to compete at the next level.

White Knoll head coach Joe Albino said their chance might come sooner than some of his players realize.

“We have 2 feeder schools into White Knoll High School and this year their varsity is pretty young,” He said. “I have 5 8 graders who played for me last year who are dressing on varsity, and all 5 of them saw playing time last Friday night.”

In middle school, many of the players are relatively new to the sport. Albino said 1 of his main roles is to teach his players not only how to play better football, but also how to play in the schemes and the style White Knoll HS head coach Dean Howell uses.

“We try to do everything as close to the high school program as we can,” Albino said. “We take our role very seriously, so that when our players get to that level the offensive and defensive terminology is similar. It seems to be paying off, as we’ve had several of our players go on to do very well with them.”

At Pleasant Hill Middle School, which won last year’s inaugural Lexington X League title, head coach Matt Hornsby agrees his program’s most important function is teaching the basic for future Lexington High players.

“We teach them the fundamentals of the game and introduce them to concepts and strategies they’ll need at the high school level,” he said.

Any coach can tell you sports isn’t just about the game on the field, however. Even White Knoll Middle School principal Donald Hardie is on board with the way sports programs such as football benefit the overall school and the individual students.

“They gain a measure of confidence by getting out there on the field,” Hardie said. “I think that translates into the classroom. I see kids who may not do well in class but once they come out here and play football the realization hits that they’ll need good grades to play, so that feeds into our academics.”

The middle school programs all work in tandem with their high school counterparts, coach Hornsby noted.

“We try to implement a lot of what they do on offense and defense to make the players’ transition easier,” Hornsby said. “We used to be the only feeder school for Lexington High School but now they’ve added Beechwood, we are focused on sending good athletes to them and I think over the years we’ve produced some pretty good players together.”

Albino wears many hats as the football coach, but there’s 1 role he likes best.

“We are a trainer, a coach, field maintenance, custodian, equipment manager, but my favorite part is being a mentor,” he said. “I had 8 young men who played for me in the past come out to watch their old middle school team; I tell them I’m a resource for them as long as I’m around.”

He summed up his overall middle school coaching philosophy fairly simply.

“I want them to learn football, but I also want them to be better young men,” Albino said.