The Woodruff Wolverines are coming off of their most wins in a season since 2011 after going 11-2 and 4-0 in Region 3 3A, but the Wolverines fell in the quarterfinals of the playoffs with a 34-3 loss to Belton-Honea Path. Brett Sloan enters his fifth year at the helm of the program and Woodruff has improved their win total every year under him so far and with a strong returning nucleus on offense and a new 2A schedule the Wolverines look to continue to keep rolling.
On the offensive side of the ball all the eyes were on the running back Aiden Gibson who entered the summer a 4-Star Penn State commit but on July 7th Gibson announced that he was reclassifying and committing to Rutgers leaving the Wolverines without one of the most dynamic players in the state, but Coach Sloan tells me that Jaylen Lyles, who put up over 500 yards last year, is someone they are very excited about and tracks to be the starter at runningback. At quarterback they have Connor Davis still for his senior year at the quarterback position where a year ago he threw for 2,554 yards and 30 touchdowns with 5 more scores and 213 yards on the ground as well. He will have a top primary target in tight end MiCah McClintock who joins the Wolverines after transferring from Mauldin. “MiCah has proven he can make contested catches and Connor has a lot of faith in giving him the opportunities to make plays.” Coach Sloan says. McClintock recently committed to Florida Atlantic University as a 3-Star prospect and put up 425 yards and 5 touchdowns a season ago. Up front Woodruff returns five players who made multiple starts across the line with Dawson Clevenger, Paul Davis, and Ian Jones as the main nucleus of their offensive line.
On defense Woodruff is losing a lot of experience from 2025. “It’s the story of our entire defense. We feel like we’ve got really good athletes out there, they’re just not super experienced at the varsity level, we’ve got a lot of confidence in them but they’ve gotta go do it underneath Friday night lights.” Coach Sloan says. Two players Coach Sloan are very high on in the secondary are Malachi Thompson and Addison Davis. “He’s kind of the quarterback of our defense, he’s a very high football IQ kid.” Sloan says of Davis the senior safety. While Thompson is someone who has been playing on varsity for the Wolverines since he was a freshman. They’ll be relying on those two while the rest of the young defense gets up to speed.
Woodruff starts the 2026 season on the road against the Broome Centurions but then play their next three games in the friendly confines of W.L. Varner Stadium against Fountain Inn, Emerald, and Union, before rounding out their non-region schedule with a road trip to Chapman. After winning Region 3 3A a year ago the Wolverines begin a new conquest in Region 2 2A after the SCHSL realignment hosting Landrum and Southside Christian before ending the season with three straight road games against Chesnee, Mountain View Prep (at North Greenville University), and Clinton. It’s a very familiar schedule for Woodruff as they played 8 of these teams last year going 8-0 with an average score of 42.6-17.1. “We’re ready to go, you know? We’ve got work to do, but we’re excited.” says Sloan about the Woodruff schedule this season. The Wolverines are just 25 days from kickoff and figure to be one of the favorites in their new home in 2A and we’ll see how they try to keep the ball rolling week one at Broome.
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