The Gilbert Indians look like one of the more complete teams in the state in 3A. They currently rank fourth behind only Daniel, Belton Honea Path and Dillon and have an impressive home win over Lexington, who ranks seventh in the state in the 5A classification. 

The Indians are excelling on both sides of the ball. They’re scoring over 42 points per game and only giving up 12.5 per game on average. It’s a team that is shaping up to be one of the best under the school’s all-time winningest head coach, Chad Leaphart.

Gilbert is recently coming off a dominant 60-0 win over Swansea in a locally televised game, making a big statement win that proves they won’t overlook anybody.

“Our guys came out and played really sharp, that’s what we stressed to them all week is coming out and being sharp and executing at a high level,” Leaphart said. 

If you ask Leaphart, the team has done a great job of leaning on their defense, which is the more experienced side of the ball coming into the season.

“It’s a veteran group with nine guys returning from last year’s team,” Leaphart said. “They’re a salty bunch and played really well all year and certainly kept us in some of the big games like Lexington, for instance.” 

In that Lexington game, the Indians held the Wildcat offense to only three points and sacked mobile Wildcat quarterback Taiden Mines seven times. 

The Gilbert defense is loaded with talent and production. Wynn Meetze with 63 total tackles, eight tackles for loss and three interceptions. Caleb Strese and Xavian Davenport have been nightmares for opposing quarterbacks as Strese leads the team with four sacks and Davenport is right behind him with three. 

The Gilbert defense also does one thing exceptionally well that transforms games: cause turnovers. The Indians are averaging one interception per game and a little over one fumble forced per game, all but ensuring that they win the turnover battle week in and week out. One of the big keys to making that happen is the dominance of their line play.

“It starts up front. Our defensive line is a veteran group. You got Caleb Strese playing defensive end, he’s a shrine bowl guy, tall, rangy and can run really well so he’s a force there on the edge,” Leaphart said. “Two interior guys, Kelvin Blackwell and Xavian Davenport, have been hard to block for people this year and they’ve created pressure on quarterbacks when passing, slipped blocks and made tackles for loss in the backfield, force people into negative plays that gets offenses behind the chains. To me, it always starts with those guys and the pressure they put on an offense whether it’s through tackles for loss or pressuring the quarterback when he’s passing and gets us in positions where our secondary can be successful with interceptions and things like that.”

Offensively, Leaphart points out that there’s one element of this group that is different from almost any other team he’s coached: an ability to be balanced in their attack. In the past, Leaphart has had some extremely run heavy offenses and some extremely pass heavy offenses. It’s one thing that has made him excel as a head coach, which is building an offensive playbook that is designed to fit the skill set of his players.

For the 2023 Gilbert offense, the Indians provide him an ability to equally mix the passing game and the running game while also being able to get the ball in the hands of a multitude of play makers. To the credit of quarterback Drake Braddock, he’s been able to make sure those playmakers are consistently getting the ball in advantageous positions.

“Last year was such a run heavy offense with our two really good running backs, Alias Graham-Woodbery and Jaden Allen-Hendrix. So this year was about developing a new identity,” Leaphart said. Jaylen Jay’s done a great job at running back and Trevon Williamson has come on late at that spot. But Drake Braddock running and leading the offense has been key, distributing the ball to our many different receivers. I think the biggest thing with our offense as far as identity has been the balance of everything. Being able to run the ball, being able to throw the ball and not being one dimensional.”

One element of that balance is making a defense have to account for every playmaker on the field. With some offenses, if you keep one talented wide receiver or running back in check, you can keep their offense at bay. That’s not the case with Gilbert.

“This may be the most interesting fact of the season for us or since I’ve been at Gilbert. We’ve had five different guys at one point this year have over 100 receiving yards in a game,” Leaphart said. “I think I’ve had four have over 100 receiving yards in a game back in 2019 when we did throw the ball all over the place, but I don’t think we’ve had five different guys do that. Our three starting receivers have all had a game like that. Krew Morris, Matt Edwards, Chance Guthrie, our tight end Connor Gooding has had a game like that and our running back Jaylen Jay had a game like that against Saluda where he had 140 yards receiving out of the backfield. So it’s that kind of balance that’s great to have. Sometimes we get one dimensional, but I think every coach would admit that balance is important and that’s something we seem to have going for us this year.”

Those five pass catchers Leaphart alluded to (Morris, Edwards, Guthrie, Gooding and Jay) all have at least 242 receiving yards and two touchdowns on the season.

Outside of finding his playmakers, Braddock has avoided costly mistakes. He’s only thrown two interceptions so far this season compared to his 17 touchdown passes. 

On the ground, Jay has been a nightmare for opposing defenses, running for 754 yards (over 6.4 yards per rush) and 10 touchdowns on the season. 

The dominance of the defensive front and the balanced attack on offense gives Leaphart the confidence that this team can not only win their region, but make a deep run in the playoffs, even further than last year when they won two playoff games before losing to Beaufort. 

Gilbert still has three games remaining. One against winless Orangeburg-Wilkinson on the road Oct. 13 but still have their two most important games of the season at home against Dreher Oct. 20 (who is still undefeated in region play) and then at Brookland-Cayce to finish the season Oct. 27 for what could be a region championship game.