Less than 24 Hours to Start of NC HS FB

PHOTO COURTESY OF DON CALLAHAN

Football version 2012 is just about here!  Yet another off-season has sped by and in less than 24 hours student-athletes from across the state of North Carolina will begin their first official practices of the 2012 season.  The last few years have been good for the local area when it comes to participation deep into the state playoffs.  Garner made it to the 4AA finals before falling short to a talented Summers'-led Greensboro Page squad, while the year before Hillside took home the 4A title and Wake Forest-Rolesville represented the East in the 4AA final against Butler.  As we look toward this season there is a lot of talk about possible deep playoff runs this year as well with a good bit of buzz surrounding the Hornets once again as well as a bit of chatter out of the CAP-8 where a very talented offensive juggernaut in the Wakefield Wolverines led by South Carolina commit Connor Mitch are garnering early attention [Choice plan helps Wakefield football]. It's real early still and even talented teams on paper have to benefit from a lot of things working out to reach the opportunity in the end to play for a state crown.  Regardless of how December turns out I have a feeling we'll see some exciting football here in the area so be sure to get out there and support our local student-athletes when you have the opportunity!

Our area is fortunate to have a number of news-outlets that work hard to support and report on prep student-athletes from around our area and as I understand it two of the larger outlets, WRAL-HighSchoolOT [HighSchooOT Coverage] and The News & Observer [N&O Prep Coverage] will both be accelerating into high gear to provide extensive coverage of the fall season and specifically the beginning of prep football.  HighSchoolOT is advertising 24 hours of coverage beginning at 12:01 AM on Monday, July 30 to follow the start of practice at Leesville Road High School [24 Hours of HSFB kicks off...].  Leesville Road's plan to have an early morning start were reported in the News & Observer by Tim Stevens earlier this week [Leesville Road to start football practice early].  Look for both outlets to provide extensive coverage with the start of practice through the end of the playoffs.  On the Durham scene, look to the Durham Herald-Sun to provide insight into local PAC-6 play.  As always, you can jump over to our FB News Now [FB News Now] page listed at the top of the page and find links to all of these outlets.  Finally, if you haven't checked it out yet, be sure to venture over to CarolinaPreps.com operated by Chris Hughes.  This site has developed over the years and Chris continues to work to introduce ways to interact with the North and South Carolina communities and is looking toward having a weekly radio broadcast focusing on football coverage news from throughout the state [CarolinaPreps.com].

X's and O's - Talking West Virginia and SmartFootball

PHOTO BY TRAVIS LONG - THE NEWS & OBSERVER

It seems like at every level of play, high school and up to the pro level, scores in games are getting out of control.  To think that the national championship game next week will be about defense seems a bit strange in the current offensive environment where scores in the 40's and 30's are routine and getting to 70 or 67 points against what most would call reputable competition, see West Virginia over Clemson in the Orange Bowl and Baylor over Washington in the Alamo Bowl is a reality.  

On the local high school scene the Leesville Road Pride averaged 51.5 points a game this past season and had just two games where they scored less than 40, against Garner (21 points) in the Eastern 4AA semifinals and early in the year against Jordan where they managed a paltry 39 in a victory.  At the pro level, three teams, Green Bay, New Orleans and New England all averaged over 30 points per game during the 2011 regular season.  A quick look over the past nine seasons revealed that in 2004 two teams passed the 30 point threshold (Indianapolis and Kansas City), while in 2008, 2005 and 2002 no teams averaged more than 30 a game.  In every other season during that nine year period, only a single team eclipsed the 30 point per game threshold [New England (2010, 2007), New Orleans (2009), San Diego (2006), Kansas City (2003)].  A quick glance would indicate that points scored are up and the performance that West Virginia put forth against Clemson earlier this week is just one example.

My background is more on the offensive side of the ball and I love talking X's and O's - I love the chess match of it all.  If that sounds interesting then I would highly recommend checking out Chris Brown's site SmartFootball.com.  It is hands-down one of, if not the best, X's and O's sites out there and I've rarely left the site after reading one of his posts wondering why I took the time.  It's here that the discussion about a seeming point bonanza and SmartFootball.com  coalesce.  I would encourage you if you are interested in reading a ton of great material about what Coach Dana Holgorsen and his staff are doing offensively at West Virginia or understanding in more detail the roots of their system - to venture over there and check out the following story: SmartFootball article by Chris Brown on WVU offense.  I feel confident for all those X's and O's junkies out there, you won't be disappointed.  I'd go a step further, bookmark the site!

Photographs courtesy of newsobserver.com (The News & Observer)

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Playoff Update - 84 Remain

PHOTO BY DEAN STRICKLAND - THE NEWS & OBSERVER

This is one of those things about the football season at every level, but especially in college and high school where it seems to fly by before it even started, that makes you sometimes wish you had a 'bloated' major league baseball type season - or...perhaps not.  

Another week is gone and we sit with just two remaining regular season weeks to go and teams are working hard to position for not only playoff qualification, but also for top seeding as we close out the 2011 regular season.

As we did a week ago, we'll run through some brief playoff elements, specifically with regard to the classification AAAA teams in the state.  As always, we'd like to point out the assistance we received from one of the top resource sites in North Carolina when it comes to overall team statistics.  If you haven't checked them out, then please take a moment and do that before the season is out.  References, citations, footnotes - whatever your modus operandi is with regards to giving credit - are a good thing, so I wanted to give a shout out to the Asheville Reynolds contingent that have for so many years done an awesome job with their website [www.gobiggreen.net].  Almost all of the information that I used to put together this post was compiled based on their site.

Playoffs Out of Reach?

Heading into last weeks' games, Garinger HS and Southwest Guilford (due to a post-season ban) were the only two teams that looked certain to not be in a position to make the playoffs.  A total of four additional teams; Sanderson, Smithfield Selma, Ben L. Smith and East Mecklenburg were in positions where we reported it looked as though they would need to win out to have the opportunity to at the very least qualify for the playoffs.  All four ended up losing last week and with that, it appears that all four are officially eliminated from post-season consideration as they each have two games remaining on their schedules and are not in position to reach the four win plateau or compete for a top three finish in their respective conferences.  Joining these six squads as we enter this week of play are an additional 10 teams that currently have one overall win on the season, with either one conference win or less and only two games or less remaining on their schedules.  It appears, that even if they were to win out, they would certainly be below the four win qualifying plateau and will be unable to reach a top three finish in their respective conferences.  They include: Person, North Mecklenburg, Enloe, McDowell, Providence, Apex, Riverside, Pine Forest, Terry Sanford and Southern Alamance.  Even though the playoffs may be out of reach for each of these teams, with two weeks to go, many of them will be playing squads jockeying for playoff position and a few wins here or there by these squads could make things interesting for the remaining AAAA teams.

CAP-8 Chaos For Third Place Auto Bid

PHOTO BY ROBERT WILLETT - THE NEWS & OBSERVER

It certainly feels like we are rounding that final corner and with just three games and in some cases two games remaining for most of the area teams, conference automatic bids are at stake and reaching the four win playoff qualification plateau is in the forefront for a number of teams.  Every Friday night during the fall is a great one to get out and watch a football game, but with the weather appearing to move even more into those 40's and 50's and with teams angling for a top three conference finish - tonight is guaranteed to be a great night for Football Friday.

In the following capsules (this post and others to follow and already submitted), we'll briefly hit on the 4A conferences around the area and talk playoff implications for this evening's games.

CAP-8

Leesville Road and Wake Forest-Rolesville are in the drivers' seat as we close out the season, both are 4-0 in conference with three conference games remaining for each and culminating with the match-up between the two to close out the 2011 regular season.  The Cougars are playing a Sanderson squad that is barely hanging onto playoff chances, as they'll need to win their final three to have a chance at being in a multi-team tie for the third position in the conference.  The Pride has a much more intriguing match-up against 2-2 in conference Millbrook.  The Wildcats along with Wakefield and Broughton all sit at 2-2 in conference play and essentially control their own chances of at the very least snagging a third place automatic bid or quite possibly scratching to a bit higher in the conference pecking order.  Millbrook sits in a great position, with Leesville tonight and WFR next week.  String together two wins and they are sitting in a strong spot to not only snag that third place finish put based on the LR/WFR game to close the season with a great shot at snagging the number two finish.  As for taking on the top of the conference to close out the season, why not, if you get the victories, most likely those will be the teams you have beat in tie-breakers at the end - so in affect a double win for Millbrook if they can pull it off.

Playoff Update - Only 94 Remain

PHOTO BY JOHNNY JOHNSON - THE NEWS & OBSERVER

Conference races are heating up throughout the state and before we know it that first week of the playoffs will be upon us.  I know that personally one thing I'm definitely missing is the exceptional work that Drew Pasteur put forth each fall with regards to his Fantastic 50 predictions that ultimately culminated in the incredible work that projected out all of the brackets.  It was amazing work and in case you happen to be reading Drew - thanks for all that you did to support high school athletics in North Carolina over the years and I hope you and the family are doing well up North!

I won't try to match what Drew did, but I did take a few moments and go through and get a bit of information about all of the classification AAAA teams in the state and at least have an idea of where teams stand as we head into the final three weeks of the regular season.  References, citations, footnotes - whatever your modus operandi is with regards to giving credit - are a good thing, so I wanted to give a shout out to the Asheville Reynolds contingent that have for so many years done an awesome job with their website [www.gobiggreen.net].  Almost all of the information that I used to put together some of the information I'm going to present came from their site.  If you haven't checked out this site and you follow high school ball in the state, then you are definitely missing out.  For those that value a bit of perspective when you are talking around the water cooler (as opposed to the hype machines that base the hype on zero substance) you have to check out the site, you won't be disappointed.

Playoffs Out of Reach?

Well, you knew it was coming sooner or later and with last week we had four additional teams inch closer to the edge and get very close to joining Garinger High School and Southwest Guilford as teams that as best as I can determine will not be able to make the playoffs this year, unless some incredible things happen over the final three weeks.  Southwest Guilford will be ineligible for postseason play because of players being ejected earlier this season.  Garinger was eliminated a week prior as they currently have zero reportable wins with only two games remaining on their schedule.  Sanderson, Smithfield Selma, Ben L. Smith and East Mecklenburg look to be at best half-way out of consideration at this point.  All have zero reportable wins and only three games remaining meaning that winning all of them will not get them to the four win plateau for at-large consideration.  It also does not appear that winning their three remaining games would get them into the top three of their conferences for an automatic bid unless there are numerous upsets that create a log-jam in the three win region.  That said, if any of those four can pull off a three game winning streak to close the season and if crazy things happen ahead of them - who knows, it just might be their lucky day!

Are You Ready 4 Some Football? 2011 Style

Courtesy Don Callahan

We are less than 24 hours away from the official start of the 2011 high school football season in North Carolina and local schools are gearing up for the push towards that first day of full-contact, quickly followed by scrimmages and before we all know it - the first Football Friday on August 19th.

Schools in the area have been hard at work throughout the summer in non-mandatory summer workouts and competing in a number of passing leagues [Hillside, Jordan, Southern Durham, Northern Durham, Person, East Chapel Hill, Wakefield, Leesville Road] in an effort to be ahead of the curve when midnight strikes this evening and the NCHSAA officially allows schools to begin the process of official practice.

Some schools, including Northern Durham and Riverside will take to the field literally at midnight.  The Knights have coined their start to 2011 under returning head coach Gary Merrill - MidKnight Madness.  According to their school athletic website for football, they'll get underway at Northern at 12:00 AM on Saturday (7/30/2011).  As for the Pirates, another PAC-6 school under new leadership, they'll have a cook-out on Friday evening and then hit the turf in earnest at midnight. Riverside will be looking to rebound in 2011 under new head coach David Hackney, a Jordan graduate that led the Falcons, years ago, as the starting quarterback [Pirates Suit-Up for Midnight Practice].

Southern Durham and Hillside are slated to start the season on Saturday, July 30th, with the Spartans beating the heat with an early morning practice according to their football-centric site.  Person will also begin the season on Saturday morning with an 8-11 AM practice [Person Athletic Site].  The Jordan Falcons will also try to beat the heat with a morning practice on Saturday beginning at 8 AM [Jordan Practice Announcement].

HighSchoolOT.com will be holding their pre-season get-together [Link to article on this event] with area head coaches and players from local schools later today to discuss what the site, WRAL and 99.9 The Fan and 620 The Buzz will be doing this upcoming 2011 season to support the Football Friday scene.  Representatives from each of these entities will be in attendance to give a break-down of what to look forward to this season.  Of course you can find all of the information about this event and any news that breaks at the event at HighSchoolOT.com.

PAC-6 Fields Five Squads in Beast of the Hill Tourney: Focus on Falcons

Courtesy Don Callahan

If you are interested in PAC-6 football, then this past Friday, the 4th Annual Beast of the Hill 7-on-7 tourney at the University of North Carolina was the place to be in attendance.  Five of the seven current members of the PAC-6 conference were participating, including Hillside, Person, Northern Durham, Jordan and East Chapel Hill. In an earlier post we discussed Hillside and their eventual run to the championship [Hillside and Wakefield Highlight UNC Beast of the Hill Tourney].  I was fortunate enough to get out in the 100 degree heat and take in most of the day and got to see a lot of squads in action including all five of the PAC-6 teams.  As I mentioned in the earlier post I was most impressed with the Hornets, but if you are fan of the PAC-6 or football in the area, then the prospect of some exciting football should make all fans excited to get the 2011 season underway.

The tournament was organized with four pods of six teams each and allowed for five games during the round-robin to establish a first and second place finisher.  The top teams from each pod were then moved to the elimination round in a four team championship.  The four second place finishers were placed in a lower level championship round to establish a second tier (lower flight) champion.  Both Hillside and East Chapel Hill moved through their pods undefeated, while Jordan tallied a 3-2 mark and both Northern Durham and Person finished at 1-4.  East Chapel Hill fell in the semifinals to Wakefield, while Jordan lost out on the chance to make either elimination bracket with a final round robin overtime loss to Hermitage High School out of Richmond, VA.  Both Northern and Person ended up near the bottom of their respective pods, but there were positives from both squads.

Jordan brought two squads to the event, an 'A' team and 'B' team comprised primarily of underclassmen and jayvee players.  The 'A' team was in a pod with eventual pod champ Hermitage (Richmond, VA), Leesville Road,  Great Bridge (Chesapeake, VA) and Northern Nash.  West Mecklenburg was also in the pod, but pulled out and provided each of the remaining five teams with a forfeit win.  The Falcons ended up 2-2 against the teams in attendance and 3-2 with the forfeit win against West Meck.  They opened up the tourney with an early morning loss to eventual lower level champ Leesville Road, 18-0 and followed it up with a 20-14 win over Great Bridge.  Prior to lunch they picked up another win against Northern Nash, 18-6, before falling in overtime to Hermitage in the final round robin game of the day.  The Falcons had a tough draw, with Leesville ending up with just one loss on the day to Hermitage in round-robin play and Hermitage going undefeated in round-robin play to eventually bow out in the semis of the championship tourney to an undefeated Hillside squad.

Hillside and Wakefield Highlight UNC Beast of the Hill Tourney

Courtesy Don Callahan

It didn't take long to recognize that the Hornets and Wolverines were two of the premier squads in attendance this past Friday at the 4th Annual Beast of the Hill 7-on-7 tournament at the University of North Carolina.  Teams were split into four pods of six schools and I was able to take in action for two of the pods somewhat simultaneously that included Hillside and Wakefield.  Both teams on first impression were head and shoulders above the competition within their respective brackets and I actually commented to one of the media members in attendance after watching a few games with each that they were in my opinion 1A and 1B at the event with the Wolverines probably taking the 1A nod.  Of course if I was correct with that early assessment I was even more correct when it ended up that both schools finished the round-robin portion of the tourney at 5-0 and went on to wins in the semi-finals, only to meet for the championship.  Where I was wrong - was that 1A and 1B once the dust settled as the Hornets knocked off the Wolverines late in the championship game with a score that moved them ahead after a back and forth contest that saw a number of ties before the Hornets took the 'ship, 27-21.

Before I expound a bit more on both of these schools, I'll mention that I hope to put another post up in the near future with a bit more about some of the other area schools that were in attendance...so stay tuned in.  It was a great event to check out a lot of local schools and it was also great because of how the event has progressed since it started in its current format four years ago.  Prior to the one-day 'Beast of the Hill' event, the University held a multi-day team camp and a number of schools from the local area as well as out-of-state routinely attended.  The format had group/position instruction and then afternoons and evenings filled with competitive 7-on-7 action.  Everyone typically had the opportunity to play everyone and near the end of the multi-day event, the top schools would face off and in a somewhat 'unofficial' way a school would be the champ.  There was a ton of coaching that went on and the athletes had a great time bonding over the multi-day event.  That was the past and now the one day event dominates the scene.  The Carolina staff had an incredibly organized event from the outside looking in and was treated to some quality competition that yielded two championship games that were decided by a single score after having the games tied late.  As an aside, Leesville Road captured the 'lower flight' championship and in the limited amount of time I was able to see them, looked to be chugging along as though nothing had changed for the Pride (and to be honest - I really don't think much has changed - and that can mean only good things for all those Leesville Loonies out there - y'all go crazy now!!)

For those that are familiar with Inside Carolina, you can grab a ton of information on this event and I've placed a link to an article by Don Callahan, one of the IC staff writers.  I'd also like to thank Don for allowing me to utilize some of his photos from the event -- greatly appreciated!  Hillside is Beast of the Hill (Don Callahan - Inside Carolina.com)

Now onto our impressions of Hillside and Wakefield...