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].

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...