Day Two of riding the high school football circuit

Made the first stop out at Northern Guilford this afternoon, well actually the first stop was over to Page this morning, but the Pirates were already done and probably headed to weight room, when I drove by at around 10:45 or 11am….It is going to be hard to catch the morning workouts, since they get going sometimes at about 8 and may be done by 10:30am….Will have to forego the early web site construction and get on over to the field, as the week progresses….

Over at Northern, the word I got earlier today here at the site, said they would start at around 5pm, but no Northern and as I was outside near the field, I asked a kid who was heading into the building, what was going on and he said they were inside today, which probably meant they were going over materials as a team and that they didn’t come out until around 6pm….

To get the show on the road and to avoid standing in the parking lot in the sun, I got back in the car and headed toward Highway 150 and made the trip to Northwest Guilford….The word we got here at the site earlier today, said NWG was going to start some time between 6-6:30 and I ran into Coach Joe Woodruff in the parking lot and we talked about the team for a few minutes and then headed on to the practice field….

Practice was due to begin at 6:15, but they got rolling at 6:10 and the first part of today’s workout was all about defense…..NWG prides itself in it’s defense and today it was all defense early on….Defense, defense and more defense….I was hearing strange names like Devil-Devil, and Cobra, Tiger, Zebra and Liberty and although I have no idea what those names mean, I take it that they are the defensive sets, that NWG will be in and they were working hard on those sets and put in a few stunts to go with the sets…..

Before NWG lined up defensively, they did defensive drill work that had them set up in the defensive formation(After coming out of the “D” huddle..), versus the scout offense and then react to the coach, when he called the sets, followed by an up-down, then you sprint to the sideline, give the coach another up-down, then sprint to the other/opposite sideline and give him another up-down and then the drill is complete……You always sprint to the sidelines and you better not be jogging or walking…..

The defense began their work, after several rounds of that defensive drill and I believe they were facing the #1 QB Matt Pawlowski, and what better way for the defense to work their pass coverage, than by going up against one of the best passing quaterbacks around…..

Northwest Guilford was practicing down in the bottom, below their game field and it was plenty hot and humid for them today….The numbers look to be around 120 players and again, the varsity and the JV’s were working in seperate groups….NWG might end up with as many as 75-80 JV players and to the coaches credit, the JV’s went undefeated last year, at (10-0)….

Coach Woodruff doesn’t put a lot of stock in what happened last year, it is all about what is going on this year and the Vikings are working hard and there seems to be a killer instinct, within that defense and that is something that you have to have, if you are going to advance into the middle rounds, of the State 4-A Playoffs….

The Dudley Panthers were at work today on their Highway 29 North practice field and they will move to their regular season practice complex, when the pre-season is complete….

Dudley got going today at 5:15 and they finished up at around 7:30pm….The Panthers had around 80-85 players out for practice today and the team looked uniform, while decked out in Dudley gold T’ shirts and blue shorts and everyone was dressed the same, on this day….The weather wasn’t a killer by the time I got there, at around 6:50 and the teams were working on offense versus defense and it appeared that the defense was a bit ahead of the offense, here early in the pre-season….

The old coaches always told me the the offense always has the advantage, since they know the snap count and on defense you have to anticipate when the ball will move…..The defenses are out in front early in 2010….Dudley has a lot of men to replace on defense like David Amerson and Major Bryant and they have to do it in a hurry, with just two weeks to get ready, for the likes of WS Carver in Week One and then the Ragsdale Tigers in Week Two of the regular season….

NWG opens up with Eastern Guilford at EG and then they face the Western Guilford Hornets…..

Back to the Dudley practice……The Panthers have good team power early and the players that they have out there, look to be very strong, at least that was the impression, as I watched them working out in practice today…..Coach Mac(McMillan) works those kids hard in the weight room and he wil not let a kid become a slacker and most of the kids he trains, will learn some valuable life lessons, about what it takes to overcome the desire to quit…

Coach Steven Davis and the Panthers will have their hands full this year after losing LB Bryant, DB/WR Amerson, QB Alex Moore, RB JR Peterson, OL Steven McCain, DB/WR/P/KOR/PR Devarris Martin, and several key players off of last year’s (12-2) team…..

This year in the Metro Page will be favored with Dudley probably picked pre-season #2, Smith #3, Western Guilford #4, Southeast Guilford #5, Grimsley #6 and Southern Alamance #7…….

In the Piedmont Triad Conference, Ragsdale will be the favorite with High Point Central or Northwest Guilford #2 and #3 and then Glenn, East Forsyth, WS Parkland and Southwest Guilford…..

Day Two on the road complete and let’s see what you think?????

11 thoughts on “Day Two of riding the high school football circuit

  1. Hey Andy,

    E.Guilford comes to NW Guilford this year then NW goes to W.Guilford…..Just thought I would pass it on!

  2. NW always has a pretty good defense. If they can get the offense up to par and score a few points this might be a pretty good team. Time will tell! One thing NW always does well is swarm to the ball!

  3. Dudley will compete again this year for the Metro. Everyone thinks Page will walk away with it but I don’t see it that way.

  4. Andy, Sounds like you very high on that NWG quarterback, do you really think he is going to be good this year? I looked up some stats on the internet and found he passed for 1200 yds as a sophomore, is that good?

  5. In a system where the running game has been the primary focus in the past, 1,200 yards is pretty good in your 10th grade with it being the first year you are running the team…

    If Pawlowski can kick it up to 2,000 yards this year or even 2,400 that will be very good….

    The kid works hard in football and in basketball and I like his work ethic….Hope he has a great season…It is always fun to keep up with the Guilford County quarterbacks and we will have some good ones with Matt, Luke Heavner, Drew Adams, James Summers, Josh Thompson and many more on the way up…..

  6. On the EG-NWG game, I was going to print that as EG at NWG this year, but I was thinking it was EG at NWG last year…..

    Roll with EG at NWG this year and thanks…..

  7. Early morning activities have made it tough to get to Page in the morning this week, but unless something blows up, I hope to be there on Thursday morning…..

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