Grimsley at Page Friday Night and if you look back over the years, who would have the better team?????

Page has a decided advantage when you look at the overall series vs. Grimsley football from over the years, and Page will probably be enlisted as at least a two touchdown favorite for this Friday night’s game at Marion Kirby Stadium, but when you look toward the past and from over the years, there has been a wealth of talent that has come through these two schools….

If you combined the talent from the two schools, from over the years and you look at Grimsley’s best players and the best players from Page in their prime, who would have the better overall team?????

The Prime Time Grimsley All-Stars vs. the Prime Time Page All-Stars and this game might be closer than you would think….

If you put at least two of Grimsley’s top defensive linemen on their All-Star roster from over the years, they would be two of the best to ever play in this state, and that would be Reuben Davis and DJ Reader…..Just think about those two facing Page up front at that the same time in their prime….And if you had to come up with a Page fantasy team Prime Time All-Star to try and block them, I might just start with Chris Jasperse…Chris had some pro tryouts and he was big as a mountain in his prime, and he could be the one that could block men like Davis and Reader…

If you look for receivers, Page would have prime-timers in Haywood Jeffires, Tripp Welborne and John Newman….While Welborne was at Page, the Pirates went (40-1-1) and he was also a steady defensive back for the Pirates and when you begin to study these prime-timers from both teams(Page and Grimsley), Welborne looks to be the top athlete of them all from over the years…..Welborne has to be on the field at all times in an All-Star matchup between the Pirates and the Whirlies…

For quarterbacks you can really take your pick and there have so many good ones from over the years…..Todd Ellis, Jeff Dunn, James Summers, Antonio Kirkpatrick, even a recent Will Jones from Page and there have been many more on the the Pirates side, and with Grimsley you can roll with Rod Elkins, Mike Elkins, Jeff Gilbert and Zach Maynard may have snuck in a couple of wins over Page during his solid time as the Whirlies’ quarterback….Jeff Gilbert was the all-time top QB at Western Carolina University, back in his day….

Plenty of others to go along with those, but who are the true prime-timers, the true All-Stars…..

We are jumping around a little bit here, but with Grimsley having maybe an edge on the D-line and then Page a for sure edge at WR and then the QB spot has so many good ones, it might just be a toss-up and if you move to linebacker, I think Page goes on top again….I always liked Clayton Henry and Michael Brooks and then Page had that 2011 LB group with young men like Blake Hickman, Christian Cranford and company….Current Page linebacking crew pretty tough too….

At DB’s you have guys like Delton Hall from Grimsley and Tripp Welborne, from Page and it still looks like Welborne would be the top talent to take the field from over the years….We spoke on receivers and if you needed a big tight end, Grimsley’s Ethan Albright would be the perfect choice and since he is tied in now with Page as a former softball coach and a Page parent, could Ethan be convinced to turn in his old Grimsley uniform and line up for Page????? If you wanted to go with a two tight end formation and you had Ethan Albright and John Newman on the same side of the ball, that would really open some holes for the Page backs and give the Page QB’s targets that they could not help but spot….

And as for those runningbacks Carlos Doggett from Page has to get some nods and along with DreW Rogers and for Grimsley they have had many, but for pure heart, guts and determination, I would go with David Moore Jr., and there are plenty more and Shawn Brown is another good RB from back in the Grimsley past….

Got to give Page the kicking edge and the ones from the recent years with Matt Millisor, Austin Anthony, Harrison Kiser and Thomas Murray have really been something, but Kirk McGuinn, Brian Carter, Gavin Segall-Abrams and others from Grimsley could argue that they have been pretty good over the years too….

Lots of players to look back and there has been a pretty good talent pool from over the years at these two schools and if you could have a return of your favorite coaching matchup would you call for Marion Kirby(Page HS) vs. Jeff Smouse(Grimsley HS) or do you want to see a different meeting of the coaches from Page and Grimsley….I think Coach Gillespie only lost maybe one game to Grimsley over the years and they came way back and early in his stop at Page and for Grimsley, Coach Smouse still seems to be the recallable coach for the Whirlies when it comes to this Page-Grimsley battle from over the years….I don’t know what it was exactly, but Coach Smouse seemed to really add something to this annual ball game….

Not a bad topic for Grimsley at Page week and we have hit it before, sort of, but it is always good to bring this discussion back…..

Got some more key names to add to the list and who were your favorites from over the years……This game has a way of making stars out of players you may have never heard of too…..

*****On recent games, Page slipped past Grimsley 24-23 in 2007, after falling to the Whirlies 21-10 in 2006 and Page has won all of the games since 2007…..*****And as for this year, Page is saying, “Bring it On and Bring it Home”………….

11 thoughts on “Grimsley at Page Friday Night and if you look back over the years, who would have the better team?????

  1. I don’t know about the Varsity game, but the JV game would be something to watch. Grimsley 8-1 Page 9-0. This will be exciting prelude to the friday night match up. Every catagory Offense Defense is heavily in Page favor on the stat sheets. Let’s see if Grimsley can move the ball and contain page running attack. Or it will be a long night.

  2. Well when we talk about great players at the highschool level with Grimsley and Page, we go to the players that went to and played pro ball first and then big college and mid major football. However for the most part, they parallel each other. However, there are many that dominated on the highschool level that never gets mentioned because they may have been undersonged by top players at the time. Greg Franklin Qb at Grimsely, held state records for many years for passing yardages. Big Scotty Arant. Shawn Brown, who was hurt most of his senior year was still the most dominant player on the field.Remember Grimsley went to semifinals games back to back in 1987 and 1988. My brother Reggie Robinson lead the area and state in tackles his Senior year in 1988-89 with 144 tackles and played behind Rob Jones(Dallas Cowboys) at ECU until he started his Senior year at ECU. I, Ronald Robinson(Rodo)had 99 tackles at Nosetackle and lead the state in tackles in 1988-89 for defensive lineman. My son Ronald Robinson II, (Little Ro) plays defensive line for, yes, Page Highschool and is a junior #46 same number his dad wore when he was at Grimsley. My son will watch this week our 10-7 win against Page in 1987 season where I caused the fumble to set up winning fieldgoal by Kirk Mcguinn, However, Page had Teddy Patterson, stellar running back, Monore Patterson,slot, Tyler(scooby) Lawerence, LB stand out at NC STATE, James Gavin, QB, also he still holds strikeout record at Page in baseball. while Grimsley had Willie Harris, receiver and Shawn Tipps ,Safety. Bobby Peay, offensive lineman. I could name many more, that had the intangibles and played both ways like JR Troutman,receiver and outsidebacker/roving monster/ Chris harris,safety and QB Corey Walker DB and runningback, receiver, Bernard Farringtion,receiver,

    Well with all the coachiing changes at Grimsley over the past 9 years, its hard to get players to buy in to a program and play every year. Page has keep that tradition going and gets to maximize the best players each year. My heart bleeds BLue and White but well be rooting on the Pirates for my son and also as I coached at Lewis Center and most of those guys landed at Page.

  3. You are right on the money about that JV game for Thursday, with Page at Grimsley and that should be a good look into the future for both schools…

    That Page passing attack is just about as lethal as their running attack, with the Pirates getting six TD passes from Soph. QB Javondre Paige last Friday night vs. HP Central….

    Grimsley must be ready for everything and every man on the Whirlies defense must be ready to run the entire field, because Page can hit you from many different directions….

    Grimsley will need some offense to defeat Page this Friday or any Friday night for that matter, but the Grimsley defense must be their own, “First Line of Defense”…..

    Grimsley might need to channel up the services of Robert Lane and John Cassells, they used to be all over that field, back in the day…..

  4. Whirlies all-time team is RB-Glenn Ford & Shawn Brown,Chad Wright,Lamont Wall,Sezzie Love,Rex Tonkins WR- Willie Harris,Keenan Allen,James Cole,Bernard Farringtion,G Polk,TE-Ethan Albright,David Cox ,O-line- Vernon Greene,Bobby Peay,Stuart Albright………..
    Defense- Jeff Jeffires,Shawn Walden, Zsarr McCoy,Scotty Arant,Brelin F-Walden,Jody Tonkins,Shawn Tipps,Reuben Davis,Delton Hall,The Robinson twins. Too many to try to name.I need to see a Page list that can top that!

  5. My money is on Page winning big in the JV game. If Grimsley scores a lot of points I’ll be surprised. I’m thinking the same in the varsity game. The Smith over Eastern Guilford outcome is the only real upset that I’ve seen this season. SW over Dudley wasn’t that big of a surprise to me, the writing was on the wall. If Grimsley beats Page THAT will be the surprise of the season IMO.

  6. Wait a minute here what about James Gavin strongest arm to ever qb at page William “squirt” Rochelle at slot fastest player i ever seen with a ball and may still hold recieving records at guilford college also Shawn Colvin at wr he played in the shrine bowl opposite him was another beast shawn cheek then u have to consider Brian Taylor at qb after gavin then u had willie firget his last name played tight end for ncsu shall i continue you had James White incredible rb who suffered and acl injury also big Mike Steed hardest hitting lb around in the 90’s so also dana murray,ryan daye, Lamont Burns de of the new york jets come on i bleed Page red til the death. Grimsley had excellent talent and coaches but lets put this to rest PHS ALL DAY.

  7. You can’t forget the following Page players: Willie Wright at TE, Chris Edwards at DB and RB, Tucker King at K. Great players!!

  8. If our calculations are correct Grimsley has beaten Page in the neighborhood of say maybe 6 times in the past 47 years dating back to 1970….

    Grimsley in 1970..

    17 years later Grimsley over Page in 1987 on the Kirk McGuinn kick in the playoffs, then Grimsley again in 1999 with the Crawford kid at RB and we remember Ron Harris, the Whirlies WR/DB and Harris was some kind of athlete and then it happened again in:

    2004
    2005
    2006 and Grimsley has not won again since 2006….

    Jeff Smouse was coaching the Whirlies in 1987, Barry Stewart was the Grimsley head coach in 1999 and Todd Shuping was leading the Whirlies in 2004-2006….

    We are talking say six wins in 47 years and Coach Daryl Brown is looking to turn that around and may not happen this year, but Grimsley is getting closer and the JV team is bearing that out….

    Thursday night (8-0) Page at (7-1) Grimsley and there you go….

    Some of our numbers may be off a bit, but we have hit the high notes….

    One of those names up top was really something back in his day and that would be Willie Wright from Page….He was crazy good in football and basketball…

    Got a good build-up going for Friday night and let’s keep it going and pack the place at Page inside Marion Kirby Stadium…..

    Keep those names from the past coming….Those Page teams with Todd Ellis and Stafford Moser were pretty tough and Grimsley with all of those kids from 2004-2006 were feeling pretty good about their streak back in that recent time frame….

    How about the old days going back into the 60’s, what was it like back then when you had Ron Smith, Ervin Ford III and others going at it….

  9. Heard James Gavin was one heck of a baseball player back in his day over at Page too….Ethan Albright pretty tough baseball man over at Grimsley and DJ Reader could play some baseball back in his day…

    Saw former Greensboro Grasshopper Austin Barnes at the plate and behind the plate Tuesday night for the LA Dodgers and Houston had former Hopper Brad McCann’s brother Brian McCann behind the plate for the Astros…

    You will need to save room on your plate for some hard-hitting football over at Marion Kirby Stadium this Friday night….If can buy your tickets in advance…..

  10. Lee Rouson was a beast at RB! Also got a Super Bowl Ring with NY Giants. Not many can say that

  11. A lot of players from this rivalry went on to the pros like, Mo Spencer,Todd Ellis,Tripp,Haywood,Lamont Burns,Lee Rouson,Tyler Lawrence,James Summers,Mike Brooks,Vince Evans for Page.Albright,Keenan Allen,Reuben Davis,Glenn Ford,DJ Readrer,Mike Elkins,and Bert Wilder from Grimsley. A few others had a cup of coffee in the pros but that is still an impressive list.

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