Who will step up and take over the game this THURSDAY night when Page meets Grimsley at Jamieson Stadium???(Seems like Grimsley has had more success with players in the pros)

Grimsley(5-4) coming in and Page(4-4) coming into the game on Thursday night and both teams are (2-0) in the Metro 4-A Conference…
The Whirlies have had much success running the football this season, but they will have to be able to also throw the ball on Friday night, if they are to have success vs. the Page defense….Grimsley averaging 238.7 yards a game on the ground…Grimsley averaging 98.2 yards per game passing…Grimsley’s Quan Nora averaging 114.3 yards per game rushing…Page behind QB Javondre Paige is averaging 138.6 yards a game passing the football and 156.3 yards a game running the ball…Page with balance, but the rushing is little bit deceiving and sort of a hybrid form of a running game, with the top rusher for Page, being their QB Paige, who runs on average for about 55 yards per game and the #2 Page rusher, is their wide receiver Cody King, who is good for about 50 yards per game…Grimsley numbers on 9 games at MaxPreps and Page #’s based on 7 games from MaxPreps..

The key might be and it has been in the past, who will step up and be “The Man” in this game and so many times it comes from places you least expect it…..Who will it be this year, who will be the unexpected hero?????

We were just talking about this a few years back and here is what we were saying back then….Must have been around 2010, when this one got started….
You never know who will be the next in line to step and take over this game, much like Justin Gorman(Page HS) did back in 2009….

Will it be a new Donald Moore Jr., who had to kick the field goal twice his senior year to win it for the Page Pirates? Will it be a Gavin Segall-Abrams, who got a second chance a few years ago and booted the FG through for a Grimsley win? Would it be a Kirk McGuinn, that kicked the FG for Grimsley to win it for the Whirlies over Page in a playoff game, when Grimsley was led by coach Jeff Smouse and GHS hadn’t won one of these games in about 20 years??? How about a new Ron Crawford, the RB that helped Grimsley get a regular season win over the Pirates way back in 1999 and as the crowd rushed the field, we saw police officers charge the football field, riding on bicycles for the first time ever, in an effort to control the fans?????

Will we see a new Will Newman, maybe a Carlos Doggett, Antonio Kirkpatrick, John Cassels, Ron Harris, Matt Millisor, Austin Anthony, Haywood Jeffries, John Newman, Mack Jones, Stafford Moser, Todd Ellis, Tripp Welborne, James Summers, Zach Maynard or who knows, who might be next in the long line of Page-Grimsley game heroes…….

from Wikipedia on Tripp Welborne, and we sure didn’t know this until today/Monday:from 2008 to 2015, Welborne was employed as the athletic director at Shorecrest Preparatory School, a private school in St. Petersburg, Florida. In January 2012, he oversaw the opening of the school’s new $7 million, 34,000 square foot athletic facility. In March 2015, he was hired to serve as the athletic director at the Lawrenceville School in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, starting in July 2015.
Page is currently looking for a new Athletic Director…..

Thoughts on the game coming back in from the site, from this past weekend…….

Page at Grimsley next Friday night and it has been a while and it has been a long while going in, where you think Grimsley had a good chance to win this game and this year they do….

A team always has a chance to win, but lately, Grimsley’s chances have not been all that great, but this year they are….Grimsley has begun to get over a hump, where now they know they have a chance to win this game….

That Page Defense has been real tough and over the past two games they have only given up one touchdown….Page over NWG, 26-6 and tops HP Central, 46-0….That is a loud statement for the Page Defense and you know they will be bringing that same defense over to Grimsley’s Jamieson Stadium, this coming Friday night…

Grimsley was a 41-14 winner over Page back in 2005 and Grimsley played for the 4-A State Title that season vs. JH Rose out of Greenville…Grimsley (14-2) that year…Grimsley also defeated Page, 21-10 in 2006 and Grimsley went (12-1) that season…..Grimsley topped Page 23-22 in 2004, so Grimsley had a three-game winning streak rolling back then, but it has been lean times recently for Grimsley vs. Page…

The only other recent Grimsley win I can remember was back in 1999 and when Grimsley won that game, it was their first win over Page since a playoff win by Grimsley over Page back around 1987 on a Kirk McGuinn field goal and McGuinn is a name that will long live in Grimsley High School football history….

For the most part in recent years, the games with Page vs. Grimsley have not even been close, but this should be a much different chapter in the series….

Grimsley must break the game down into smaller parts/chapters and not try and play the game all at once…Try to slow down some and not allow Page to force them to play at a higher pace…

A big part for both teams is to try and control their emotions and feelings for this Rivalry….

Looking for a great turnout to see this high school football game and hoping both teams have a great and safe week of preparation in practice, as they get ready to see each other up close and personal next Friday night…

+++++Something else I was thinking about today was “Players in the Pros”….In some ways the Grimsley players, after Grimsley, then on to their colleges, and then as many would hope on to the pros/NFL, the Grimsley players seem to fair better here for some reason….

Look at Ethan Albright(Grimsley HS), “The Red Snapper”/long snapper with 15 years in the pros/NFL….D.J. Reader(Grimsley HS) now working his 4 year in the NFL, with the Houston Texans…Reuben Davis(Grimsley HS) with 10 years in the NFL…Delton Hall(Grimsley HS) with 5 years in the pros/NFL…

On the other hand, Haywood Jeffires(Page HS) with 10 years of work in the NFL/professional football….
The other key names from Page you think of are Tripp Welborne, who ended up playing in only two professional football games with the Minnesota Vikings and Todd Ellis, from Page HS, who never played in an NFL game….

There are other names for sure, but these are the main names from the modern era, post 1970….It may tell us that Page overall has more athletes, but in the end Grimsley has had better quality athletes, they just have not had enough of them…..Just some very interesting observations….

Everyone is really pointing to this year’s game, but try to look at more than just the game….

Like we were saying up top, Grimsley has a very strong running game, but Page has an equally talented Defense and Grimsley will need to be able to do more than just run the ball on Friday night and if Grimsley can work to limit Javondre Paige, from Page, along with the Pirates Cody King, then that is where young men like Branson Adams and Sincere Davis, along with Ford Moser and the rest of the WR’s, will called on….

They all say these games are won on defense, and pretty much all of the time they are, but you have to have enough offensive firepower to light up the scoreboard and come out on top when the clock hits triple zeros….

The kicking battle, goes with Matt Chmil, from Page HS, just yesterday named to the North Carolina Shrine Bowl roster and for Grimsley, you have Will Caviness……Both Caviness(Grimsley HS) and Chmil(Page HS), are seniors for Grimsley and Page….

What Grimsley will need is some guys that jump out at you on defense, like Alex Angus, Cam Gavin, Stephen Scott and Antonio Herbin do for Page…Defensive leaders that can keep their head in the game, is what both teams will be needing on Friday night…..

The lines are being drawn and if Grimsley can control the pace of the game, then we ought to be in store for a competitive high school football game on Friday night, at Jamieson Stadium…

We have been telling a lot of quarterbacks lately, to remember the Three R’s…..Relax, Rhythm and Routine….Get relaxed and confident out there, find your rhythm and then you can settle into your routine….Easier said than done, but good words of advice….

6 thoughts on “Who will step up and take over the game this THURSDAY night when Page meets Grimsley at Jamieson Stadium???(Seems like Grimsley has had more success with players in the pros)

  1. ……but not sure one of these players on either team were even playing football last time Grimsley won. BTW…..remember Lee Rouson?

  2. Sure, I remember Rouson….Played at Page, then went on to play college ball at Colorado and then on to the New York Giants…Name slipped by us on the original list..

    Right around 7 years in the pros…Born in Elizabeth City, N.C., but family moved to Greensboro…

    Grimsley still has the edge in the pros and if you look at the last Grimsley win, 2006, all of the kids on both teams should have been born by then…

    Good topic, which hopefully leads to a good week of football….

  3. Page – Michael Brooks – Dallas Cowboys
    Page – James Summer – Pittsburgh Steelers
    Grimsley – Mike Elkins – Kansas City Chiefs

  4. I sure do remember James Summers and I remember him well…He led Page to the 2011 NCHSAA 4-A Title…He went to Hargrave I believe it was and then on down to Hinds Community College in Mississippi for a couple of years and James worked hard and had some good games as a junior at East Carolina…His senior year they had him playing tight end and running back, after being QB his junior in college….James got picked up by Pittsburgh last January or February and he lasted through the preseason and released before he played a regular season game for the Steelers…

    Michael Brooks from Page to N.C. State as a linebacker and he was a good one…Later switched and played DB…Not sure how long he was with Dallas, but it wasn’t long…Michael Brooks was with 3 NFL teams and played a couple of seasons and very limited action…Outstanding runner and All-ACC track man…

    Mike Elkins brother Rod was a UNC man at QB, but I am thinking Mike was over at Wake Forest as a QB…Will have to check on his time at KC….Mike Elkins spent parts of 3 seasons in the NFL, with 3 different teams…Limited playing time…

    Maybe we have some more we are leaving out….Keenan Allen did play for Grimsley his freshman year and I saw return a kickoff 99 yards for a TD one night for the Whirlies..After the year at Grimsley, it was on to Northern Guilford for Keenan…

  5. Great to hear from Donald Moore Jr./Little Donald, as we liked to call him…

    Heard from him on Twitter in regards to this post…

    D. Moore
    @DonaldMooreJr
    3h3 hours ago
    More D. Moore Retweeted Greensboro Sports
    Thanks for the shout out Andy. Remember it like it was yesterday, 23 yarder right hash. Grimsley called 3 TOs before I finally got a chance to split the up-rights @PiratesPage

    *****Remember like it was last night..From where we were calling the game, Little Donald was kicking it from left-to-right…We were positioned on the visitor’s side that night…

    That night Gavin-Segall Abrams kicked his game-winning FG, were on the home side at Grimsley, and Segall-Abrams was kicking it left-to-right and missed the first kick and game would have been over and Page would have won, but there was a penalty and he got the second shot at the kick and converted and Grimsley won…******

    Some great basketball games and football games from Little Donald Moore over the years..Little Donald, as in the younger Donald Moore….

  6. Another key point to keep in mind is the Grimsley offensive line will have to be right in order for Grimsley to run the ball the way they need to and the Grimsley offensive line will have to be able to move the Page defensive front off the ball…

    Grimsley must be able to push that Page defense back and that will take a strong effort from the Whirlies…

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