Our “Talking Football Series” with all of the head high school football coaches from the Guilford County Schools(Records for all of our Guilford County Coaches going into the New Season)

++++++++++Here’s our “Talking Football Series”, with all of the head coaches from the Guilford County Schools…We reached out to High Point Christian Academy, but did not hear back from them…..Check out the coaches and what they are saying, as we head into the first week of the high school football season this Friday night, with games, all over the county, and beyond……++++++++++

Talking with Coach Darryl Brown about Grimsley High School Football 2019
*******A Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Brown*******

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Brown:We were (7-6) last season and we need to work to improve upon that….

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Brown:Offense it will have to be Quarterback, senior Chris Zellous…On Defense we look to junior Inside Linebacker Quentin Williamson…Special Teams we have Punter Myles Gowens, Kickers Jake Henry and Lee Carrico, Long-Snapper Lawson Albright, along with Cam Allison and Sincere Burnette….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Brown:Things are much different now…Back in those days, today would have been the first day of practice….The “First Day” was “The First Day”….There was no Spring Football, no 7 on 7’s, and different from back then, now there are no more two-a-day practices…For the most part now, our teams only practice once per day, in Guilford County…With all the work we do in the off-season from running, weightlifting, 7 on 7’s and Spring Practices, we should be prepared to play a football game/regular season game, on August 1…..

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Brown:It’s the relationships you build with the players, it all comes down to you have everybody working to create a winning and successful product, and that is what you love to do…Build those relationships that have young men working together and having success playing football…..In the end, “The Team Effort”, leads to and creates a winning culture….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Brown: I have no idea what I would be doing…I have been coaching and teaching for 20 years, and have now been a head coach for 15 years, so this is all I have ever had time to focus on…..

6)Best team in the county other than your Grimsley Whirlies?
Coach Brown:For now I would go with these four, Dudley, Southeast Guilford, Northern Guilford, and Page…We have a lot of good teams right now in Guilford County….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Brown:We begin with groups and we call these, “Win Groups”…We start with groups and work on the little/small things that will make us a better football team, and lead to Grimsley having a better overall football program…Stretching, Snapping, Kicking, with our WIN Groups and this helps us to teach and show, that the ‘small’ things matter…..

Talking about the 2019 High School Football Season with Southeast Guilford Falcons head football coach, Kennedy Tinsley
*******A Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Tinsley*******

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Tinsley: More important than the record, which last year turned out to be (14-2), we want to be on top of where our team is going, come playoff time. Not the location of our games as where we are going, where we are as a team…We need to be a team that can FINISH…Finish all reps, Finish all of our classes, Finish our work outside the classroom…FINISH.

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Tinsley: On Offense is OL Montrell Walker and our quarterback Zion Fleming…On Defense we look to ILB Mack Tobin and OLB Justin Fleming….Key Special Teams kick returner is Jalen Fairley and the rest of the kicking game is right now a work-in-progress and is coming along fine.

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Tinsley: The practices I was a part of at Dudley High School, were BIG on Discipline…Our coach Steven Daivs was very tough and the Discipline we learned back then is still a BIG part of what we try and do here at Southeast Guilford today, but for our program back at Dudley, it was all about Discipline……”Dudley Discipline”…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Tinsley: The game entails building Team Brotherhood….You impact young men and show them you care about how they perform on the Field for the Falcons, how they perform and carry out their assignments in the Falcon Classroom and how they perform and behave, when they go out into the Falcon Community….These young men are representing Southeast Guilford, their families and themselves, and we need to teach them the core values that will make all that they are doing for positive improvement, stand up and be counted, when their work here is done…We want to teach them the right way to represent and when they do that, we will be pleased…We are building young men and when we are successful in that conquest, we have done a good thing and we are proud of our results and that again, is building, “The Complete Football Player”…..

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Tinsley: I would hope to be an Athletic Director, or working in a church…I would be working in some phase of a church ministry….

6)Best team in the county other than your Southeast Guilford Falcons?
Coach Tinsley: Dudley would be at the top and not too far behind right now would be, Grimsley….I am sold on Grimsley, and we will be facing the Whirlies this season…

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Tinsley: We begin practice by trying to build and instill enthusiasm….We want these kids/young men to be showing energy and enthusiasm…If they are having Fun, then they won’t mind doing what we ask of them in practice, so we have to set the tone early in practice and be sure they are pumped up and ready to go at it hard….We want to make sure that they can push it….Any assortment of our drills that get out kids going, those are the ones that work, and they get us working right each day….

Talking Football with Coach Erik Westberg, head coach of the Northern Guilford Nighthawks
*******Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Westberg(Northern Guilford HS)*******

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Westberg: We were (8-4) overall last season and we need to keep building upon that…(8-3) for the regular season is the starting point and then hoping to move forward and build on that season that we put together last year.

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Westberg: Offense we have WR Michael Frogge(Wake Forest-commit), WR Chuck Conaway, OL Ethan Ryan, QB Will Lenard; Defense goes with LB Tyler Anderson, DB DJ Anderson, the Andersons, like Ole and Arn, are not related….DE Jacob Barlow and DE Trey Ruff…Special Teams feature (K) Slater Ward, (P) Michael Becker, KR’s Rakeem Murchinson and Asa McMillian, plus Punt Return man Brady Mercer….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Westberg:Being out there in the Summer heat, when we were playing high school football in upstate New York…Really remember the camaraderie…Building friendships that last for a lifetime…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Westberg: Really, it’s all about helping kids…Seeing those little freshmen develop into young men…Then keeping in touch with our former players, when they go off to college…I text some of those kids every day, and really like to keep up with them, and now have a lot of former players that are in college football camps somewhere on the college football map…They have arrived, I feel like we helped them get there, and we like to follow their progress…And that goes for the ones that are still playing and the ones that are going to college as, “students-only”, and not just the student-athletes….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Westberg: Coaching basketball or baseball….This all that my family knows, my dad was a coach, my grandfather was a coach….Our family tree is full of coaches….Coaching is, “All in the Family”…..

6)Best team in the county other than your Northern Guilford Nighthawks?
Coach Westberg: Dudley at the top, then Southeast Guilford, Grimsley, Page and Ragsdale….They all look strong to me, and we have to face Grimsley, Page and Ragsdale….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Westberg: We start out with the Flex Groups…Before we hit the Flex, we have a quick meeting to go over everything we hope to cover on that give day in practice, and from the Flex Groups, we do our Special Teams work and key in on our Specialty Periods….
(Andy’s take:My theory on this might be to get those Special Teams worked on early in practice while the guys are still highly focused and if you, or we, wait too late in practice and do our Special Teams at the end of practice, we might get a bunch of kids that are running down and going through the motions…And then, that might have to lead to some extra running, even before the end of practice…Get your Special Teams done early in practice when the minds and bodies are still fresh.)
+++++One of the keys is, “You have to remember what you are doing, and why you are doing it”, during your practice sessions….

Talking Football with the new head coach of the Eastern Guilford Wildcats, Tony Aguilar
*******Here we go with our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Aguilar*******

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Aguilar: We need to finish in the Top 3 of our Mid-Piedmont 3-A Conference, and 7-8 wins overall should get us to the playoffs…We have a very tough non-conference schedule, with Page, Reidsville and more and the conference schedule will not get any easier, with Southeast Guilford, Southern Alamance, Burlington Williams and the others…

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Aguilar: On Offense we go with Kamell Smith at QB and he is our ebb and flow, with Hezekiah Newby at RB, along with Da’Mond Coleman at WR, and our Big OL Jason Royster…..On the Defensive side of the ball we see DL Savion Oakes, MLB Perry Sharpe, Da’Mond Coleman at OLB, and Christian Smitherman at DB, all helping to lead the way…On our Special Teams we have sophomore Luke Stanley as our punter/kicker and Perry Sharpe backing him up at Punter, and we are trying to bring Collin Smith back as a Graduate Student….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Aguilar: The football environment and the Friday Night Lights..From all of that hard practice and then on to the Friday Night Lights…In a small town in New York, this was the only game in town, and the only thing in town…Businesses closed for the night, they rolled up the streets and Friday Night High School Football, took over the town…..The excitement and the lasting friendships really stand out to me, as well…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Aguilar: Coaching the kids….Making and establishing life-long relationships…You go to the kids’ weddings and see them get married and start a family, and you are there when their children are born, and you end up teaching your former players’ children and that is a neat process, to see it all come, “full circle”…I also like the ‘mental grind’…Studying the X’ and the O’s, the Jimmys and the Joes…Breaking down film and finding a solution, on how to defeat the opposition…

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Aguilar: I studied to be a business guy while in college at Hobart and that really didn’t work out, but if I wasn’t coaching football, I might just like to become a sports agent, or a Physical Trainer…I’m glad I turned away from the business field, and got turned on to teaching and coaching high school football….

6)Best team in the county other than your Eastern Guilford Wildcats?
Coach Aguilar: Dudley, with the Panthers being a State Title contender….Page, with the Pirates being ranked as high as #11 in the State 4-A rankings….The Grimsley Whirlies look to be on their way up….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Aguilar: We start/begin with stretching each day, and then we do our “Get Right Drill” every day…The “Get Right Drill” is a mental/agility/focus drill that gets up ready for each day of practice…After we “Get Right”, we break up into Special Teams groups and begin to work on that phase of the game….

Talking Football with Coach Earl Bates, head football coach for the Northeast Guilford Rams
*******A Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Bates*******

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Bates:We were (6-5) last season and we need to one of the Top Three in our Mid-State 3-A Conference to insure that we can make the playoffs…The favorites will be the usual suspects, Western Alamance, Eastern Alamance and Northern Guilford….

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Bates:On Offense we will look to LT Anthony Hairston to lead us…Special Teams it will be Zeke Nicholson….On Defense it will fall into the hands of, Joseph Waters(ILB), Anthony Hairston(DE), Josh Butler-Garner(CB), and Chantz James(DT)….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Bates: Loved the chance to be a part of a high school football program, back in my high school days at Eastern Guilford High School…We looked forward to the start of practice, on August 1…We loved the beginning of a new football year. The heat was around back then, but we were better prepared for the heat, since we stayed outside all of the time any way, and today most kids spend much more time inside, and out of the heat in the Summer….

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Bates: As a player, your playing days are over, but now as a coach, you get to play that Chess Match against your opposing coaches….I like the relationships you develop with your players, and seeing the players develop…We had a former player come back and speak to our team this morning(Saturday) and that makes it all worth the while…Seeing them develop to that point, where they can come back and lift up your current team…It shows you instilled something right into those young men…

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Bates: When I am done coaching, I might just open up a Dump Truck business and if that does happen, I would drive by the school with a load of dirt, and blow the horn…Coach Bates has been coaching high school football for 29 years, with 20 of those years spent at Reidsville High School, as an assistant…Coach Bates still might be a few years away from driving by Northeast Guilford High School, on Hicone Road, in his Dump Truck filled with dirt and blowing the horn at the Rams……You can almost see him in that Dump Truck driving by the school and blowing the horn, while the Rams are out there on that side field, and practicing football…..”Here comes Coach Bates, be sure to throw up your hand”…….

6)Best team in the county other than your Northeast Guilford Rams?
Coach Bates: I think about Coach Tinsley, and the job he is doing developing the Southeast Guilford program, then as always you have the Dudley Panthers, you also have Page, Grimsley and Northern Guilford to look out for/watch…

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Bates: We begin each day with team meetings by position…We then hit the field with stretching by position…We gather to talk about the jobs of the day, we have a ‘Rah-Rah moment’ and then we get to work on special teams…We rotate punt returns and kickoff returns each day….

Talking Football with Northwest Guilford Vikings’ head coach, Kevin Wallace
**********We have our set of 7 on 7 questions for Coach Wallace and you can check out his thoughts about NWG football below….**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Wallace: We need to get over .500….At least at (6-5)…Last year we were (4-8) overall, and most years, that won’t cut it…We need that plus-.500 mark in the regular season and in the conference…

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Wallace: On Defense we will call on Ethan Smith, at safety, in the defensive backfield, to be our leader…On offense we are looking to Steven Vega(OL) and Micah Salmon our quarterback, to be our primary leaders…For Special Teams, it is our (K) Cameron Tippett, a sophomore and punter Ethan Smith…We have Cam Carter, a slot back on offense, as our primary kick returner….Landry Garris will be our Long Snapper, and he is one of the most improved players on our team right now…He can help us on offense, on defense and on Special Teams…Garris has added 30 pounds, since the end of last season….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Wallace: It was the camaraderie…Working through hard times together as teammates, and learning to lean on each other to work through adverse situations….

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Wallace: It is still all about the camaraderie and the relationships you develop with your players and your coaches….You bang your head against the wall, or the goal post and then finally the “light goes off”, or comes on, and you have found the solution….This game(football) keeps you young and youthful….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Wallace: I would be a strength and conditioning coach or a college professor…College professor teaching kinesiology…

6)Best team in the county other than your Northwest Guilford Vikings?
Coach Wallace: Dudley, Grimsley, Southeast Guilford, Northern Guilford and Page….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Wallace: We start with a quick warm-up…Then we go into a Special Teams Circus…We rotate the Kickoff returns and Punt returns each day, and work on the long snapping, all our areas of our Special Teams…We also do our Turnover Drill with a Ball Security Circuit…..We do a “Good on Good” session, so we can get some positive vibes flowing in our practice…The “Good on Good”, is a time of competition and it can be a fun way to ‘Get Ready to Go’, as we start off another day of practice…..

Talking Football with Brandon Wiggins, head football coach for the Smith Golden Eagles
Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Wiggins(Ben L. Smith High School):

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Wiggins: Playoffs, that would mean we would really need to be around (8-3) overall to secure our spot, and we need to win 3-4 Piedmont Triad 3-A Conference games and that will be a tough task, with Mount Tabor, Dudley and Southwest Guilford, in our conference…We need to set our goal to win the Conference…

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Wiggins: Offense we have QB Jordan Williams set to be our leader, with Xavier Garner WR being another top offensive threat…Both Williams and Garner were among the conference leaders last season and we have Nkosi Alston set to be our leader at running back….On Defense we will be lead by our front four of Tazhaun Davis, Darrell Cromartie, Josh Presna and Nigel Moffitt-Shabazz…This is our experienced defensive and this is where our defensive leadership must begin….
For Special Teams we are looking to Andre Neely to lead us a our key Punt Return and Kickoff Return man…

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Wiggins: It was fun and competitive…We didn’t know the team concept as good as we should have, but we were a very competitive team back when Coach Tony McKee was still with us and that was in my freshman and sophomore years(at Ben L. Smith HS) and after he quit coaching at Smith and then he passed away, our team went downhill from there…Without Coach McKee’s leadership, we just did not have the team concept we needed….Coach McKee has been gone now nearly 14 years and he will always be remembered as one of the top football coaches to roam the sidelines, at Ben L. Smith High School…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Wiggins: Just love football all-the-way-around….We are trying to keep this program within the same system, and maintain the same coaching staff, and that leads to consistency and that is what the Ben L. Smith football program has been needing…Consistency….We want it to be like it was back when Coach McKee was here, and running this program….The key again is, Consistency….We want to WIN this Guilford County area….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Wiggins: I would be doing a sales job….Some sort of sports sales job….I majored in Sports Business Management in college, at Elon University and I could find myself in sports Team Management, with an emphasis on sales….

6)Best team in the county other than your Ben L. Smith Golden Eagles?
Coach Wiggins: Grimsley and that is the team I have for this spot…..

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Wiggins: We start practice with stretching/running and then we go into “Bags and Pursuit”…We want to start practice with a “Bang”….
After the opening work we go into a Defensive Period….

Talking Football with Coach Steven Davis, head coach of the Dudley Panthers
**********Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Davis:**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Davis: To reach the playoffs, we need to be at least at second place in the Piedmont Triad 3-A Conference and around (9-2) overall…We have been first and third over the last two seasons and when we finished third, we were tied for first going in, and we fell to third, by the un-luck of the draw…

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Davis: Offense it will be WR Michael Wyman, our four-year starter on the OL, Jalen Williams, plus RB Myles Smith and RB Marlon Darby…On Defense, we have a strong front four in Milan Summers, Payton Page, Christian Lane, and Myles Murphy…Summers can also drop back and play LB…We also have our DB’s in Xavion Rush and Dra Latta….On Special Teams, we look to Mehki Wall(KR) and Milan Summers, our Punter….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Davis: Putting the work in, and then getting to ‘The Friday Night Lights’ in a small town in South Carolina…”Nothing Like It”, you got to hang out with all your friends after the games and celebrate with brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, it was great and as the QB/DB back in those days, I will never forget it…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Davis: You get to stay close to the game, and you get to watch the kids grow up and go from being teenagers, to young men…You get to prepare them to go out into the real world, and even beyond the football field…

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Davis: No answer for that one right now…I do not have a clue…Will have to cross that road/bridge if and when, I ever come to it…

6)Best team in the county other than your Dudley Panthers?
Coach Davis: I would have to say Page, Grimsley and Southeast Guilford….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Davis: We start practice with our pre-practice work on Kicking, Punting, Receiving kicks, Long Snapping and this is like our Skills Session…We then go into a 15 minute period of Total Special Teams work with the Varsity kicking off and the JV’s working on their receiving of the kicks….We then rotate it and work it so we can get it right, for Friday night……

Talking Football with Brian Terwilliger, head football coach for the Western Guilford Hornets
**********Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Brian Terwilliger(Western Guilford HS):**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Terwilliger: Four teams from our conference should qualify, and that means we need at least 5 overall wins and must win two-out-of-five conference games….

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Coach Terwilliger: Offense we have QB Robbie Boyd, WR Darrien Dalton, WR Dre Dunn, and RB Eric Lewis….For Defense we will look to LB Aaron Berry, Safety Javon McCain, LB Keyun McCollough, and nickle back Semaj Staton….Special Teams we have P/K Robbie Boyd…For KR/PR we have Dante Bovian, Eric Lewis, and Dre Dunn…

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Terwilliger: We have to remember it is a different time today….Football for some kids these days is a hobby…Back when I played for Coach Causey here at Western Guilford, we had 100 kids come out for the team and it was like it was life or death back then…You had to practice very hard just to have a chance to be on the team….Now we are in a process of trying to get the program back to that level….It is a step-by-step process and not a quick-fix procedure…It is going to take some time to re-build things here at Western Guilford, but we are going to see this through…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Terwilliger: This is the closest thing to me still playing…Coaching reminds me a lot of the ‘playing days’…..You get to make an impact on the kids…Too many kids these days are coming from single-parent homes and they need some positive male leadership and guidance…It is great to see our former WG players come back and be a part of our coaching staff…They know the system, and they know how to teach “the system”…The former WG players, that are now coaching for us, take pride in representing the WG uniform, and the WG Hornets name on the jerseys and on all of our WG clothing and equipment…

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Terwilliger: I would be doing something with computers…That is what I studied while in college and back then, coaching and teaching were the last thing in the world I thought I would be doing…Teaching and coaching became the footprint of my life and vocational career, but I still do some computer programming, and I can still work wonders on a computer…

6)Best team in the county other than your Western Guilford Hornets?
Coach Terwilliger: I feel like it is Dudley and Southeast Guilford, with Dudley there at the top and then comes the Southeast Guilford Falcons…

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Terwilliger: We start practice with Special Tackling Drills and Special Teams work…We must get better on Special Teams…That area killed us last season…On Special Teams we found ourselves playing “catch-up” in most games…We were trying to catch the return men from the opposing teams, and they were burning us too many times…We must close the gap and improve our weaknesses on Special Teams…Kicking game should be in good hands and then we have to cover, cover, cover those kicks….

Talking Football with Coach Chuck Doak, head football coach at Southwest Guilford High
*******Here are our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Chuck Doak(Southwest Guilford High School), as we approach the upcoming 2019 high school football season, in Guilford County….*******

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Doak: This first question is always going to have the same answer. Win them all. I am not going to put a limit on the number of games we can or cannot win.

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Doak: Team captains offensive are Caleb Curtain, Dillon Murray, defense are Miles Taylor, Brandon Hopson, special team is Nick Schwertner and team captain Jonari Johnson….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Doak: I am not a nostalgic guy so I don’t carry a lot of high school meteorites but the one thing I remember was the heat in Greenville July and August.

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Doak: There are several things I love about coaching football first: seeing a young man reach his potential at something they love. Second: helping young men that struggle with the design process learn how to handle adverse situations successfully. Third: the competition and watching coaches develop successful game plans.

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Doak: If I were not coaching I would be teaching. I have been a mechanic and I love to build and work on things but I would still Coach or teach.

6)Best team in the county other than your Southwest Guilford Cowboys?
Coach Doak: Obviously I am going to put us first and you are not going to like this answer but I only keep up with the teams we play and as long as we finish ahead them I am not going to worry about anyone else until I see them in the playoffs. Dudley going to one of the tough ones, but they are beatable so we will prepare for them just like we do for everyone. Focused, intense, and purposeful….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Doak: We start everyday with pre-practice 15 minutes before we start everyone has to be on the field in specific position groups working on base skills developing the attitude for practice that day.

Talking Football with Johnny Boykin, head football coach for the Ragsdale Tigers
**********Here is our Seven-on-Seven Series/session of questions for Coach Johnny Boykin(Ragsdale High School):**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Boykin: We are just trying to put together good days…We want to control what we do each day…We get an extra week before the first game this season and that allows us to have only played one game, before school is back in session, and that is a plus…

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Boykin: Offense we will have Devan Boykin and all things will go through him….On Defense we go with Ernest McCloud on the DL and at DB we have Wesley Misenheimer, a DB that is very fast with a 4.50 40 at the Shrine Bowl combine and we have Devan Boykin back there too, and Devan turned in a 4.45 40, at that same Shrine Bowl combine…For Special Teams we have Misenheimer as a “Super Punt Blocker”…He blocked 5 punts last season, and once he gets the punt blocked, he can recover and return the punt, as well…Devan Boykin returned 4 punts for touchdowns last season….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Boykin: I still remember those 6am practices…We used to get to the school at 6am and stay all day…We had those long “true” 2 a-day practices…The early practice would run from 6-9am…We won our first State Championship at Clinton, my senior year of 1990, and the school went on to win five more after that one…For our practices, we worked all day long and I remember those Salt Tablets….If the kids were taking all of those Salt Tablets today, it would probably kill them…Our coach was Bob Lewis, and I will never forget him….

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Boykin: I just love the people….This is an opportunity to serve people in a people situation….Really enjoy being around the kids and helping be a small part of young people’s lives…Love seeing these kids become young men, and go on to do great things…

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Boykin: I would be a Pastor or a Motivational Speaker….

6)Best team in the county other than your Ben L. Smith Golden Eagles?
Coach Boykin: Grimsley is the up-and-coming team and Southeast Guilford got there last year and they should continue to do big things…

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Boykin: We start out with a team meeting and then we hit practice time with individual meetings for 10 minutes, or if it is the appointed day, we will be in the weightroom…When we hit the field, we do a “Re-focus Period” to kick off practice and that is time of reflection and a moment to clear your head and get the day’s problems out of your head, and get focused on that day’s football practice…We do some early running on some days and some days we move the major part of our running to late in the practice..

Talking Football with Jared Rolfes, head football coach for the Page Pirates
**********Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Rolfes:**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Rolfes: We’ve got to win the Metro to get in…Last year we were (9-3) and the year before that we were (11-2), but if we win the Metro 4-A Conference, we will get in and that will be our goal, to win the Metro….We are not as deep as we were last year, the schedule is tougher and we will take our lumps early, but with the young core of sophomores that we will be starting, as the year progresses and we get more experience, we will get better and to peak at conference time, would be perfect for the Pirates….

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Rolfes: On offense, our leader will be our senior quarterback, Javondre Paige and our senior offensive lineman, Shayne Mallory….Defensive leaders will be LB Isaiah Oglesby, defensive back CJ Crump, DL DeMarkus Bailey, and DB Isaiah Fisher-Smith(Duke commit)….On Defense, we build around those four young men….Special Teams features a trio of kickers with senior Joseph Weathersbee, freshman Tyler Elliot and Isaac Parada…All three of them have really been booming the football….

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Rolfes: The heat and learning how to push through it…Developing a way to switch from offense to defense, and then learning how to Finish..The finish was the key in practice and it carries over to the games….We work hard on that with this Page team….Building up the strength and stamina and having enough in the tank, to Finish each day in practice, and then taking it to Friday nights, and finishing in the games….

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Rolfes: Love being able to give back…Having kids from the team over to my family’s house and the kids that come over don’t want to leave…They feel like they are part of my family and that’s the way it has been for over the 15 years that I have been coaching….We see the kids here at Page, we follow them when they go off to college, and we build relationships with these kids….We then are able to get the most out of our teams, whether it has been at Northern Guilford, Northwest Guilford, here at Page, or back in Ohio, giving back to the kids and then they will give you back their best in return….You have to, “Go all out all of the Time”, as you give back….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Rolfes: Would probably be somewhere out fishing….Up at 5am and ‘gone fishing’…Just got a new boat this Summer and we have a new baby in our family this Summer, so spending more time with the baby and the boat and the bass…..Football-over-Fishing these days, and plenty of Football Work, to be done…..

6)Best team in the county other than your Dudley Panthers?
Coach Rolfes: Dudley, Grimsley, Northern Guilford and Southeast Guilford are right there among the best….

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Rolfes: Begin/Start with team stretching and take care of a few announcements, and get into Special Teams and while the Special Teams are working, we also take care of some agility drills, this Specialty Period can move pretty fast/quick…Like to keep it Fast-paced….

Talking Football with Coach Bear Bradley, head football coach for the Southern Guilford Storm
**********Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Bradley:**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Bradley:We really need a six-win season and seven wins would really be a step in the right direction…Seven wins should get you in….

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Bradley: On offense our running back Desmond Johnson and our quarterback, junior Myles Crisp, will be our leaders…Amari Lee and Jalen Smith will be our top receivers…On our line we are still young, but we have some experience there, with Jalen and Jamier Ferere….Jamier Ferere 6’0/285 and Jalen Ferere, 6’4/331 and we include Corey Wright up there at 5’11/264 on the O-line……On defense we will look to Isaiah Wells and Elijah Broach at defensive end, plus Desmond Thompson at DB, and Cameron Tatum at DB/LB…For Special Teams, we are looking for Jaison Parada to have a solid year, punting and kicking the football…..

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Bradley: I remember the physicality…It was tough and it was physical….We had at least two scrimmages before our first regular season game and it was more like this with the games starting a week later than usual…With the season starting later, it gives you more time to get ready….It makes for a better overall schedule, with somes now having those first-games, a week later on…This allows you to give more time your backups and reserves and let’s them be more prepared physically and mentally, for the new season, and for some kids, it is their first exposure to high school football and it helps to get in the extra work, as these new kids need all of the help, that then can get……

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Bradley: It is all about, “The Love of the Game”….Football has always been a passion of mine….It just teaches us so many life lessons and it also teaches the purest form of discipline, known to man or women….”I like to be able to give back to football, what it gave to me”….It gave me a chance to develop discipline in myself and a chance to learn how to finish something, no matter what the difficulties, or the circumstances……Football also teaches you the right way to do things, in your daily life…….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Bradley: I would probably go to Law School….And then become a lawyer. I majored in political science while in college and I still have some of that in my blood…..Doing some kind of legal work, would work for me…….

6)Best team in the county other than your Southern Guilford Storm?
Coach Bradley: Page, Southeast Guilford, Eastern Guilford, Dudley and Ragsdale, all appear to be the best right now to me…..

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Bradley: We usually begin with the stretching, but even before we do that, we like to begin with the Lord’s Prayer…..We get going and end each practice with a word of prayer and one of our player’s suggested this would be a good way to begin and end our practice, with the Lord’s Prayer…It gets us going/started in a strong peaceful manner and our players get the chance to get some of the bad parts of the school day out of their mind and replace it, with new clear thoughts and thoughts about being a part of team and dedicating themselves to that Total Team Effort………

Talking Football with High Point Central High School head football coach, Wayne Jones
**********Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Jones:**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Jones:We need to win at least 6 of our 11 games….

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Jones: On the defensive line we will count on Mason Bowers….He is a big lineman and he has several colleges looking at him and he can make things happen…..Our overall playmaker on Offense will be Keith McDuffie Jr….He will line up at WR and he will play some quarterback for us and on defense, we will use him as a linebacker….We will also rely heavily on Elijah Kennedy at slot receiver, on Offense….Our Special Teams are a work-in-progress right now…..

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Jones: We would look forward to going to practice and it was always fun when we got there, because we would be around all of our friends….Everyone was playing football together, and it was a real team effort, with all of us pulling together back in those days…..

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Jones: It gives you the ability to be able to help kids….It means kids can go places and football takes them places, they otherwise would never go…..Kids can go to college and by us coaching them in football, we can help them realize their dreams….They learn how to get there, how to get into college and they learn, “if they can’t get in the front door, they can get in the back door”….As coaches we help them get there, and hopefully in the end, they can achieve great things….

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Jones: I would be a barber…..I like cutting hair and have been cutting hair for kids since back-in-the-day….When you win on Friday night, you get to go to the barbershop on Saturday….The atmosphere and feeling around the barbershop is really nice and it is a great place to hang out and hear about everything that is going on in the neighborhood……

6)Best team in the county other than your High Point Central Bison?
Coach Jones: Southeast Guilford and Dudley

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Jones: We start practice with group warmups….Then we go to work on Fade Routes for the receivers, OL vs. DL drills and running back bag drills….We then get our Long Snappers snapping and go into more detailed Special Teams work…”You Win or Lose by Special Teams”…..

Talking Football with High Point Andrews Red Raiders head coach Mitchell Jenkins
**********Our Seven-on-Seven Series of questions for Coach Jenkins:**********

1)For your program to reach the playoffs, what will your record need to be this season?
Coach Jenkins: To get to the playoffs, we need to win four or five conference games…..

2)Who will be your team leaders on Offense, Defense, and Special Teams?
Coach Jenkins: Jenoah McIver at QB, AJ Herndon at RB, Mario Hoskins at RB, Trey Lindsay at RB, and Kenel Barrett at WR…Barrett is a crafty receiver….On Defense we have DeAndre McManus at CB, and Brandon Carter 6’2/220 at DE….For Special Teams, McManus, Hoskins and Lindsay are very fast make for goo return men…..

3)What do remember about about your football practice days, back when you were playing high school football?
Coach Jenkins: From his playing days in practice it was hot and there was NO heat index plan like we have today…..The kids back then stayed outside more and they were more used to the heat….Back in those at my old high school and Marlboro County, South Carolina we had the two a-day practices, but you won’t see practices like those any more, but I remember them well….We had good facilities in Marlboro County…We had chartered buses for our road trips, we dressed, played and traveled first class……We just had our High Point Andrews scrimmage yesterday/Monday and we did a good job vs. Bartlett Yancey, Oxford Webb, and Granville Central….The key still is, “Field Position is the Key to Football”…..Back on Monday, the opposing team’s offenses only scored 3 TD’s on our Defense and our offense was able to run for 7 TD’s and pass for Four TD’s…

4)Why do you love coaching football?
Coach Jenkins: Love making an impact on kids’ lives…And you make that impact for a Lifetime….You get to work with people and work through the wins and the losses, from 9th grade until 12th grade….You get them ready for college and really get to see how much the kids change and grow up, over their four years in high school….You are a major part of their lives…

5)If you weren’t coaching football, what would you be doing?
Coach Jenkins: Would be a strength and conditioning coach, or a Personal Trainer….

6)Best team in the county other than your High Point Andrews Red Raiders?
Coach Jenkins: Southeast Guilford and Dudley

7)What’s the first thing you do in practice each day?
Coach Jenkins: We start in the weightroom…Then we go to the classroom and go into a Question and Answer period/session……We also watch a motivational film and that gets us ready for the practice that lies ahead…

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
(Records for all of our Guilford County Coaches going into the New Season)
***************High School Football Coaches in Guilford County***************

Steven Davis(Dudley High School) 2019 will be his 16th year as head coach of the Panthers(169-41)

Wayne Jones(High Point Central HS) 13th year(75-70)

Erik Westberg(Northern Guilford HS) 4th year(18-18)

Darryl Brown(Grimsley HS) 4th year(15-20)

Brandon Wiggins(Smith HS) 4th year(11-23)

Kennedy Tinsley(Southeast Guilford HS) 3rd year(23-5)

Jared Rolfes(Page HS) 3rd year(17-8)

Johnny Boykin(Ragsdale HS) 3rd year(14-10)

Earl Bates(Northeast Guilford HS) 3rd year(13-11)

Kevin Wallace(Northwest Guilford HS) 3rd year(7-16)

Bear Bradley(Southern Guilford HS) 3rd year(5-17)

Brian Terwilliger(Western Guilford HS) 2nd year(1-10)

Chuck Doak(Southwest Guilford HS) 1st year(0-0)

Tony Aguilar(Eastern Guilford HS) 1st year(0-0)

Mitchell Jenkins(High Point Andrews HS) 1st year(0-0)

*****Scott Bell(High Point Christian Academy) 6th year(46-11)*****

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