First stop today, was over at Smith High School and they were going from 6-8pm and it got going with Coach Rodney Brewington over at the bags, with the entire team running straight through those bags/practice dummies and the coach said, “don’t hit my bags….Then it was the coach saying, “Knees up, and focus on your job”…..”Think about what you want to do today”…..”Andrews in 14 days”….”Let’s be better than we were yesterday”….
Then it was back to the middle of the field on the south end, for the Lord’s Prayer…..Forever and ever, forever and ever, chanted the team….One kid walked through the gate on to the field and Coach Brewington yelled, “we’re not going to stop practice because you’re late”…..
Next up it for the Smith Golden Eagles, it was time to work on Technique….Coach Brewington instructs his players to, “keep your pad level low”…..Time to work on, Stance and Start….Stance and Start and Re-Step….Chop-Chop…..Chop-Chop…
Cone Drill next with back pedal, lateral run, then straight run back to the starting spot….Coach Brewington says, “If we’re gonna practice like this, we’re not gonna beat anybody”…..Cone work continues and it’s kareoke time, to slide through the cones….Coach says, “Chest over knees”, as the players finish with a running sprint….
Smith has 36 Varsity players and 33 JV players, out there on the practice field….The Golden Eagles had their running tests last week, with the backs and receivers required to do the mile and a-half run, in 11 minutes and the linemen had to make the same distance, in 13 minutes…..
I had the chance to speak with QB’s Jeff Sims and Kalen Pratt and they both feel the pass will be the strength of their games….Sims is a senior and Pratt is just a junior….Both young men said they worked very hard this summer, to get ready for this season and they have seen improvement in their footwork and quickness and they will continue to work on gettting better, in their decision-making processes….
Senior Eric Ebron said he is ready and that he is also quicker and much stronger than he was last season….Ebron is like a man-child and he should draw considerable attention this year and he will see the opponent’s top defenders covering him….Ebron is North Carolina-bound in 2011…..The future UNC end, is ranked the #3 player among all North Carolina high school football players and he is also ranked as the #23 player, in the entire nation…..Big-time prospect, Eric Ebron; and this kid has a shot at playing on Sundays one day…
I also met the man in charge of the upkeep of the football fields at Smith, Mr. Richard Mebane…..Mr. Mebane’s son, died in car accident 2 years ago and he would have been a senior on the Smith football team this season, and keeping up the fields, is Mr. Mebane’s way to stay a part of the program and to keep his son memory alive, in the Smith football program….
At Eastern Guilford, my next stop on the tour, the theme is, Let’s Go….You hear that over and over again….Let’s Go!!!!!
Let’ Go and when I arrived at Eastern, there were three kickers on the football game field kicking on their own and there were 6 groups of players on the practice field, going through drills….Eastern probably has 90-100 players out for football and they work in split or seperate groups, with Varsity on one side and JV’s on the other side of the field….
EG was doing passing drills, with the DB’s covering the receivers and the linemen were on the other end, working on coming off the line and hitting the practice dummies….
The QB’s were passing and again the JV’s and Varsity were split up…The Wildcats spent much time on the passing game and Coach Scott Loosemore will place a lot of emphasis on that passing game, in 2010….
We hit the offense vs. defense phase next and the throwback pass was a big part, of the game plan….A quick throw-back to the wideout and then blaze up field….The EG QB was working on throwing crisp passes, but Coach Loosemore was not satisfied…At one point, Coach Loosemore said, “this is our worst practice of the year”…..”We have to improve on this or we will be in trouble”…..
More passing plays from the Wildcats with the screen pass plays, the pass and run and the slant pass….Then Eastern started passing up field….EG has at least two very big(Huge) offensive linemen and it looked like the two biggest of those linemen, were lining up at guard….
Coach Loosemore said, “You better focus or you might as well go inside and stop for the day”….Coach Loosemore then told his troops, that they were not stopping, so get back to work…..
EG worked in a few running plays, but it seemed like the Wildcats really like that pass and their top receiver was Gaddy….The Eastern QB did a good job on his option work and he also looked good trying to get to the corners/edge…..
Again that phrase, “Let’s Go”, continues to come into play and the Wildcats run play after play on offense, trying to find the right combinations…..The QB took off on a few keepers and it started getting dark….The Wildcats practice ran from 6pm until about 8:30, or right at dark and before it was all complete, all the young men were called upon to hit the line….
“Let’s Go”….”To the goal line and line ’em up”….The team finished with several sprints in the 40-50 yard range….What looked at one time to be a disappointing practice, finished on a good note, with good hard running and above average team speed, even from the Big Men…..
Another good day on the road with Day Three of Training Camp…..
I think Smith will be a better team then they was last year. EG I dont know how they will hold up, with a kid like Morehead gone someone will have to step up like he did if they want to be good
I heard someone on a different site say if E.Guilford doesn’t win 8-9 games this year it would be a disappointment!
what site was that? 8 wins would be the most for EG in a long, long time! they do have a lot of speed, some very good athletes, and some experienced size on the O-line. would be great to see them back in the state playoffs and past the first round. heck, if good enough for 8-9 wins there might even be a play-off game in gibsonville? one can hope!
Wow….No pressure E.Guilford!
Is an 8 game win season that really unrealistic? Granted they had a down year last year, but do we forget that they rolled off 7 straight victories to open the season in 2008?
Granted again that they had a down year last year but they did hold South Johnston to 3 offensive points for the game and were within a few inches of knocking off the number one seed in the playoffs. Mind you that Eastern was the 16 seed and S. Johnston was the one seed.
8 wins is not unrealistic…..Any team could win on any given Friday night! I think if your coming off a down season maybe the teams focus should be on taking one game at a time. Not so much winning 8-9 games!
8 wins for them i really dont see this happen. They didnt even win 8 win they went 7-0 to start the season. Yeah they held a South Johnston team to 10 points but as i recalled it from the paper the coach said it was big plays from all the senior’s in that class which kepted them close. Im sorry i dont see them as any better then last year i say about the same record. If you go check the history someone always give EG high hopes in the preseason then when it comes to pads and gametime its another story
to 2010-2011, that is why i asked where the prediction for 8-9 wins came from. their early season non-conference schedule is brutal! first 2 games on road at northwest and southwest. then home against northeast followed by trip to western guilford. last season after four games wildcats were 0-4 and still managed 4 wins. they find a way to win 2 or those 4 this year and who knows what they can do the rest of the season. can’t compare this team to last year’s team or the team from 2 seasons ago, which started 7-0 but finished 7-5. different players and a lot of different assistant coaches. i hope their opponents expect little from them, upsets are fun to witness.