Observations during the First Week of High School Football Practice

Seeing the high school football polls, it looks apparent that the Dudley Panthers are the top team in the Triad….Ranked #1 in every 3-A Poll that we have seen and ranked at #86 in the nation in the MaxPreps.com polling….Dudley remains for real, and even more so in the process of dropping down from the 4-A level to the 3-A level and the Panthers should in the 3-AA category, when it comes time for the NCHSAA playoffs in November…

Dudley and Eastern Guilford both hitting just about every 3-A Poll we are seeing with CarolinaPreps.com, Carolina GridIron.com, NCPreps.com and more….Dudley at #1 and EG as high as #4…..Page has its place in several 4-A Top 25 polls, but as for other Guilford County teams, not many showing up, with the exception of High Point Andrews, in a 2-A poll or two….

Area schools showing as we go early August in this 2017 high school football season include East Forsyth, West Forsyth, Reidsville and Western Alamance and maybe a few more….

As for the practice, it is just that, practice…..Dudley working hard and Coach Steven Davis telling the media that his team needs to go to work and stay at work and make sure that they don’t get caught up in reading all of the hype that is surrounding the Panthers, prior to their first regular season game….Coach Davis telling all of those that will listen, his Panthers are going to be good, but they can sure stand to get better….

Was over at Grimsley for their evening practice and the first thing that gets your attention about the Whirlies is their numbers…..Good numbers on both Varsity and JV ends of the field…..Another observation was that the gate to the practice field was locked and today we were outside looking in, and we could have walked around, but the main feel on the pre-season deal this year is observe what is going on at the schools….

Grimsley looked very organized during their workout/practice tonight and they were going with helmets and shoulder pads and they can move to going full-gear/full-contact after five days of practice and that should put most teams in full gear, with full-contact on Saturday, since most all of the teams got things rolling on Monday and Monday thru Friday this week will give them their full five days of pre-pads, with pads in the pants in a Fall/Summer Football Dance, coming up at the end of this week…

So Grimsley with better/improving numbers, an organized practice, a key coaches call on the drills of, “Stick-em”, at least that is what I think I was hearing, with the increased numbers, Grimsley now has some depth and since the Grimsley JV team went (6-4) last season, the Whirlies now also have some experience…..

That is five observations from our side and we will keep moving around to other practices and see what else is going this week and next….
(Well you talk organized practice work, we all players reacting and going in the same direction…When the whistle blows, you to see all players from the different groups and stations knowing where they should be going and not just taking off playing follow-the-leader…..Confidence and being able to work within the details set up in the practice plans, leads to what coaches like to call, “perfect practice” and “perfect practice” can lead to perfect plays, come game-time on Friday nights.)

Today we were covering Baseball(Grasshoppers), Basketball(Downtown Roundball Challenge) and Football(High School Practice at Grimsley)…..

The first high school game of the season is just around the corner and Dudley should be having their annual scrimmage coming up next Friday at Tarpley Stadium….We saw today that Northeast and Southeast Guilford are going to join in on the Rockingham/Reidsville scrimmage up in Reidsville next week…

More news on more team and scrimmage events coming your way here…..

10 thoughts on “Observations during the First Week of High School Football Practice

  1. After reading articles, blogs, and social media, those folks would have a person believe Page won the state championship. Will Dudley ever get a fair shake in the News and Record or other media?

  2. What blogs or social media are you talking about because I have seen no such thing.I’ve heard plenty about Dudley as you should. Why do you keep hating on Page?

  3. I thought Dudley got a pretty fair shake in this post and if I read it wrong before I posted it, I better go home and start over, because Dudley got some good pub in this post and they have received very good pub over the years here and rightfully so and we try and get all of the teams the pub that they deserve….

    We were on the road and at home with Dudley all the way through the playoffs and into the final game last season and Joe Sirera from the News and Record was right there with them too…He was there with us at all the home games and then the away games too as we rode on to Mocksville, Charlotte and into Raleigh….

    That is how I remember it….And our site was with Dudley in Raleigh vs. Ashbrook, in Winston vs. Crest, Kannapolis, and in Raleigh vs. Scotland County and there was one more team in there somewhere, because Dudley is something like 4-3 in the final games with Cape Fear, Scotland County, Kannapolis and one more being the title wins….

    Seen and followed and covered a lot of Dudley football and basketball over the years….

  4. The other team that Dudley defeated in the Championship Games was Charlotte Catholic….

  5. @Ted Roe

    I think we’ve given Dudley a pretty fair shake in the four seasons I’ve been covering high school sports for the News & Record. I’m sorry you feel differently.

    In fact, we had two offensive players from Dudley and two defensive players from Dudley (more than from any other Guilford County school) among our five rising stars in last Sunday’s News & Record and on our website (http://www.greensboro.com/sports/hsxtra/football/hsxtra-football-what-s-new/article_e3fb636e-7225-11e7-9f72-93d75379e5ff.html). And only one player from Page, BTW.

  6. As being a Dudley Alum I believe that this site along with News-Record has giving Dudley a lot of attention and has given Dudley more publicity than ever before. Andy and Joe you are doing a great job. As my pops used to say , hell you cant make everyone happy.

  7. Teddy Row Boat…..your “bootlicking” comment makes one think, you’d tried it, and found it doesn’t work. Sorta like, speaking from experience!!

  8. Teddy Row Boat…. so you say the taste of boot leather isn’t too tasty huh?? And I’m sure the reason you’d know this culinary fact is, you’ve done lots of it in you’re life!! Just try hard work, high morals and ethics, and let life takes its course!

  9. @pigskinump, well said. @Ted Roe gets a kick out of his own ignorance. He knows about bootlicking because he is the king bootlicker. Let’s all just stop entertaining him and maybe he will go away. He is a fairy tale that’s all about fiction not facts, so he makes crazy accusations to dig into the real world.I’m just ready for some football, I wish all of Guilford County Schools the best of luck and I hope the fans and parents let these young men have a good season without controversy.

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