Coaches Comment on the Three W’s of Guilford County getting to work with Off-Season Workouts on the High School Level:When/Why/Want!!!(New Coaches Today with HP Central, HP Andrews, Smith, SEG, Southern Guilford, Page and NEG)

New coaches today join our list and let’s visit with them, as we continue our discussion on Off-Season Workouts, and their potential to happen before the start of official high school football practice, on February 8, 2021….

We had the chance to talk with the new head football coach at High Point Central High School, and that would be Coach Sheffield

On the WHEN we might see Off-Season Workouts begin, in the Guilford County Schools? “We are waiting on Guilford County…This really is a waiting game…We are trusting the process, and there are a lot of factors to take into consideration, before a move like this can take place…You have to look at a lot of different factors…We are doing virtual work for now”…

Getting to the part of do you WANT the workouts to begin?? Coach Sheffield said he has yet to meet his team in person…”I am a big community guy, and like to keep some kind of contact with my kids…Right now we meet virtually by Zoom, and we are switching to MicroSoft Teams soon…Next week we will resume the virtual meetings with our HP Central kids…We have been averaging 25-30 kids per each virtual meeting/session, and those are pretty good numbers…This is all about getting to our kids, as best we can, and seeing what our kids need…The virtual meetings allow you to get to know your kids and travel into their world and the world of their families, and it also allows our HP Central kids to come into our world as well, virtually….We don’t want to burn our kids out, but when we can Work, we will work…Virtually or in person, we will Work”…

Now to the WHY part of the reasoning why our Guilford County Schools can not have Off-Season Workouts??? Coach Sheffield says, the bottom line is, We have to Trust the Process…GCS is making their decisions based on info…We need to follow the Guilford County Schools guidelines…GCS will do what is best for all of us…Many of our kids live with their grandparents, and we don’t want to see them in danger…We don’t want to endanger anyone, so that is why we must move slowly and do what is best for all parties that are involved in this Return to Workouts process…The overall element of how we do things has been changed…This is about more than just coaching football”…

Changing gears with Coach Sheffield, the new High Point Central High School head football coach, he tells us he has 5-6 players that he is really excited about…You have Elijah Kennedy at slot back and at DB…There’s Keith McDuffie Jr., a true all-around Athlete for the HP Central Bison, plus Jaden Simmons, who will get a lot of work at QB…Coach Sheffield also has several linemen that he is excited about, and that is Coach Sheffield’s area of expertise, the Offensive Line…

High Point Central coaches of note for 2020-2021 will include Defensive Coordinator Earl Sams, Defensive Line coach Jerry Chandler(a former HP Central Bison football player), Barry Gillespie, who will work with the offensive linemen, Shaun Graves, who is a defensive coach and Richard Herman, running backs coach….

More coaches on the way…..

This morning we caught up with Mitchell Jenkins, the second-year head coach for the High Point Andrews Red Raiders

On the WHEN our Guilford County Schools can begin any type of Off-Season Workouts? “I don’t know…Maybe sometime after Christmas…Hopefully we can get in some conditioning and weight training, before the practice season starts up…Right now, we can’t see the kids, face-to-face…We have some kids working hard on their own, like RB AJ Herndon, OL Antonio Peake, and RB Pete Williams…I feel like those are working hard on their own”…

Looking at the question, do you WANT the Off-Season Workouts?? Coach Mitchell Jenkins said, “We’d love to be getting some type of workouts in…In our PE classes there is some training going on, but that is not enough…Many of our kids don’t have any weights at home, and that leaves us to have them doing pushups, situps, rope jumping and if they have the access, doing drills from videos…It all comes down to access…Sometimes that is hard to come by…Our kids are doing what they can, but the have to be self-motivated…I am teaching freshman and sports medicine, so I don’t have much contact with my football players in the class room setting”…

We move on the question of WHY aren’t the Guilford County Schools conducting Off-Season Workouts right now??? Coach Jenkins: “It’s got to be Safety First…Safety First, instead of sports…If one kid gets the virus, he can pass it on to another kid, and that kid might take it home to his mom and dad, or in many cases his older relatives, like his grandmother and grandfather…This is dangerous, and it has to be dealt with, in that manner…The kid may not have the symptoms of the virus, but he still might be a carrier, and he might pass it on to someone else”…

The key players Coach Jenkins said we should be looking out for are, RB AJ Herndon, OL Antonio Peake, and RB Pete Williams…..

Coach Jenkins is trying to add some new coaches to his staff, and those would be Ismael Lindsay and Coach Josh Resignalo/Coach Res, from the Carolina Cobras arena football team…Coach Res has coached all over the county, and Coach Jenkins would like to have him, if he could get him…Coach Jenkins has coached with and against Coach Res, in the past..Coach Jenkins coached 9 seasons of Arena League Football…

We are looking for just a couple more Guilford County football coaches….

On Wednesday afternoon we spoke with the new head football coach at Ben L. Smith High School, Marcello Royal…

On the WHEN the Guilford County Schools could be conducting Off-Season Workouts? “No idea”…”Have been hearing the kids are working on their own, but we can not get together and do anything right now…They can get together and do 7 on 7’s on their own, but they can not do any of these drills at Smith…We can meet with them virtually, and we had a very good virtual meeting last night…The kids are starting to pick up what we want to get done, as we work to build this football program. We also want to find out how they are doing with their school work, and make sure they have computers and the proper tools…We have to look at this as a challenge and attack it, and we realize that other counties have gotten head starts on us, but we have to teach our kids that we have to overcome those head starts, and it prove to our football players, that it can be done”.

On the WANT to get started with the Off-Season Workouts?? “The kids are eager to work out. Kids have called me, and we want to, but can’t do anything right now…It is frustrating, especially when the kids realize that other schools, in other counties, are working out, and we can’t do anything…Football is a curriculum, and the kids can do work on-line, by going to HUDL and when they get there, study routes, see patterns and learn more…We need to be patient, but the fact is, the kids need to be able to talk to their football coaches, in person…We have to keep telling our kids that they need to Look in the Mirror and ask yourself, if you are giving your all”…..There is a reality right now, and we have to do something”…

On the WHY the Guilford County Schools are not conducting Off-Season Workouts at this time??? “It continues to be all about Player Safety…We should really take the time to ask our Guilford County High School Football coaches what we can do to make things better/safe…This type of input could give us some necessary clarification, as far as getting back to work…We also have to observe the Governor’s Guidelines in regards to returning to school…If we can get from Phase II, to Phase III, then we might have a shot at beginning our Off-Season Workouts…Our kids have to be able to buy into what all of this means(the efforts of Guilford County Schools), but for them and for our coaching staff, it has been frustrating, trying to find our way back to workouts, at Smith High School”…”We could really use the input of our Guilford County High School football coaches on this WHY matter”…

Coach Marcello Royal said he has some young players that we need to be keeping an eye on, and they include, WR/Safety Rashad Lancaster, quarterback T.J. “Cash” Miller, and CB Quincy Miller….

Coaching staff at Smith High School for 2020-2021…Assistant coaches Thomas Lowe with the RB’s and special teams…As a high school wrestler, Lowe went (176-0)…Antwan Clemons is the Offensive Coordinator, Al Miller is the Defensive Coordinator for Smith, DeAndre Stevenson is with the WR’s, Eric Peartree is the defensive line coach, Danny Green is the DB’s coach, and Daniel Brown is the LB’s coach at Smith…Coach Royal is a military veteran and we were very impressed with his plans to build back Ben L. Smith HS football, as we talked to him today….Telling his kids to “Look in the Mirror” is a good way to start the building process…Coach Royal said two of his key mentors are, coach Burton Cates, formerly at Lee County HS, now back at Eastern Randolph HS, and Jeff Smouse, who was at Lumberton HS, over in Raleigh, and he coached at Grimsley HS for several years….Good stock right there, with Cates and Smouse…

By way of E-mail today we have the new head coach of the Southeast Guilford Falcons, Earl Bates…Coach Bates, the former Eastern Guilford HS football player, and former head coach at Southern Guilford HS, and at Northeast Guilford High School, here in Guilford County….Here’s Coach Bates, on our WHEN, WANT and WHY…..

1)WHEN do you think Guilford County can start up Off-Season Football Workouts?…These would be workouts leading up to the start of practice on February 8, 2021?
I think that’s the question we all have. We’ve been scheduled to start on 3 different occasions, with safety guidelines in place, and they all were canceled. We hope to get some sort of guidance here in the near future on when we can begin workouts.

2)Do you WANT to have these Off-Season Workouts, and how do you think they could help your team to get ready for the season?? Are your guys doing any sort of workouts on their own, right now?
Absolutely we would like to be having off-season workouts with our kids. It’s important for us, because we are a new staff and we want to build those relationships with the players. We have our share of players that are very active working out and going to different camps, but I worry more about the players that aren’t doing anything and don’t have the equipment to do so. I feel that the safety measures that were put in place would be a lot safer than the kids just meeting up in large gatherings on their own.

3)WHY do you think Guilford County can not currently conduct Off-Season Workouts??? Several counties around us have been working out since back in mid-June, and for Guilford County Schools, nothing….Any idea why our guys/kids have been held back?
When each county has the ability to decide when you can or cannot begin workouts, this is the result. All we can do as coaches is rely on our county leaders to make the best/safe decision for our players/families/community. It’s tough as a player and coach to see others having workouts, but we must find ways to persevere and stay positive. At some point we will be allowed to resume, and we have to be ready to make the most of it.

Top returning players Southeast Guilford Falcons football players–
Jalen Fairley Sr. RB ; Vaughn Neal Sr. OL/DL; Cameron Williams So. DB/WR ; Alex McCallop Jr. DL; Zion Fleming Sr. QB ; Derron McQuitty Sr. RB ; Adam Douglas Sr. WR/DB ; Max Steele Sr. LB/HB; Anthony Ray (Jr.) Sr. DL ; Kris Christa Sr. OL/DL ; Jordan Farmer Jr. DB/WR ; Ryan Stevens So.QB/DB

SEG Coaching Staff: Coach Torain-DC/ILB; Coach Bradford-DL; Coach Woodson-OL; Coach Butchee-QB are new coaches
Returning Staff: Coach Thompson DB; Coach McMillan OLB; Coach Lassiter RB; Coach Perry; Coach Owens

Also With us this day we have Jason “Bear” Bradley, the head football coach at Southern Guilford High School…Coach Bradley is entering his fourth season, as the head coach of the Southern Guilford Storm…

First question for Coach “Bear” Bradley is WHEN do you think the Guilford County Schools can begin their Off-Season Football Workouts? Coach Bradley said if I can solve that one, then I had answered the “Million Dollar Question”…”We are waiting on the Governor, and the movement through the different phases, Phase One, Phase Two, and Phase Three of the governor’s return to action guidelines”…”Other counties are going and I have seen friends of mine from up in the mountains, around Sylva, N.C., going since June 15…Some of the mountain teams had COVID-19 breakouts, and they had to shut down workouts and practices…Some of the schools were closed off, due to the virus. Some had been working out all Summer long, and then they had their seasons called off, due to the virus…Seasons called off and moved to the Spring of 2021…It was fun for them for a while when they all got to practice, and then they added in the footballs and it was more fun, and then they called off the season, and it was very frustrating for them”…

On do you WANT to practice and have Off-Season Workouts?? “We are ready to go…We want to go…The desire is always there. Last Friday night would have been our first game of the season, and I stayed at the school(Southern Guilford HS) until 9pm…I just couldn’t go home…We have done it for so many years, this is our routine…My wife called and asked, where are you? I told her I was where I am at every Friday night during the high school football season. At the stadium. I took a picture of our stadium(C.K. Siler Stadium), and tweeted it out to my players…This is what is all about, Friday Night Football, no matter what is going on!!! Yes, we want to go back to workouts, and we are ready to go”…

Coach Bradley on the WHY are we not allowed to have Off-Season Workouts, why are they not going on right now???
Coach said, “#1 is Safety…#2 is Guilford County is so Big, it will hard to cover and track the virus alarms…#3 Having the bigger school system, with the bigger population, makes us a bigger threat for the virus, than say Randolph County…We have a much denser population…There is a much bigger/greater responsibility here”…”We need more knowledge about the virus. A big problem is we have kids that live with their grandma and grandpa, and the players might be carriers of the virus, and they may take it home to their grandparents, and expose them…We don’t want the grandparents exposed, and we don’t want our older coaches to be exposed to the virus…We worry about our coaches and the players’ families…Testing is very expensive, but it would be a great help…That is a great idea”….

Southern Guilford players to watch include QB Conway McCoury, WR Amari Lee, DB/WR Taylor Austin, LB/RB Tyler Austin, and linemen Jaylin and Jamier Ferere…

New Southern Guilford assistant football coaches for this season feature Coach Chad Ellington, who will be the Defensive Coordinator, taking over for Mark Raynor, who left SG, to become the head coach at Northeast Guilford High School…And there’s Preston Jones, who will be working with the DB’s and the WR’s…Coach Jones is a former Southern Guilford player, who also played college football at Alabama……

Next up today we have the new head football coach at Page High School, Doug Robertson…

For Coach Rob, we ask, WHEN do you think the Off-Season Workouts might begin? “I have No Idea”…”We are at the mercy of the Guilford County Schools”…”We are shut down indefinitely…No telling when we can get our Off-Season Workouts going”…

On do you WANT to practice and get some of those Off-Season Workouts going?? Coach Robertson said it would be nice to have those Workouts…”We would do two days a week, if they would let us…We need to see the kids, and I know we could pull the workouts off”…Part of the need is, “We need to be able to put eyes on our kids”….”We were close to going when they never let us get going, back in June, July, and then again in August”…”We understand what it will take to pull this off, we have a Plan and we could do Off-Season Workouts”….”We can go with 20 kids in a group, on a given field, with coaches and medical staff on board, to make sure the the Workouts, work”…Coach Rob says right now Page is a getting work done through their on-line PE/Physical Education classes…Coach says the students/kids/many of his football players, are lifting weights, using resistance bands, lifting jugs with sand in them, jumping rope, running and doing other cardiovascular drills…”Very few of our kids have weights at home, so they can do pushups, situps, knee bends, and anything that is creative, that will help them get in a Workout”…..”We have to improvise, and still be able to get the work done”……

Coach Robertson, from Page High School, told us that we have let our kids know, “This year is not like last year. We have to take our on-line school work/class work more seriously and get the right amount of work done from home, before we return to school, at Page HS”…..

On the WHY aren’t the Guilford County High Schools doing Off-Season Workouts right now??? “I am not sure”, said Coach Doug Robertson…”Guilford County gets caught up with following the larger school systems in the state, and that would be Mecklenburg County/Charlotte Schools, and Wake County”…”It seems like GCS watches what the larger school systems do, and we follow suit”…

New football assistant coaches at Page High School for this new 2020-2021 season….Gordon Hagan-Defensive Coordinator, Tim Bagamary-Defensive Coordinator, Garrett Mills-Special Teams, Tyrell Houghton-QB’s, Timario Baldwin-running backs, John Burns-D-line, plus holdovers Chuck Mardi-DB’s, Kevin Hopkins, and Jacob Sykes….

On board with us today is the new head football coach at Northeast Guilford High School, Mark Raynor….

Coach Raynor, WHEN will we see Off-Season Workouts for high school football get going? “I could not tell you the answer to that question. Honestly, I have No idea. We are waiting on Governor Roy Cooper to get us out of Phase Two, in our ‘return to normal’ statewide program…We must be in Phase Three, before the bigger school systems, like Guilford County, can get going…It all goes back to Safety, Good Guidelines, Social Distancing, Hand Sanitizing, having Coaching Pods for the players, and coaches working with the same players each day”….”These factors would help determine if we could make Off-Season Workouts, work”…”If we can put all of these guidelines into place, we can make this work”…..

Coach Mark Raynor on do you WANT to begin the Off-Season football workouts?? Coach Raynor said, “We are trying to Control what we can Control”…”We want to seize the Opportunity, when we get it”…I just keep telling our kids, that they have to Seize the Opportunity, that they are given”…”I just sent the message out to them today, reminding them that this Friday was to be our First Home Football Game”…”They need to remember these things, and take them seriously”…”Some of the things that are going away, won’t be coming around again”…”The way things are right now, I am hoping our kids will just stay home, and focus on their academics and athletics”…

Coach Raynor told us, “We have some contact with our kids in their virtual PE classes…In weightlifting classes, we have them lifting, running, jumping and doing combine drills”…The classes are like LIVE meetings, but they are in fact, live Physical Education sessions”….”This still gives us a chance to connect with our athletes/students”…”When we finally get ready to go with the Off-Season Workouts, we will make it Best for the Kids”…

Coach Raynor on the WHY can’t our Guilford County Schools have Off-Season Workouts??? “In the eyes of those who make the call, Things are Not Safe Enough right now, and we have to trust their leadership and guidance”…”If a high school football player gets the virus, he might expose a family member, or even one of his coaches, and you have to respect the families of those that are represented by our Northeast Guilford High School Football Program”…”It might be a struggle for some, but we have to make Decisions Based on Safety”….

One key strength/standard/common thread of the Northeast Guilford Football Program is NEG Rams’ assistant coach Chris Suggs, and Coach Suggs is back with the Rams again this season…Also returning after being away at Eastern Guilford HS for several seasons, is veteran assistant coach Glen Goss…Coach Goss brings the veteran mentality, and Coach Suggs brings in that youthful energy/exuberance…..

Hoping to get some more coaches and their comments up here for you on Wednesday…We thank all of our coaches, for taking the time to talk to us…..

Talking to few coaches today about WHEN the Guilford County Schools might be able to get back into their Off-Season Workouts…And we ask do you WANT to get the Workouts going??? Plus WHY do you think we can’t workout when all of the counties around us, are going to town with their football workouts…

Up first today, and other coaches comments will be coming in later on, we have Coach Chuck Doak, head football coach at Southwest Guilford High School….

On the WHEN workouts can begin Coach Doak, says he does not know….Coach Doak feels like the best time to be doing the workouts would be in December and January this year, with the pandemic having changed how we do things…Coach Doak also feels like if we are going to do workouts, then the rules/guidelines should be the same for every school in the state of North Carolina…We see every high school around us practicing, and Guilford County is currently stuck on HOLD….Coach Doak said he has three game set for this season against teams that been practicing a month already…They are 3-4 weeks ahead of where his kids/Cowboys are at…
(This week is dead period for all schools due to the fact that it is the First Week of the New School Year.)

Asking Coach Doak do you WANT to get started??? He says yes…He told me that he could have up to 10 kids at one time in the weight room right now after school, and that is totally legal due to Governor Cooper and the NCHSAA Phase Two workout guidelines…Coach Doak said if Guilford County would lift their ban, then he could have a group in the weight room(10 kids/young men), he could have a group out on the field running(10 kids/young men) and he could have another group on the field(10 kids/young men) doing drills….
(All participants following Social Distancing Guidelines.)…Coach Doak said he would like to get in all the practice that he can…

But right now, August 19, 2020, the Guilford County Schools say NO PLAY/NO PRACTICE!!!

Coach Doak reminded me, that he still thinks December and January would be the best months for the Off-Season workouts, prior to the February start of practices…Make it an even playing field for every team in the state…Coach Doak said, “We need some sort of Equity”…..

On the WHY can’t our kids/young men/students work out and others are going hard, Coach Doak says he does not have an answer for that one…..One thing that Coach Doak did say was, GCS/Guilford County Schools may be afraid that all of our schools will not follow the required protocol…Protocol being, we have to have practices/workouts the same for all of our schools in the county…..Got to always be an even playing field, and every school required to do the same thing, as far how and when they conduct practices…..

In closing Coach Doak stressed that we need to Shut Down all over schools’ workouts NOW, and get everybody on the same page in our surrounding counties, and across the entire state of North Carolina…

More from other coaches coming up later on today….

Coach Tony Aguilar head football coach from Eastern Guilford High School….

Coach Aguilar on the WHY Guilford County Schools can not conduct workouts now??? “If we are not in the classroom, at the schools, I don’t see us being able to conduct workouts….We are going to have to be back at the school and not doing remote learning, in order to have workouts….We might get going after the first nine weeks of school are done working under the Remote Learning Model”….

Coach Aguilar said that we might see the beginning of on-site education for 2020 pushed back later than October 20, and if so, then you might not see Off-Season Workouts for Football not begin until December/January…

On the WHEN of the workouts, Coach Aguilar said, you may see us getting the workouts going in January, and if that is the case, then we will be losing football players to basketball….Kamell Smith, our senior quarteback, plays both football and basketball and his basketball season may take away up to 3-4 of his football games this season, and that is half of his football season gone, right there…

We had 8 starters ready to return on Offense and 6 on Defense, so this has been nothing but frustrating for us…This was set to a “peak year” for us…

Coach said we WANT to practice, but Coach understands that it would be hard to control the locker room/weight room setting, as far as safety and keeping it clean goes…

Again, with Coach Tony Aguilar from Eastern Guilford HS, on the WHEN, he told me that is the Million Dollar Question….

On the WHY, Coach Aguilar said, No Workouts until the kids are back in the classroom/back on campus for classes….

On the WANT, Coach Aguilar said this has been very frustrating…“We have so much talent back for this year, and we can currently do NOTHING”…Coach said there is no doubt about it, he is very jealous of the other schools from other counties, that have been allowed to conduct workouts since back on June 15….

Hoping to hear from more coaches, later on today…..

from Coach Steven Davis, Dudley High School head football coach…..

Coach Davis on WHEN his Dudley Panthers might be able to get on the practice field for Off-Season Workouts…”Great question, said Coach Davis, and they haven’t told us when we can practice, or when we can return to weight room”….”Not exactly sure what the county will do…Pretty sure they will make some sort of decision, as a collective group(GCS)”….

Coach Davis added on the WHEN…”I don’t see us doing anything practice-wise, until February 8, 2021″…

On WHY his Dudley Panthers can’t start up Off-Season Workouts and work in the weight room??? “Your guess is as good as mine, said Coach Steven Davis”…..”The main problem with doing these type of Off-Season Workouts, is safety concerns….How healthy will it be for the kids to be lifting and training in groups that might be hard to social distance at times”….
(Keeping things both clean and safe could be a problem.)

On the WANT….Do the Dudley Panthers WANT to start up their Off-Season Workouts? “We sure do want to work out…We have been ready twice to start our Off-Season Workouts and they shut us down…We had a plan for starting two times, and the First time they shut us down, and then the Second time we were ready to go, and they shut us down again”….Coach Davis said he was ready to throw his hands up in the air after all of that….

Also from Coach Davis he added that he does not see a major problem with any basketball and football player season overlaps…”Should not be a major problem/issue, said Coach Davis”…For the season outlook for the Dudley Panthers, Coach Davis said that the Panthers are steady and ready at QB with Jahmier Slade at the controls…Also the D-Line has tons of experience with Payton Page, Chris Lane and Milan Summers…Coach Davis said Summers is still with Dudley, and that Summers is a DL/LB/RB and he is on the Dudley roster….Coach said Summers would also be his top running back…The athlete(WR/KR/PR) is without a doubt, Mehki Wall….Wall might be the top overall football athlete in Guilford County….

Coach Davis said he hopes they can get in possibly 5 Junior Varsity football games…He said it would be tough to just have a Varsity team for Spring Football 2021, and no JV team…Coach Davis agreed with me that the Middle School football programs may have to bite the bullet, and not have a season in the Spring of 2021….Same for youth football, going to be hard to run any youth football programs around the City of Greensboro, in the Spring of 2021…

More coaches coming in with us on Thursday……

from Kevin Wallace, head football coach at Northwest Guilford High School:

On WHEN kids can start practicing again??? “Great question….We have the Dead Period this week, but hopefully we can begin workouts in September…We have a workout APP set up for our NWG kids, and some of our kids have home gyms, and that allows them to continue workouts at home…A lot of kids and even our coaches and parents are at times, are distraught…They want to be doing something…We have a freshman quarterback working hard…Tanner Ballou is almost a Footballaholic…Young receiver Trent Cloud is showing much promise, lineman Linus Lingle has a huge upside…Basketball player Jalen Cross, who is also a freshman, like Ballou, Cloud and Lingle, Cross has a game…Returning LB Xaiver Simmons, at 6’3/215 is setting the standard for our veteran players”….

On the WANT to play factor…”Our kids do want to workout…It has been such a letdown to not be able to practice…We were ready to go three times, and then it was just the same old thing…Hurry Up-Get Ready-Stop…We can’t go….We had all of the plans in place to practice. We had the spacing right, and we were ready to go…Why not try and see if we could make the workouts work??? The kids had that hope taken right out of them”…

With Coach Kevin Wallace on the WHY we can’t practice factor…”We’re guessing it is about safety concerns with the kids not being on campus for classes….Guilford County Schools are concerned about the close interactions that football practices will bring…They are worried about the spread of the virus…But, Forsyth County Schools have been practicing, and they can continue to practice and we have Forsyth County Schools on our schedule…That will, and can make a big difference for the WS/FCS schools…They have an advantage over us, and it makes you wonder why they can practice, and we can’t practice???”

I also asked Coach Kevin Wallace if a kid could leave his school, go to a private school and play football for the private school in the Fall of 2020, and then come back to NWG, and play for the NWG Vikings in the Spring of 2021??? Coach Wallace said he wasn’t sure about that one, but he did say he has already lost at least two players to the privates schools for football in the Fall of 2020…

Hoping to have more coaches on the way in later on today….

from Coach Darryl Brown, head football coach at Grimsley High School….

On the WHEN of starting/beginning Off-Season Workouts prior to the 2021 Spring Football Season…”I have no idea of when they might begin…Hoping for the Fall of 2020…We had everything ready to go on June 15″…Coach Brown’s brother, Calvin Brown, is the head football coach at Providence Grove High School in Randolph County and Providence Grove has been doing Off-Season Workouts since June 15…Providence Grove is Off this week, due to the Dead Period with the start of the new school year, but Providence Grove has been practicing for 7-8 weeks…They are located just a few minutes away from the Guilford County line, and Providence Grove has been working out, almost all Summer long…

On the WANT part of wanting to practice again..”YES, we want to practice/start workouts…Our feeling is that the kids will be much safer working out at the school(Grimsley HS), than if they are working at home on their own..At the school the kids will be working out in a controlled environment, and it will be MUCH SAFER, and we can keep it clean…These would be Voluntary Skill Development workouts, and the coaches would be there and we could help the kids in small groups..The kids need a structured environment right now, they need the guidance and leadership that their coaches can provide….Some of our kids are struggling right now, as they work out on their own, and with our kids working out on their own, one of our biggest concerns of all, as a coaching staff, is their safety….

Having the kids on campus working out, would be So Much Better, than what they are doing now…I feel it is in the Best Interest of the Students/Athletes to be at the school, with their coaches…This Fall schedule of workouts would help so much…If the Guilford County Schools system is so concerned about the safety of the students/athletes let them(the kids) come see their coaches…It will be much safer and their coaches/we, can help them..It will be much safer than what the kids are doing now on their own…

The county is searching for and stressing Safety, and I can tell you, the kids will be safer working out at Grimsley High School, than they will be working out at home alone…It is all about the controlled environment, and you are giving them an outlet by letting them come back to the school to work out….We always want to put the kids/athletes in the best position to be successful.

We are happy that we are going to be playing football this season, even though our season will begin in February…We are glad to be having a football season, and we have a plan…There will be the 7 regular season games, and four of our regular season games will be conference games…We will have to find a way to add in the three non-conference games…We will find a way to make it all happen”…

On the WHY the Guilford County Schools are not starting up Off-Season Workouts now, at the conclusion of this week’s Dead Period due the re-start up of school for the Fall, Coach Brown said they keep on hearing it is about the Safety and the Well-Being of the student-athletes…But, as Coach Darryl Brown said earlier, and he told me this again, “the kids are better off coming to the school and doing their workouts there…Let them come see their coaches, and they will be much safer, and we can help them…The kids are better off at school doing the workouts, than are doing them at home”….

One more time as we close out things with Coach Darryl Brown, the head football coach at Grimsley High School, “It is in the Best Interest of the athletes to be at the school, and working with their coaches”….

from Johnny Boykin, head coach of the Ragsdale High School Tigers…..

On the WHEN will the kids be able to conduct Off-Season Workouts??? “If you can find that out, let me know”…”All we can do right now, is call the kids on ZOOM”…Asked Coach Boykin if there would be any Off-Season Workouts at all??? “For the first nine weeks, while we are in Remote Learning, I don’t see anything happening…If we are not in school, not on campus, then we will not have workouts”…

We moved on to the WANT to practice phase of our questions…Coach Boykin said, “we want to practice and we want Off-Season Workouts, but at what cost”??? “The practicing and workouts are great to have, but we can not really conduct these without testing”…”The bottom line is we need Testing…But, the Guilford County Schools system does not have money allocated for Testing. We need some form of COVID-19 Testing. We need some sort of official testing for the Coronavirus. I lost a cousin in his 40’s to the virus, and we need testing for ALL of our high school athletes. Guilford County says Education First, but we need Accountability for our Athletes, and Testing equals Accountability…This might be the time to refocus on our athletic approach, here on the high school level…But, I have said it before, and I will say it again, we need to be able to test our high school athletes, for COVID-19…The colleges are doing it and they have the funds, but we are going to have to find the funds on the high school level to get this done”…

“The best thing about high school football and all of football is, Football Brings Us Together”…And that bottom line remains, that we need testing in order for the athletes to get back out there on the field…But we must find the funds, and Guilford County will not allocate the funds for testing”.

“We have county-wide protocols in place to make the season work in February, and we are all for playing on and moving forward, but with the proper protocol and structure in place, and we have that”…

“Our assistant coaches and other Fall coaches are losing money right now, with no seasons and no work”…But, it is still a fact, without the Testing, it is not worth risk of just trying to play and see if this thing will work”…

In case you missed the key point(s) of our conversation with Coach Johnny Boykin, here it is for you one more time…”We WANT to play, but in order to play, there must be TESTING…Got to test the kids/athletes for COVID-19″…

Now for WHY the GSC high schools are not practicing football or other sports right now, with Off-Season Workouts??? Coach Johnny Boykin said the reason for no practicing or Off-Season Workouts, is Fear….”GCS does not want to be wrong, by letting these workouts go on, and then something happens, wrong….Very wrong.” In some ways Coach Boykin agrees….He has told us, “Without the proper Testing for COVID-19, it is not worth the risk of just trying to play”…….

For Coach Johnny Boykin, head coach at Ragsdale High School, it all comes down to one word, to make Off-Season Workouts, and high school sports work again. TESTING!!!

Coach Boykin plans on spending his Friday night time this Fall with his wife, and he said he is always watching football film…

New coaches at Ragsdale HS this upcoming season…Coach Lynch, from Northern Guilford HS…D-line coach for the RHS Tigers…
Alex Boykin, a relative of Coach Johnny Boykin, but a distant relative…Alex Boykin from Smith HS, and will coach the RHS quarterbacks…
Coach Fields is the new linebackers coach at RHS, and Coach Fields comes in from Thomasville High School…

At RHS, they have a couple of kids battling for the quarterback spot…RB Dominic Armwood returns for 2020-2021…The key athlete is Donavan Platt…Platt is a WR/DB and the top athlete on the team…Solomon Hight is back on the D-Line…Hight, DT/NG is 6’3/265…Nasir Parker is on the D-Line at 6’2/215 and DE…DT Keon Neal is at 6’3/290….LB Elijah Ojeda goes at MLB, and is 5’10/195…Platt and Terrell Carmichael hold down the DB spots for the Tigers…On the OL, center Nick Glasgow, at 245 pounds, is the leader…Three of the Five O-lineman, are returning for Ragsdale…

Two former Ragsdale Tigers at N.C. StateDevan Boykin, Johnny Boykin’s youngest son, is second on the depth chart at Safety…A freshman DB that wants to start for the Wolfpack, that is Devan Boykin….Former Ragsdale HS quarterback Alec Cobb is now coaching at N.C. State, as a graduate assistant, working with the Wolfpack QB’s….

Hoping to have you more coaches up here, later on….

from Coach Erik Westberg, head football coach at Northern Guilford HS:

On the WHEN of us beginning/starting/resuming Off-Season Workouts??? “I have no idea…I just hope that we do. We need to see the kids…We need to start up with Off-Season Workouts, as soon as possible. I’d like to see us back at it by mid-September…The first five days of the new school year is a Dead Period, so we could not be working out right now, but come September, we need to be looking at starting up some of those Off-Season Workouts…The way this all works, Forsyth County could back at it, with their Off-Season Workouts, next Monday, August 24…They take five days off for the start of school, and then WS/FCS can be right back into their Off-Season Workouts”…

On the WANT to begin Off-Season Workouts, from Coach Erik Westberg…”Yes, we want to be working out…We need to see the kids again…I really want to be with my guys/Nighthawks…We want to practice…We would have been playing Grimsley, at Johnny Roscoe Stadium tonight(Friday August 21)….As it stands, when the season starts for real, with games on February 26, we will be playing 7 regular games, and we have 8 teams in our Mid-State 3-A Conference, so that means we are playing 7 conference games, and that is how our schedule stands for now…No non-conference games…No Grimsley, no Northwest Guilford, no Page, no Ragsdale…We are only set to face the 7 other teams from our Mid-State 3-A Conference”…..

On the WHY Coach Westberg thinks our Guilford County Schools are not conducting Off-Season Workouts right now??? “There are no workouts due to the safety concerns for the kids, coming from the GCS…With the Guilford County Schools, they are working on Back to School right now, and that is their primary focus…Athletics are secondary right now…GCS has to get Back to School right first, and then they can look into Athletics…Back to School, has been a real job for all of those involved this new school year….The situation is what it is, and we have to go with it“……

Who Northern Guilford is looking to this season….Conner Lachesky…6/3/225 and All-Conference from last season…Lachesky at DE/TE…Lachesky is a junior…Two running backs that bolster the Nighthawks’ chances are junior Jordan McGinnis and sophomore Tyshaun Wall…Big games for McGinnis last season and more expected from him and Wall this upcoming new season…Tyrell Timmons, a cousin of Keenan Allen, is projected to be a top receiver and backup quarterback for the NG Nighthawks…No question about the starting QB…The young man that has been training hard all Summer long and is ready to go for his senior year at NG, and that would be Will Lenard…Lenard with a college offer from Averett University, in Danville, Virginia, coming in this week…Lenard throwing for right at/nearly 3,000 yards last season….Lenard has been training with Danny O’Brien, the former East Forsyth HS/Maryland/Wisconsin/CFL quarterback..Lenard has been working at the DOB/Danny O’Brien training facility…Coach Westberg said Will Lenard improved with every game in 2019, and Coach Westberg added that Will Lenard is a phenomenal kid and student-athlete…..

That’s our talk we had today with Northern Guilford head coach Erik Westberg, and hopefully more coaches are on the way…Tell a friend about this post and keep spreading the word…Lots of good info on here now, and hoping for more on the way….

16 thoughts on “Coaches Comment on the Three W’s of Guilford County getting to work with Off-Season Workouts on the High School Level:When/Why/Want!!!(New Coaches Today with HP Central, HP Andrews, Smith, SEG, Southern Guilford, Page and NEG)

  1. Coach Chuck Doak from Southwest Guilford HS also told me today that he is sort of looking forward to the Spring Football Season…

    Coach Doak said it might be fun to be going from Cold to Hot/Warm, instead of going from Hot/Warm to Cold, as the teams usually do, going from August to November, or December…

  2. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools will resume cross country & volleyball workouts on Sept 14. After that date, it will evaluate a return for other sports.

  3. Like the topic of athletes
    If I am Peyton page no way I play in the spring for dude sorry adios only an injury risk
    2021 I like curtain poche se guilford backup rb is nice
    2022 hey cause t shaw is 300 plus don’t mean he not a good athlete now let me see if u can move like him at 300 plus. Xavier at nw plays both ways big strong fast and tall. He has serious upside potential. Wall can flat out fly, Barnett at Grimsley maybe the best qb around
    2023 se guilford dB is on another level. Then bristol carter at nw is an animal

  4. GCS does not have this on any list of theirs right now.

    These kids are doing their own workouts and having 7on7’s on their own in groups of well above 25 without supervision or following any guidelines set by the state. Now, kudos to those kids trying to stay ahead when GCS likes to play from behind.

    #LetThemPlay

  5. David Kehrli/Burlington Times-News
    @DavidKehrliTN

    How much do athletes miss sports?
    @WarriorsWA

    QB Kendall McKoy just told me a story about waking up one morning, ready to go.

    “My mom woke me up and I asked her, ‘I’ve got a game this Friday, don’t I?’ She was like ‘Kendall.’ All reality came back and I was like, ‘ah, dangit.

  6. Joe Sirera
    @JoeSireraNR

    We knew @grimsleyfb DT Travis Shaw (@cheesy_Trav18) was the No. 7 prospect in http://Rivals.com's Class of 2022 rankings. Now we know he’s the No. 2 DT in his class, behind only No. 1 overall prospect Walter Nolen of Cordova (Tenn.) St. Benedict…

  7. East Surry HS Football?
    @ES_CardinalsFB

    ATTENTION!!!!!
    Due to the abundance of rain, tonight’s game has been postponed to February 26th.

  8. Disagree with the testing aspect that was mentioned. We can definitely have workouts and seasons without testing. Is there a risk involved, sure! Nothing is mandatory and no one has to play or workout. Also, workouts can happen without being in school. Being in school has nothing to do with the controlled numbers of workout groups. Student-athletes need an outlet and school systems need to be able to provide the outlet. Hopefully it will all work out, soon!

  9. We have a lot of coaches’ comments up here now…Be sure to spread the word about this post and you be sure to check back with us daily, to see who we have added to the mix…

  10. Not sure how you change the longstanding rules that NO sports if the kids not in the school. that always been the rule. Is it worth the risk i do not know that answer. Can the kids spread it to vulnerable family members resulting in sickness or heaven forbid death? Do we wanna find out that answer just to play a sport? All parties need to get together including health officials and have some hard conversations and examine the data and research.

  11. coach Chuck Doak
    @coach_doak

    Opportunity for some seven on seven and linemen challenge football this fall.

  12. Coach Stadler(Morehead High School)
    @linstadler

    Were we living in normal times, we’d be kicking off vs Western Guilford at 7:30 tonight(Friday).

    2020 High School Football season, RIP.

    We look forward to seasons 2021A & 2021B.

  13. It appears that the reason GCS teams can’t do anything stems from the GCS super. Sharon Contreras who had a no confidence vote when in Syracuse schools of 95%. The GCS football coaches are being too nice, they really know the issue and are frustrated. Heard she might be on the way out if her leadership or lack thereof doesn’t change soon according to many.

  14. David Kehrli/Burlington Times/News
    @DavidKehrliTN

    Alamance County Football Coaches:
    “We’ve got kids whose parents have been laid off work and there’s just a lot of things that are happening in their lives. I think a lot of times that us as coaches are there to be support and help, and we’ve missed those times.”

    from Friday on Twitter:
    Grimsley Football
    @grimsleyfb

    Tonight would have been our 2020 home opener vs. Asheboro! To honor our 26 Seniors who would have led our team out onto the field, we will turn on our stadium lights at 7:30 (kickoff time)and leave them on for 26 minutes! Excited about what’s ahead for our team! #GDTBAW #FearTheG…

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