Davidson County football family

[BlackKnightNut]

Thomasville: oldest brother, most accomplished, inherited nothing. Worked for everything and made a fortune before an unfortunate trip to the hospital. Appears to be revitalized and we look forward to their return on the board.

Lexington: also inherited nothing and worked for everything, even outshining Tville at times. Fortune went to ruin because of unspecified problems... Still has a place on the board but is past their prime and not much is expected of them.

North Davidson: inherited a lot from Lexington and Tville, fought to keep up for years and made their mark on the same levels somewhat, then went higher and accomplished plenty consistently while being a small fish in a big pond. Came back to the small level as an expected powerhouse before retirement, which is imminent. Got caught napping by ledford for the first time in years and is looking for a rematch before retirement is official as Old ND before becoming New ND.

Ledford: twin of ND, always following in their footsteps and inherited a lot from Tville. Has not measured up consistently, on the small level or higher levels before coming back down to small. Saw their chance to bum rush ND and took it. Now prepares for their own retirement with a big payday against ND possible in a rematch before becoming New ledford.

West, Central and East: younger kids that have occasionally moved out of their parents house but with no consistency. Share a basement at mom and dads.

South: red headed step child. No one knows and no one cares where they are. Constantly complains about nothing being fair even though other little kids beat them up who are their own size.

Oak Grove: new baby in the house. Inheriting a lot from ND and ledford, as well as the parents. Is being groomed as the golden child and being set up for life, which is theirs to take if they but want it...

What say you? How does your county look? Just something I thought about on lunch. Maybe a bit much but I had fun doing it lol...

 

[GoNtheDistance]

Damn spot on

 

[bkknights93]

Enjoyed this!

 

[M193_55g]

I love it. Sounds about right.

 

[ocdavis31]

Thomasville: oldest brother, most accomplished, inherited nothing. Worked for everything and made a fortune before an unfortunate trip to the hospital. Appears to be revitalized and we look forward to their return on the board.

Lexington: also inherited nothing and worked for everything, even outshining Tville at times. Fortune went to ruin because of unspecified problems... Still has a place on the board but is past their prime and not much is expected of them.

North Davidson: inherited a lot from Lexington and Tville, fought to keep up for years and made their mark on the same levels somewhat, then went higher and accomplished plenty consistently while being a small fish in a big pond. Came back to the small level as an expected powerhouse before retirement, which is imminent. Got caught napping by ledford for the first time in years and is looking for a rematch before retirement is official as Old ND before becoming New ND.

Ledford: twin of ND, always following in their footsteps and inherited a lot from Tville. Has not measured up consistently, on the small level or higher levels before coming back down to small. Saw their chance to bum rush ND and took it. Now prepares for their own retirement with a big payday against ND possible in a rematch before becoming New ledford.

West, Central and East: younger kids that have occasionally moved out of their parents house but with no consistency. Share a basement at mom and dads.

South: red headed step child. No one knows and no one cares where they are. Constantly complains about nothing being fair even though other little kids beat them up who are their own size.

Oak Grove: new baby in the house. Inheriting a lot from ND and ledford, as well as the parents. Is being groomed as the golden child and being set up for life, which is theirs to take if they but want it...

What say you? How does your county look? Just something I thought about on lunch. Maybe a bit much but I had fun doing it lol...

Great analysis! Like most families, we may beat up on each other, but outsiders better beware if they try it. I really hope the DC teams do well in the playoffs and respect them all....well, maybe not the Yellow Jackets! Just kidding...mostly.

 

[BlackKnightNut]

Lexington is invited on holidays but gets thrown out now and again for coming in drunk! Lol

 

[ocdavis31]

Lexington is invited on holidays but gets thrown out now and again for coming in drunk! Lol

Fortunately, I'll be out of town on Thanksgiving.

 

[BlackKnightNut]

 

[GoNtheDistance]

Lexington is the relative that you feel obligated to invite but hope they don’t come.

 

[Rameses]

Still not convinced that Oak Grove will become the power in the county. I know it is only natural to believe things like that when a new school opens, it's just human nature to do so, but this isn't the 1970's, 80's or 90's any more. I know why people think this, because the Midway community left North for Oak Grove. Yes, Midway has produced some really nice athletes at North over the years, but Welcome and Arcadia/Reedy Creek have always been right on par with them. Wallburg has been way more vital to Ledford athletics and that is where Ledford is going to eventually feel the hurt. Will OG eventually be on par with North and Ledford? Yes, I do believe that will happen because they have great coaching in football and baseball. They will also eventually be on par with North and Ledford in softball as well IMO. I have said it 1,000 times over the last year or so, that Ledford will feel the pain before North does. I know, I know, folks will talk about middle school and JV athletics (I mean, for goodness sakes Central middle won the football title this year) but that doesn't translate to high school. Let's all be honest too, since Coach Everhart retired, the middle school football program has never been the same.

I know it sounds like I'm pissing on Oak Grove, I'm not, but to just throw North davidson in the trash because a shiny new school opened is just crazy. Some folks act as if North is going to turn into Central Davidson. Come on folks, you know the North Davidson community is one of the most supportive communities in the state of North Carolina, they will NEVER let ND fall from grace in Davidson County. Just my $0.02.

 

[bknights#77]

Still not convinced that Oak Grove will become the power in the county. I know it is only natural to believe things like that when a new school opens, it's just human nature to do so, but this isn't the 1970's, 80's or 90's any more. I know why people think this, because the Midway community left North for Oak Grove. Yes, Midway has produced some really nice athletes at North over the years, but Welcome and Arcadia/Reedy Creek have always been right on par with them. Wallburg has been way more vital to Ledford athletics and that is where Ledford is going to eventually feel the hurt. Will OG eventually be on par with North and Ledford? Yes, I do believe that will happen because they have great coaching in football and baseball. They will also eventually be on par with North and Ledford in softball as well IMO. I have said it 1,000 times over the last year or so, that Ledford will feel the pain before North does. I know, I know, folks will talk about middle school and JV athletics (I mean, for goodness sakes Central middle won the football title this year) but that doesn't translate to high school. Let's all be honest too, since Coach Everhart retired, the middle school football program has never been the same.

I know it sounds like I'm pissing on Oak Grove, I'm not, but to just throw North davidson in the trash because a shiny new school opened is just crazy. Some folks act as if North is going to turn into Central Davidson. Come on folks, you know the North Davidson community is one of the most supportive communities in the state of North Carolina, they will NEVER let ND fall from grace in Davidson County. Just my $0.02.

Couldn't agree more I've said the exact thing on here.

 

[BlackKnightNut]

I'm not sold on anything yet. I was just going off the personalities of current Davidson County people I know from all areas lol.

I think it will be a more middleground thing where North slips but maybe not as much as people think, and Oak Grove may be a power or they may fall short of that. We don't know yet... I do agree that Wallburg is more vital to ledford than Midway is to ND.

 

[PrepFanNC]

I'm not sold on anything yet. I was just gping off the personalities of current Davidson County people I know from all areas lol.

I think it will be a more middleground thing where North slips but maybe not as much as people think, and Oak Grove may be a power or they may fall short of that. We don't know yet... I do agree that Wallburg is more vital to ledford than Midway is to ND.

It is interesting to see... Oak Grove has several projects going right now that are being donated by community companies and individuals. The commissioners wouldn’t hear of it when covered dugouts (not the below ground kind) were in the plans. They wouldn’t fund it. So Oak Grove got some benches. At present, they appear to be putting in brick and mortar dug outs as we speak. They are also getting some drainage work and concrete work done at cost. Those are the kinds of things North worked so hard to get back in the 80s.

Ledford’s boosters defaulted on a loan when they built their auxiliary practice gym. I think that bank wrote off over a half million dollars on that loan. The money to back Ledford is drying up with the loss of Wallburg.

 

[tarheelg]

This is easy for the two places I can speak to:
First, the really easy one, where I'm from originally: Gates Co. has only had one high school since the smaller ones consolidated in 1962, so uh......yea, there's that....but I will fill some space talking about the program's accomplishments since there's no separate family of schools discuss..... they had some great success before my time with an undefeated season and state championship in 1971 (I think that was the last year before the WNCHSAA/NCHSAA merger), then a run to regional finals again in 1973 (including a 1st Rd. "win" where they tied White Oak 20-20 but advanced on yardage...Cannot imagine that today), a bunch of lean years through the late 70s & early 80s, increased success through late 80s, back to back regional finals in 91 & 92 under Coach Donnie Kiefer, playoff appearances every year from 95-05 under Coach Clark Harrell, highlighted by a regional finals appearance in 2001 (lost at Wallace-Rose Hill), 2002 team had better record but lost heartbreaker in 3OT in 2nd Rd at eventual state runner up Williamston...Coach Matt Biggy has been there for more than 10 years now and won one conference championship in 2010...Here in 2018, the Barons have had their best season in a long time and have a 1st Rd bye and will host the winner of SE Halifax and South Creek, who is coached by Will Harrell, son of our former coach, who was a starter on offensive line for 2-3 years

Second, I've lived in Granville Co. for almost 15 years, and work at South Granville (and do the stats/reporting, etc. for the Vikings varsity football & baseball...

Today, there are 3 football playing schools in Granville Co.: JF Webb in Oxford, Granville Central in Stem, and South Granville in Creedmoor. If I were to do a BlackKnightNut style stereotyping of how they would look as a family, here goes:

-I thought JF Webb was the oldest brother, but just did a little research and after further review, see that it opened in the same year (1962) as South Granville, so I will consider Webb the older of two fraternal twins....South Granville would be the younger brother of the fraternal twins, the inter-county rivalry went back and forth in its early years, but after a 2-0 win for SG in 1976, the Vikings did not beat the Warriors again until 2007, and those around football often felt stuck in the shadows of its brother for many years from mid-1970s to the mid-2000s. There was a 22 year stretch from 1979-2000 in which the rivalry was only renewed 4 times. They have squared off every year since 2001, but Webb continued to dominate until 2006. South Granville's hire of Coach Mike Hobgood in 2005 has proven to bring a change to the balance of power in the rivalry. While Webb dominated in the late 70s and early 2000s, it felt like a balanced rivalry again by Coach Hobgood's second year, and strangely, the road team won in this rivalry every year between 2006-2011....including 2011, SG has now won 7 of the last 8. I believe Webb's last conference championship was in 2007, in a three way tie with South Granville & Eastern Alamance in the Mid State 3A, and they went on to the regional finals that year before losing to Dudley. Since then, I believe they have two playoff appearances (none since 2010) and one playoff win (none since 2008). SG, on the other hand, since that three way tie in 2007, has won conference championships in 2009, 2011, 2013 (tie with Bunn, but beat Bunn head to head), 2017, and 2018, made the playoffs every year since 2007, made the 2nd Rd in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2016, and made 3rd Rd in 2017, and in 2018 just finished off back to back undefeated regular seasons.

-The younger brother is Granville Central, who opened in 2007, and began playing a full varsity schedule in 2009. SG is 8-0 all time against GC, but GC has beaten Webb the last four years, after losing their first six meetings. GC took approximately between 2/3 and 3/4 of its enrollment from students who would have gone to South Granville and between 1/4 and 1/3 of those who would have gone to Webb. Since then, the district lines have been redrawn at least once to attempt to balance the enrollments at each. Granville Central just finished off a very successful 2018 regular season, where their only loss was at SG, they have made the playoffs for the last six years, and been in the 2nd Rd of the playoffs for the last four, including 2017 & 2018 automatically due to a 1st Rd bye.

-There is also a Granville Early College, who does not play sports, but its students are eligible to play at the school where they would be attending based on their address, hence SG's 2018 ADM is reported as 836 for football, even though the on-campus ADM is between 730-750....SG had jumped to 3A for the first time ever in 2005, and also for the first time ever was in the same conference with Webb, but GC's opening in 2007 led to SG falling back to 2A numbers for the 2009 realignment....Webb stayed 3A until the 2017 realignment....GC started off as a 2A school in the 2009 realignment, but fell to 1A in 2013, barely stayed 1A in 2017, and right now is BY FAR the largest 1A, might be on the way to 2A in 2021, or maybe not, depending on how the state calculates the cut line between 1A & 2A

 

[BlackKnightNut]

Since you are from the area I have to ask... Do you know about the Ahoskie team that played Allen Jay in the Eastern State Championship of 1970?

My dad played for Allen Jay and they were a small school with only 300 high school kids. Was a 12 year school, and played 2A due to being from High Point in Guilford County, no little schools around lol.

Allen Jay had 23 players on varsity, but they were big. Ahoskie had a lot of speed, according to the High Point Enterprise of 1970 because Ahoskie integrated and got a lot more students. Went to 3A the next year.

Is any of this familiar, sir?

 

[tarheelg]

Since you are from the area I have to ask... Do you know about the Ahoskie team that played Allen Jay in the Eastern State Championship of 1970?

My dad played for Allen Jay and they were a small school with only 300 high school kids. Was a 12 year school, and played 2A due to being from High Point in Guilford County, no little schools around lol.

Allen Jay had 23 players on varsity, but they were big. Ahoskie had a lot of speed, according to the High Point Enterprise of 1970 because Ahoskie integrated and got a lot more students. Went to 3A the next year.

Is any of this familiar, sir?

Sorry, I can't help with remembering that one; I've never heard of Allen Jay, like I said in previous post, anything in the 1970s was before my time....and anything in the early to mid 1980s was before my time following sports....but I just looked them up, looks like the old Ahoskie Cougars beat the Allen Jay Jaybirds 28-12 for the championship....I do know that Ahoskie & Murfreesboro were separate high schools for many years, but they consolidated into one Hertford Co. HS around 1988

 

[bknights#77]

You mentioned the tie and advancing on yardage. North and Shelby tied for a WNCHSAA state title in the 70's and they were co-champions instead of playing it off. The game was played at Philpott stadium in Lexington. Dave Robertson, Cliff Clark, Dean Jarvis, Robert Everhart, Perry Tuttle. Terry Powell, Bradley Thomason and John Julian were some of the players on that North team.

 

[GSO-Triple5]

Since you are from the area I have to ask... Do you know about the Ahoskie team that played Allen Jay in the Eastern State Championship of 1970?

My dad played for Allen Jay and they were a small school with only 300 high school kids. Was a 12 year school, and played 2A due to being from High Point in Guilford County, no little schools around lol.

Allen Jay had 23 players on varsity, but they were big. Ahoskie had a lot of speed, according to the High Point Enterprise of 1970 because Ahoskie integrated and got a lot more students. Went to 3A the next year.

Is any of this familiar, sir?

Allen Jay had a tremendous athlete named Gary Merideth . He was a three sport star at Allen Jay during the late 60's, and I'm pretty sure he graduated in '70. The students that attended Allen Jay now attend Southwest Guilford.

 

[BlackKnightNut]

Allen Jay had a tremendous athlete named Gary Merideth . He was a three sport star at Allen Jay during the late 60's, and I'm pretty sure he graduated in '70. The students that attended Allen Jay now attend Southwest Guilford.

Gary Meridith graduated in spring 1970 and Allen Jay shifted much of the running to fullback Butch Moran and tailback Rodney Shipwash out of a double tight wing t.

The Jaybirds, as they were known, had Jerry Whitfield at qb who tossed the ball and blocked at least as much as he passed. My father was Mike Coltrane, left guard and middle linebacker. Also long snapper.

The best player was end Gary Thayer. He went to Elon and played for Red Wilson. Big boy for his time, six-three and 220 as a senior.

In the playoffs AJ defeated Trinity in a rematch 0-0. You heard that right, AJ won on yardage 154-74.

Next for AJ came Elizabethtown, now East Bladen. Rodney Shipwash had mono and was out. Gary Thayer lined up in the backfield and destroyed Elizabethtown. 22-18 was the final.

In the title game, dad got hurt on the opening kickoff on a clipping penalty. Dude cut him at the knees. AJ went from their 5-3 to a 6-2 but Ahoskie had a lot of speed and broke their backs with big runs. 28-12 was the final after 14-6 at half.

That was a story I would love to write about one day. Still have the papers from that season in my dads and my scrapbook.

 

[GoNtheDistance]

Allen Jay kids now attend Southern Guilford, not Southwest Guilford.

 

[BlackKnightNut]

It depends. I know people who attended both from the area.

 

[BlackKnightNut]

Speaking of which, Southern Guilford was always good. C.K. Siler was a tremendous coach for many years.

 

[PrepFanNC]

This is easy for the two places I can speak to:
First, the really easy one, where I'm from originally: Gates Co. has only had one high school since the smaller ones consolidated in 1962, so uh......yea, there's that....but I will fill some space talking about the program's accomplishments since there's no separate family of schools discuss..... they had some great success before my time with an undefeated season and state championship in 1971 (I think that was the last year before the WNCHSAA/NCHSAA merger), then a run to regional finals again in 1973 (including a 1st Rd. "win" where they tied White Oak 20-20 but advanced on yardage...Cannot imagine that today), a bunch of lean years through the late 70s & early 80s, increased success through late 80s, back to back regional finals in 91 & 92 under Coach Donnie Kiefer, playoff appearances every year from 95-05 under Coach Clark Harrell, highlighted by a regional finals appearance in 2001 (lost at Wallace-Rose Hill), 2002 team had better record but lost heartbreaker in 3OT in 2nd Rd at eventual state runner up Williamston...Coach Matt Biggy has been there for more than 10 years now and won one conference championship in 2010...Here in 2018, the Barons have had their best season in a long time and have a 1st Rd bye and will host the winner of SE Halifax and South Creek, who is coached by Will Harrell, son of our former coach, who was a starter on offensive line for 2-3 years

Second, I've lived in Granville Co. for almost 15 years, and work at South Granville (and do the stats/reporting, etc. for the Vikings varsity football & baseball...

Today, there are 3 football playing schools in Granville Co.: JF Webb in Oxford, Granville Central in Stem, and South Granville in Creedmoor. If I were to do a BlackKnightNut style stereotyping of how they would look as a family, here goes:

-I thought JF Webb was the oldest brother, but just did a little research and after further review, see that it opened in the same year (1962) as South Granville, so I will consider Webb the older of two fraternal twins....South Granville would be the younger brother of the fraternal twins, the inter-county rivalry went back and forth in its early years, but after a 2-0 win for SG in 1976, the Vikings did not beat the Warriors again until 2007, and those around football often felt stuck in the shadows of its brother for many years from mid-1970s to the mid-2000s. There was a 22 year stretch from 1979-2000 in which the rivalry was only renewed 4 times. They have squared off every year since 2001, but Webb continued to dominate until 2006. South Granville's hire of Coach Mike Hobgood in 2005 has proven to bring a change to the balance of power in the rivalry. While Webb dominated in the late 70s and early 2000s, it felt like a balanced rivalry again by Coach Hobgood's second year, and strangely, the road team won in this rivalry every year between 2006-2011....including 2011, SG has now won 7 of the last 8. I believe Webb's last conference championship was in 2007, in a three way tie with South Granville & Eastern Alamance in the Mid State 3A, and they went on to the regional finals that year before losing to Dudley. Since then, I believe they have two playoff appearances (none since 2010) and one playoff win (none since 2008). SG, on the other hand, since that three way tie in 2007, has won conference championships in 2009, 2011, 2013 (tie with Bunn, but beat Bunn head to head), 2017, and 2018, made the playoffs every year since 2007, made the 2nd Rd in 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, and 2016, and made 3rd Rd in 2017, and in 2018 just finished off back to back undefeated regular seasons.

-The younger brother is Granville Central, who opened in 2007, and began playing a full varsity schedule in 2009. SG is 8-0 all time against GC, but GC has beaten Webb the last four years, after losing their first six meetings. GC took approximately between 2/3 and 3/4 of its enrollment from students who would have gone to South Granville and between 1/4 and 1/3 of those who would have gone to Webb. Since then, the district lines have been redrawn at least once to attempt to balance the enrollments at each. Granville Central just finished off a very successful 2018 regular season, where their only loss was at SG, they have made the playoffs for the last six years, and been in the 2nd Rd of the playoffs for the last four, including 2017 & 2018 automatically due to a 1st Rd bye.

-There is also a Granville Early College, who does not play sports, but its students are eligible to play at the school where they would be attending based on their address, hence SG's 2018 ADM is reported as 836 for football, even though the on-campus ADM is between 730-750....SG had jumped to 3A for the first time ever in 2005, and also for the first time ever was in the same conference with Webb, but GC's opening in 2007 led to SG falling back to 2A numbers for the 2009 realignment....Webb stayed 3A until the 2017 realignment....GC started off as a 2A school in the 2009 realignment, but fell to 1A in 2013, barely stayed 1A in 2017, and right now is BY FAR the largest 1A, might be on the way to 2A in 2021, or maybe not, depending on how the state calculates the cut line between 1A & 2A

What kind of effect, if any, has Falls Lake Charter has on South Granville? It looks like they’re fairly close to SG.

 

[tarheelg]

What kind of effect, if any, has Falls Lake Charter has on South Granville? It looks like they’re fairly close to SG.

Let's just say that if SG had 3 more students not at Falls Lake, we would have been 1 seed in the 2AA bracket instead of the 2 seed in the 2A bracket and in all likelihood still be alive for the second round.....SG had been in 2AA for the previous 5 years but shown a steady decline for the last 2-3 years, mainly due to Falls Lake

 

[PrepFanNC]

2AA East is as weak as water.

Hate that you guys lost tonight.

 

[tarheelg]

2AA East is as weak as water.

Hate that you guys lost tonight.

Goldsboro is very good, Bowden at RB is one of the most unique players you will ever see, and a bunch of their linemen are bigger than he is.....if they're the 5th place in their conference, I don't know if we'd have wanted to see Wallace-Rose Hill next week