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Decline of Manteo Football

MomsCall

Active Member
Sep 24, 2021
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I have been following a lot of the talk on these forums lately but something finally needs to be said about Manteo. A program that was a consistent 2nd or 3rd round playoff team has steadily fallen over the past 3/4 seasons and is now a 0-5 team this season. The loss to First Flight last night is the most embarrassing yet. A team that we should easily have competed with and beat, instead ran away with the game. Things need to change. Some former young players are not playing at all anymore and now others are talking about quitting mid season. I understand moving up to 2A makes the schedule a little more tough but we should not have less kids playing than when we were a 1A school. The lack of blocking and tackling during games shows that nothing is being taught during practice. If there was a hot seat at Manteo it would be on fire!
 
I have been following a lot of the talk on these forums lately but something finally needs to be said about Manteo. A program that was a consistent 2nd or 3rd round playoff team has steadily fallen over the past 3/4 seasons and is now a 0-5 team this season. The loss to First Flight last night is the most embarrassing yet. A team that we should easily have competed with and beat, instead ran away with the game. Things need to change. Some former young players are not playing at all anymore and now others are talking about quitting mid season. I understand moving up to 2A makes the schedule a little more tough but we should not have less kids playing than when we were a 1A school. The lack of blocking and tackling during games shows that nothing is being taught during practice. If there was a hot seat at Manteo it would be on fire!

Manteo has never been good, will not ever be good. Not a ton of athletes up in them woods. Coaches nightmare would to be a coach at Manteo.
 
I'd love to coach at Manteo myself, unless they think they should be winning any champioponships. Too much good fishing in that area, and dudes who want to surf. LOL
 
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Manteo has never been good, will not ever be good. Not a ton of athletes up in them woods. Coaches nightmare would to be a coach at Manteo.
And I would add that what you see on the field is not always a reflection of the coaching staff. Sometimes you have kids that just will not buy into a system. You can coach them all you want but when they get on the field they do what they want. If you don't have decent backups its a tough spot for a coach. This may not be going on at Manteo but most times the fans in the stands Moms or Dads have no idea what is happening on that sideline.
 
And I would add that what you see on the field is not always a reflection of the coaching staff. Sometimes you have kids that just will not buy into a system. You can coach them all you want but when they get on the field they do what they want. If you don't have decent backups its a tough spot for a coach. This may not be going on at Manteo but most times the fans in the stands Moms or Dads have no idea what is happening on that sideline.

Very true brother
 
The coaches talk about winning a state championship at the start of every season. I know we are not that right now but it would be nice to see them play with some improvements week to week. 0-5 is tough.
 
I'd love to coach at Manteo myself, unless they think they should be winning any champioponships. Too much good fishing in that area, and dudes who want to surf. LOL
If any school as more surfers it’s First Flight and we just lost to them AGAIN last night.
 
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And I would add that what you see on the field is not always a reflection of the coaching staff. Sometimes you have kids that just will not buy into a system. You can coach them all you want but when they get on the field they do what they want. If you don't have decent backups its a tough spot for a coach. This may not be going on at Manteo but most times the fans in the stands Moms or Dads have no idea what is happening on that sideline.
Good point about the kids not buying into the system. Didn’t think about it that way. I hope that is not the case since the large majority of the coaching staff is made up of players fathers.
 
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Good point about the kids not buying into the system. Didn’t think about it that way. I hope that is not the case since the large majority of the coaching staff is made up of players fathers.

Huge problem, having fathers coaching sons. Used to be a great thing, this day an age, good luck.
 
I have been following a lot of the talk on these forums lately but something finally needs to be said about Manteo. A program that was a consistent 2nd or 3rd round playoff team has steadily fallen over the past 3/4 seasons and is now a 0-5 team this season. The loss to First Flight last night is the most embarrassing yet. A team that we should easily have competed with and beat, instead ran away with the game. Things need to change. Some former young players are not playing at all anymore and now others are talking about quitting mid season. I understand moving up to 2A makes the schedule a little more tough but we should not have less kids playing than when we were a 1A school. The lack of blocking and tackling during games shows that nothing is being taught during practice. If there was a hot seat at Manteo it would be on fire!
I'm so glad to see an OBX poster up here. This is a nice change. I just posted about there not being any Manteo or First Flight posters up here amongst other area schools. Manteo had some success in 1a but they always ran into Plymouth.
 
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@MomsCall , their are a lot of people who'd jump at the opportunity to help that program, myself included. Manteo and Roanoke Island are beautiful, and believe it or not there is talent there.
 
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Is there even a First Flight fan or alum that reads these threads? I now see that there is at least one from Manteo.
I do not know if anyone else posts, I am very new myself. We have Currituck coming up next but not sure when we play Northeastern.
 
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Manteo is a hard place to win at in any sport due to administration. There are athletes and hard nosed kids at Manteo, but without full support of athletics from admin/district, it's hard to win. Which is ironic since the principal is a member of the Board of Directors. Sport Sawyer is a great coach, but hard to win with COVID and support.
 
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A quick review of Maxpreps shows Manteo has bad success over the last 10 years but seems to run into Plymouth or Holmes in the playoffs. The poster knows of that success and wonders what happened. Not sure they are thinking about a state championship, but are definitely thinking about a win or two in the playoffs. Welcome to the boards BTW.
 
Manteo is a hard place to win at in any sport due to administration. There are athletes and hard nosed kids at Manteo, but without full support of athletics from admin/district, it's hard to win. Which is ironic since the principal is a member of the Board of Directors. Sport Sawyer is a great coach, but hard to win with COVID and support.
Everyone in Manteo is a Sawyer. How bout that volleyball team. The guy I work with daughter was NcPreps player of the week not long ago. She's signed to play for the Citadel. Manteo football had some big wins and was a solid program at the 1a level. They did very well for living in such a remote location.
 
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Manteo is a hard place to win at in any sport due to administration. There are athletes and hard nosed kids at Manteo, but without full support of athletics from admin/district, it's hard to win. Which is ironic since the principal is a member of the Board of Directors. Sport Sawyer is a great coach, but hard to win with COVID and support.
I don’t understand the comment about support from the administration. If I am remembering correctly, didn’t the track teams, soccer, and swimming all win conference last year and the school win the conference cup? How could so many other teams do so well without support from the administration? Doesn’t make sense to me.
 
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No idea about the ins and outs of Manteo football but I do know winning in football is a lot different than winning in track, soccer and swimming. Manteo sounds similar to Dixon, Topsail and Croatan given their student makeup.

Those three schools do not have any real success at football but are tough to deal with in the country club sports and wrestling.
 
Soccer is always great due to the high Hispanic population in the OBX. Swimming is an easy conference title to win due to lack of teams in the old conference and the fact that Manteo is surrounded by water, meaning kids know how to swim. The new conference will be much tougher with more schools with swimming. Track is similar due to the old conference being so small. No offense to those sports, especially soccer (Ralph Cleaver is an outstanding coach), but football is a different beast. People who know Manteo truly know the deal about admin. Talk to those parents you sit beside on Friday nights and if they are in the know, they will tell you. It's a shame as a Manteo grad that it's this way. I'm hoping for better days!
 
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By the way, you talk about winning the conference cup, but how did Track and Swim do at State? Look outside your bubble, and compare to other schools across NC 1A/2A.
 
Yes all sports are different from one another. You said it was due to a lack of support for athletics and that just doesn’t seem to be the case. Just because there is water doesn’t mean people know how to swim events. When I was little I was never taught how to swim the backstroke against other people. I do not know how track did at states but at least they were there. And I do sit with the other parents at the games. They don’t complain about administration….
 
Football made the playoff last year too... We can post back and forth all day, but I'm telling you if the people running the school don't value sports, it's hard to win. Maybe the state title or bust message isn't beneficial either too though. Also to the commenter that said Manteo is full of Sawyers, Sport Sawyer is from little Washington. The Sawyers in the OBX, other than his children, are not part of his clan.
 
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No idea about the ins and outs of Manteo football but I do know winning in football is a lot different than winning in track, soccer and swimming. Manteo sounds similar to Dixon, Topsail and Croatan given their student makeup.

Those three schools do not have any real success at football but are tough to deal with in the country club sports and wrestling.
Sounds like West Carteret. Football for the most part over the years have been average or below average. Really competitive in other sports with some state titles. Sometimes the geographic areas just does produce football players.
 
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Sounds like West Carteret. Football for the most part over the years have been average or below average. Really competitive in other sports with some state titles. Sometimes the geographic areas just does produce football players.
Coaching at the beach is different. At West we had a great group of kids who turned the program around from 2009-2011. Country club sports and soccer are usually always competitive. Football is a different story and always will be.
 
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Coaching at the beach is different. At West we had a great group of kids who turned the program around from 2009-2011. Country club sports and soccer are usually always competitive. Football is a different story and always will be.
Seen it at the middle school level in Carteret too. At that level it seemed in Carteret, sports, especially football, Was an afterthought. Almost like it is an inconvenience.
 
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You might not wanna go to that northeastern game. Just kidding! It won't be fun tho.
I just hope everyone plays! Last time we had a tough game we were missing players because parents decided they shouldn’t play that game but then they were back for an easier team the next game.
 
I just hope everyone plays! Last time we had a tough game we were missing players because parents decided they shouldn’t play that game but then they were back for an easier team the next game.
I was just meaning they're probably the best 2a team in the state right now. Definitely top 3!
 
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Oh yes, I understand they are a very talented team. Edenton beat us bad and they just beat Edenton!
 
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Oh yes, I understand they are a very talented team. Edenton beat us bad and they just beat Edenton!

It won't be easy transitioning into a conference with Holmes and NE but I think Manteo will adjust and become a much better football program over these next couple years. Tell Coach Sawyer to hit me up on here and I'll come help him. I can carry the water 💦 bottles or something. 🙂 I love it over there.
 
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It won't be easy transitioning into a conference with Holmes and NE but I think Manteo will adjust and become a much better football program over these next couple years. Tell Coach Sawyer to hit me up on here and I'll come help him. I can carry the water 💦 bottles or something. 🙂 I love it over there.

Goobs gonna be on the sidelines soon, callings plays against NE lol I'll come up to see that
 
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