A win is a win and I’d rather start the season 1-0 than 0-1. Hoping for dry weather and a more confident offense.
JK 34 Southern Wayne 22
JK 34 Southern Wayne 22
James Kenan vs. Southern Wayne
- Thread starter DuplinCountyTiger
- Start date
Yes was just saying I was glad for us to win the one last week. Pender has a few athletes wasn’t a easy night and we had a QB making his first start
Wasn’t trying to get too confident with the pick. I’m a bit puzzled about how close they played Beddingfield
I'm puzzled about that also lol. I think our defense is/will be pretty good this season. Especially if we can get more bodies out there.
That’s great but where have they been all year lol. Football doesn’t start the last week of August it starts January 1st. Glad they are out there though
I kind of knew something was up with JK when they had trouble beating Pender.
Southern Wayne is a much improved football team. JK still has a ton of work to do, far from being where the fans would like to see them. A lot of football left to play
Some football games are about x's and o's, and some games you just have to let the kids play. Last night we held our kids back trying to strategize the game. Three trips in the redzone in the first half, come away with only 6 points hurt us. We made them believe that they could win, and they did. This was by far the best Southern Wayne team since the 01 or 02 team that went to the 3rd round of the playoffs. Every JK game on their nonconference schedule will be like this until we realize how to use the talent we have.
James Kenan is going to continue to struggle in football for the foreseeable future until the strength and conditioning program improves dramatically. This commitment starts with a coach who must demand and expect constant improvements and results from his players in the weight room year around. I have been told that the football team doesn’t even lift during the football season ( this has to be unacceptable). I guarantee you Wallace, Clinton, and East Duplin are lifting during the season. I would be very surprised if James Kenan has 5 to 10 players who can bench over 200 lbs correctly ( very weak) I know James Kenan doesn’t have as much talent as previous years but they can compete again for conference championships but the players must be willing to put in the time and the coach must demand it 100 percent of the time ( it worked for the late Coach Holley at Wallace and it can work at James Kenan also).
We just have to get some kind of excitement back! I mean our recreation football is no fun, the middle schools have no excitement! The kids are not drawn to compete because of it, not much community support because nothing draws them to the games in either unless they have a child playing! Even with that they mostly drop them off and pick them up later!
JK has the talent to compete for a championship now. Kids don't come out during the summer. They do lift weights, they just doesn't do it as the other schools. We all want more weightlifting, hopefully we'll get back to that sooner than later. Clinton, Wallace, and East Duplin doesn't have the problem we're experiencing at JK, they have kids who want to play football. We're begging kids to play. Then we're competing with basketball, which I don't understand why they would start a basketball league in July or August.
Most of the time if you want to know what the future holds for James Kenan football all you have to do is look at how successful were the Warsaw and Kenansville middle school football teams against the other county teams ( Ken Avent was a very good coach and a smart one but he knew when to call it quits). I’m not sure about this years teams but the last two years teams haven’t faired to well against our rivals in the county. This is why it is so important that the weight lifting program improve at James Kenan because we obviously don’t have the same talent level right now as some of our local schools ( sometimes in small communities the talent level in sports is a generational thing). The middle school programs need to see more of the high school coaches at there practices and games ( I think this generates more support from the community for the high school programs when they see a coach take time out of his day to show the kids that he cares about them and what they’re trying to achieve).
We have obviously been watching two different football teams. It all starts with the coach ( if the players don’t come out during the summer then they don’t play at all). I would rather have only eleven on the team who are willing to put in the time, effort, and dedication it takes to be successful than have 40 who could care less. They may lift weights if that’s what you want to call it ( they must always have a coach in the weight room with them watching over them and demanding their best). There weight lifting program obviously isn’t working ( maybe they need to be doing what Wallace is doing instead).
JK hasn't had a weight program since coach Mot. 2015 is our down fall season. We had talented freshmen and sophomores that didn't get to play. Wallace played their freshmen and sophomores, we didn't, and that hurt our program. Parents were upset, kids started talking about coaches showing favoritism, they didn't won't to play for the coaches. Parents started moving their kids out of JK. If we would have played our freshmen and sophomores in 2015, JK program would have never fell this far. Now it's hard to get kids to come out and play. Some don't like the offense that we're running, some don't like that we don't lift, and some rather play basketball. JK do have a lot of freshmen playing now, and I hope and pray that they will put them in the weight room.
I agree that 2015 was the downfall. And I also agree that the weightlifting is where it all begins, that you have to put in the work in the off-season. JK has lost a lot of talent to other schools for various reasons over the past 4 years. What Clark came into and what he is trying to accomplish is no small job and is not one that is corrected in 2 or even 3 seasons. It is a complete rebuild. Avent had a hell of a run for 8 years, and he still is a great football coach and JK is lucky to still have him with the program. JK is extremely young right now, I honestly believe though that this freshman/sophomore class is going to be the one to turn it around. Rome wasn’t built in a day and Clark is doing everything he can to do this the right way and get JK back into the conversation. JK has shown flashes of what they can be under him. Last year we weren’t a horrible football team and this year we aren’t a horrible football team. We are an extremely young football team and it will take time for these boys to learn how to compete at this level.
I do agree that coach Clark is a good coach as well as a good person and he is trying his best to get the football program turned around. The freshman and sophomore class does have (some) good kids who do care about getting better but they still need to be pushed in the weight room not only in the off season but year around. Most of these freshman and sophomores had never even lifted weights until they got to James Kenan. These kids should have already been lifting weights in the 8th grade and thus by the time they start lifting weights they are basically 1 1/2 years behind Wallace. This makes a tremendous difference when you are already lacking in athletic talent. I’m not saying the teams aren’t competitive but if the program wants to compete for conference championships instead of coming in 4th or 5th in the conference then they better get in the weight room continuously. If Ken Avent was still coaching the results would still probably be the same ( the coach can only do so much and thus at some point it’s up to the players to put in the dedication and effort to succeed).
I know in the past towards the end of the school year James Kenan would send a bus to EE Smith to carry boys to the weight room. I don’t know if this is happening now but that would be a start.
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