Looking ahead to 2016

[bareman]

Congrats to WRH and Plymouth......as for next year the Bears return almost everyone on both sides......won 8 games with a load of Jrs and Sophs....will return one of the better kickers in the state.....East Surry lost 19 seniors so some adjustment there along with Walkertown who lost 15 seniors....thoughts from others??

 

[LabaR]

You beat me to it Bareman, was just about to make this thread.

As for East Wilkes...

They loose senior leadership that will need to be replaced. I don't know exacts, but roughly 5-6 senior starters on both sides of the ball including 2 leading rushers on offense and arguably the top 2 defensive linemen in the conference (One earned defensive player of the year in conference).

From what I've gathered the sophomore group at EW is filled with a lot of talent. Some were already on varsity this year and the rest stayed on JV. The JVs had an undefeated season as well. Overall, I expect them to be strong, but some key linemen positions have big shoes to fill.

 

[WRH FAN]

WRH should be very good again.

 

[gurnade]

Plymouth loses 12 sr's including two of the three starting backs and a couple of defensive starters. Some nice underclassmen ready to fill the backfield holes. May take them a couple games to get their feet under them. Still lots of talent. We'll throw them out there, coach 'em up and see what happens.

 

[wncbowhunter]

Mitchell loses 15 seniors. So they will be down some but will return a solid group of juniors as well as the qb who is just a soph. A lot will depend upon how hard the underclassmen work this summer. Mitchell may be 1a next season as well instead of 1aa.

 

[Realfreedom]

Mitchell loses 15 seniors. So they will be down some but will return a solid group of juniors as well as the qb who is just a soph. A lot will depend upon how hard the underclassmen work this summer. Mitchell may be 1a next season as well instead of 1aa.

That is the key also for East Wilkes. Do they put in the work that they did this past off season. If the answer is yes they will be good, really good again. I give Ashe and WC an upper hand for next year at this time.

 

[thsvikes]

Tarboro loses 8 seniors. They will have 8 Seniors, 21 Juniors, & sophomore (maybe 1 or 2 more) on Varsity for 2016. Tarboro will have alot of key Components

On offense....
Returning 3-4 (3 Juniors--1 Sophomore) Offensive lineman with significant experience (2 of them started every game as sophmores)
QB--will be a Junior (Started all 14 games) rushed for over 300 yards/passed for over 600 yards
3 RBs (2 FBs)--All will be Juniors (Started and played signifcant minutes on Varsity) These 3 backs
rushed for a combined 1300 yards together
2-3 TE's with signifcant starts playing time on Varsity.

On Defense
Returning Starting LBs (3 will be Juniors), 1 Other LB (will be Senior-started and saw alot of action)
Entire Secondary will be back (1 Senior, 2 Juniors),
DLine (returns 2-3 DL without alot significant minutes--All will be Juniors)
Def Ends (return 2--will be seniors)

 

[marinersgold]

I would think with WRH and JK moving to 2-A (next year?),Tarboro would be the team to beat in 1-AA.
IDK what Southside loses but they were very strong last year in 1-A.

 

[mbdfan]

I would think with WRH and JK moving to 2-A (next year?),Tarboro would be the team to beat in 1-AA. IDK what Southside loses but they were very strong last year in 1-A.

WRH and JK will be in 1AA another year, realignment doesn't start until the 2017-18 season.WRH will be the favorite until someone knocks them off. Tarboro should be really good next season, they will probably be WRH's biggest competition out east. In 1A Plymouth will be the team to beat per usual.

Out west for next year I look for Murphy to be 1AA, and they will be one of, if not the favorite to make it to the title game with everything they are returning. Scary thing is minus 3 lineman, basically all of them will be back in 2017 too. West Montgomery and Swain will be in the mix like always, East Wilkes and Mount Airy should be good too. In 1A, I would look for Robbinsville and Mitchell (if they're 1A) to be the frontrunners to get to the title game.

 

[Pisgah Bears]

WRH and JK will be in 1AA another year, realignment doesn't start until the 2017-18 season.WRH will be the favorite until someone knocks them off. Tarboro should be really good next season, they will probably be WRH's biggest competition out east. In 1A Plymouth will be the team to beat per usual.

Out west for next year I look for Murphy to be 1AA, and they will be one of, if not the favorite to make it to the title game with everything they are returning. Scary thing is minus 3 lineman, basically all of them will be back in 2017 too. West Montgomery and Swain will be in the mix like always, East Wilkes and Mount Airy should be good too. In 1A, I would look for Robbinsville and Mitchell (if they're 1A) to be the frontrunners to get to the title game.

The 1a and 1AA realign every year according to number of students.

 

[JeffFriday]

James Kenan

Offense - Losing 8 seniors in some form or another doesn't bode well for the lack of offensive prowess all year this past season
OL-(Lose 4 seniors) returning about 3 kids that got extensive playing time this past season
TE/WR-(Lose 2 Seniors John Brooks is one of those seniors) Returning a core of young semi experienced kids
RB/FB-(Lose 2 Seniors) Not much experience returning here but athletic in all spots
QB- Avent III returns for senior year looks to keep dual threat working

Defense- Losing 7 seniors off the defense but this hasn't seemed to be a problem over the past 4 years the Tigers just seem to reload on that side of the ball excellent technique and coaching from Avent and his staff.
DL- (Lose 3 seniors) Only returner is Nick King who was very disruptive in every game except 1-AA Semifinals, losing the Defensive End who WRH Head Coach Joey Price praised for being unblockable
CB/S- (Lose 1 senior) The hardest hitter and fastest flower from this past seasons defensive squad played safety for the Tigers, returning 3 starters with experience
OLB- (Lose 1 senior) Kenan has had turnover here the past four years but keep on doing good things at the OLB position
LB- (Lose 2 Seniors) The Tigers lose part of the identity without Brooks and Mason anchoring the defense will turn to rising Juniors to fill spots

All in all James Kenan loses about 9-11 seniors that all played in some fashion maybe not every down but the senior class was small this year. They all played big rolls and there will be some big shoes to fill from the underclassman that rise up.

I think Kenan can win their conference and come away from this realignment with only one conference loss. Expect the Tigers to play in the third round at least.

 

[redy4friday]

Who knows for sure but I hear that Mitchell will not drop to 1a until after this sophomore graduates because the soph class is huge. The big question is this?? Why would the NCHSAA go to the trouble the split the classes and not go to the trouble to make a real playoff by the ADM numbers each year? Unreal that they think this is fair to kids.

 

[bareman]

IMO the playoff games this year (up to title games) were good....with exception of about 3 games, we saw mismatches (championships)...and had 2 games that were running clocks....not sure you can fix this problem....4AA needs to be adjusted somehow....Charlotte area is only going to get stronger year/year.....1A ranks will eventually be taken over by charters, preps forcing more and more up to 2A...it's slowly doing it now

 

[gal durnit]

Im just a little slow but why can't they simply adjust the playoffs according to ADM's every year while still maintaining conference integrity? If you have 2A numbers, play in 2A playoffs regardless of their conference. This would only effect a handful of teams.

 

[mactazheels]

Galdurnit..... That would not work since how you fix the seeding and placement in 2A Bracket. I understand that some schools grow quickly within 4 years (realignment years) and it may seems unfair. Right now we have to use what we got. ADM is for A/AA thing and also to see where they will be at during realignment year. It is far from being best playoff system we have but we live in NC. I am sure some state's are worse than us and other state's playoff are far better than us

 

[gal durnit]

I still don't understand how it wouldn't work. So you have 2a numbers and you play in a 1a conference. You play in the 2a playoffs. Take the top two maybe 3 seeds from each conference and have a competitive playoff. I am just having a hard time with how it can be so complicated. Why could a team that is 1a one year move up to 1aa the next with ease and a 1aa team that has 2a numbers not be able to move to 2a strictly for playoffs with ease?

 

[LabaR]

There will always be teams that benefit and/or lose in any system we come up with, and they will always be able to say "Well if it was done this way....".

IMO, a system that seeds teams based on a ranking system (like college) would possibly be an option. If teams were seeded in 1A, 1AA, 2A, 2AA, etc... every year for playoffs (based on ADMs) then seeding them in a bracket based on a ranking system (not placement in conference) would fix some problems.

 

[Mitchaneers1]

Mitchell will return about 6 starters on offense and about 5 starters on defense so the cupboard will not be completely bare, but there will be some rebuilding to do. One of the brightest spots is we will return a 2500 yard passer that will be a junior with 2 full years of varsity starts under his belt, but he will have to step up and probably be a 1000 yard rusher for us next season, which he is capable of, but just didn't have to run much with the 5 running back rotation this season. It will be tough to replace 1000 yard receiver Tre Carson, but the next 3 highest gainers in receiving will return next year. We will have to replace about half the line, but do return some very good ones in Self, Sparks, and Mckinney. Maybe the biggest issue will be replacing the 5 senior running backs, no other backs received meaningful carries this year so whoever takes handoffs next year will be someone without a lot of varsity experience, but I know of several guys that will do just fine running it if the line can just be half as good as this year. You never know though it's still early and half the team may quit or we may have new athletes lining up to play after the championship run this year, it is high school kids so who knows, but I'm already ready for football season again.

 

[NCTheOne]

Congrats to WRH and Plymouth......as for next year the Bears return almost everyone on both sides......won 8 games with a load of Jrs and Sophs....will return one of the better kickers in the state.....East Surry lost 19 seniors so some adjustment there along with Walkertown who lost 15 seniors....thoughts from others??

Hey bareman

For mount airy, how does having Jackson at QB, Sean evans at fullback, frost at tailback, with Ian and Donovan at WR sound? Is coach holder looking at this at this as the combo to go with (including several talented subs)?

Excited to see how the Bears grow between now and next year. If they come to work, should be good the next couple years

 

[Mbulldog42]

Much has been said about the upcoming year for the Murphy Bulldogs. They should be outstanding but all that depends on performance matching what's on paper. Offensively they have a lot of young talent returning Curry at qb is certainly a weapon however less depth at qb is a small concern. The backfield will have tons of depth. Certainly #34 with a 2 years of varsity experience should continue to improve #40 continues to grow at fb and #42 showed a lot of promise late in the year also #32 can contribute this upcoming season. The receiving Corp lost the most starters but I believe #21,#25 and the return of Ian Davis can fill those needs.
The o-line has a lot of talent with Stafford, Dietz. Powell and Newton all returning with a few younger guys pushing for playing time.
Defensively the biggest roles to fill will be at the lb Corp but with the athletes available it's really hard to speculate who goes where. #54, 35, 32 42,and Luke Newton(can't remember his #) should be competing for spots. D-Line should be solid with a lot of the above mentioned O-line contributing along with young guys like Rayburn and Shope.
Secondary should be good with #21,25,24 and Ian Davis making Key contributions. Kicking game needs to improve but can't offer much info on that. Should be a good year

 

[mbdfan]

The receiving Corp lost the most starters but I believe #21,#25 and the return of Ian Davis can fill those needs.

Secondary should be good with #21,25,24 and Ian Davis making Key contributions. Kicking game needs to improve but can't offer much info on that.

The secondary and receiving corp will be even better if De'Andre Jackson plays next year and he might.

Coach Gentry really wants Jackson on the team, and there's a real good chance he starts at corner if he plays (as long as he puts in the work).

 

[davisdorm]

Northwest 1-A will still be decided when East Surry visits Mt. Airy in the last game of the regular season !!!!!!!!

 

[Sportsnut17]

Northwest 1-A will still be decided when East Surry visits Mt. Airy in the last game of the regular season !!!!!!!!

Did Walkertown graduate a lot?

 

[mbdfan]

Did Walkertown graduate a lot?

I believe so

 

[sbbbfan]

Did Walkertown graduate a lot?

Walkertown had 17 seniors

 

[BK13T-$]

Rville will be fine on O. We only return one WR, so that may be a problem on offensive. We lost two Offensive lineman. Qb will be the biggest hole to fill. RBs will be very good again with alot of experience returning. Also Tank Rattler will be able to play this year. He could be very good.
On D we loss one lineman and all but one defensive back.
Kicking game should be much better.

 

[dogtuff]

Murphy has the most potential since 2010, remember this name K.J. Allen.

 

[BK13T-$]

Thats about the time Murphy went small. Hmm.

 

[Mbulldog42]

Love to see KJ run. If he hits a growth spurt watch out. Excited about the next year should be a good one. A few 8th graders with a lot of potential too. A rumor I have heard is interesting also