Looking at 2017 .....

[bareman]

several teams return a lot; Murphy in SMC...MA & ES in NW....Polk Co in WHC...MIC out of SPC...WM & North Rowan in YVC...feel free to add teams & im sure there's a sleeper somewhere....Tarboro & Holmes in the East with the big bad wolf WRH gone to 2A

 

[BulldogsFollower]

It will be good to have North Rowan back into the YVC. Not for Albemarle yet. What Conference will East Montgomery be in ?

 

[FridayNiteLights1217]

What is Mount Airy's Conference Schedule ? Conference and non-conference top to bottom.Will East Surry be the last game of the season.

 

[bareman]

yes on last game....will post new schedule hopefully in next 2 weeks

 

[FridayNiteLights1217]

yes on last game....will post new schedule hopefully in next 2 weeks

Yes if they are both undefeated going into that last game as the have been on several occasions ,that is a good gate game as is North Surry & maybe Surry Central . I have not made it to but 2 or 3 games sense I left the newspaper. What are the best gates now.

 

[mbdfan]

Murphy returns 8 starters on defense and 7 on offense. As good as they were this season, will be even better in 2017 on paper.

Will have to replace free safety, strong safety and a tackle on defense. On offense a wide receiver, left tackle, left guard and right tackle. The biggest holes to fill will be tackle and free safety on defense imo.

Mitchell returns a lot of starters as well from what I understand.

 

[mbdfan]

top teams out east: Tarboro, Edenton Holmes, East Bladen, Plymouth, East Carteret

top teams out west: Murphy, West Montgomery, North Rowan, Mount Airy, Mitchell

sleepers: Mountain Island Charter (graduated a lot, depends on transfers)

 

[davisdorm]

Good indication early is East Wilkes playing East Surry in the opener! And Mount Airy and East Surry do meet in the last game of the regular season in Pilot Mountain.

 

[bareman]

was not thinking too well in my initial post; totally forgot about Mitchell (QB will be a senior) & EW...looked at Swains roster earlier in the week, they had a lot of juniors...don't see them with another sub .500 season

 

[Thunder_struck8712]

East Wilkes and Swain both will be senior heavy and will both be poised for good seasons.

 

[allabouthebiz20]

East bladen going to 1A

 

[AHVikingNation]

top teams out east: Tarboro, Edenton Holmes, East Bladen, Plymouth, East Carteret

top teams out west: Murphy, West Montgomery, North Rowan, Mount Airy, Mitchell

sleepers: Mountain Island Charter (graduated a lot, depends on transfers)

Don't leave out Polk too. I think with them coming down to 1A next year they will get back as one of the top dogs in 1A.

 

[wormyone42]

Mitchell returns 9 starters on offense and 8 on defense. 6 all conference players

 

[Bearcat67]

good chance Wallace Rose Hill will be playing for the 2-A championship as they have almost everyone back. The winner of the Edenton-Tarboro game will be the 1-AA state champ & may start a trend until the next realignment.

 

[Ladge]

East Montgomery moves up to 2A to the Rocky River. They move in along with Anson County as Parkwood and Monroe move up to 3A. Rocky River now will be Anson, CATA, East Montgomery, Forest Hills, Mt. Pleasant, and West Stanly.

 

[Smoking Gunz]

top teams out east: Tarboro, Edenton Holmes, East Bladen, Plymouth, East Carteret

top teams out west: Murphy, West Montgomery, North Rowan, Mount Airy, Mitchell

sleepers: Mountain Island Charter (graduated a lot, depends on transfers)

Out East: Tarboro will be the team to beat here. Plymouth and East Carteret could be contenders.

West: It will come down to Murphy or Mitchell again. I'm giving Murphy the championship again. Thomas Jefferson and Mountain Island Charter could make it interested but won't get over the hump yet. Mountain Island Charter won't have transfers the school has filled up. While they lose a lot they have some talent that wasn't showcased this year because they didn't need to. They still will have a very fast team. Watch out for #21, #5, #16 and #6 these boys can fly.

 

[Slasher Killer]

East Wilkes will be much better than this year. They were younger and finding their oats during this season. They have some talent returning and their JV's have went undefeated the last two years so they are expected to do things in Ronda. Their non conference slate should be much harder with East Surry getting added. Sure they will keep SC as well so the other two games could be interesting. As long as Adkins stays there they will contend.

Walkertown's going to be gone which hurts the Northwest and 1AA but South Stokes will be coming down.

South will contend much better in the Northwest than the WPAC where they were cannon fodder for 4 years. They have had 2 solid JV classes the last couple of years and a really good JV defense last year so I expect them to do better on the 1A level. Granted JV ball's different but South will have more talent. Coach Hall's done a good job there. Still expect MA and East to dominate the Northwest but it won't be such a 2 way conference hopefully.

WS Prep's a team to watch too. They started off rough this year before getting hot late and playing East and Walkertown tough; they were less than TD's from a split of the conference if they beat those two teams and East still pulled off that upset. Don't know what their internal situation is but if they keep going and growing the program they could contend in the NW too. They gotta get a JV program going again though.

 

[bareman]

WS Prep had 27 on varsity if I counted correctly...no JV....14 seniors....unless something happens I don't see Prep making it thru this realignment with football....they may pull a NST

 

[Slasher Killer]

What I don't understand is why they had such a dropoff in one year. Must be something going on inside there. They had a decent run on JV last year then they couldn't even field a team the next year. Never seen anything like it..

 

[davisdorm]

The answer is open enrollment! They do not have a consistent enrollment and can not build a program with their low numbers. Plus you must figure in the attraction of the neighboring schools. My guess would be that the new head coach at Carver will have somewhat of an impact on football at Winston Salem Prep. Also getting asst. football coaches on the faculty is always a problem. Open enrollment in the large urban school systems is similar to charters. Both have no boundaries so student/athletes move in and out!
Look at the Prep women's basketball team! Talk about inconsistency! From state champ to getting beaten by 56 to 7 wow

 

[bareman]

I remember the JV team of a year ago; looked like pop warner with all the non faculty coaches they had on their sideline

 

[Thunder_struck8712]

Hard to build a program with non faculty coaches. There needs to be someone at school to push and motivate the kids to play as well as keep tabs on them. I feel there are too many non-faculty coaches in places these days. I know it's hard to find coaches for certain sports but still.

 

[BK13T-$]

Robbinsville will have the more seniors this yr than the previous 7 yrs.

 

[thsvikes]

Tarboro returns everyone on offense, and loses only 2 on defense. Tarboro's JV went undefeated and none of their games were close at all. Tarboro will be tested first game of the year as powerhouse Plymouth comes to Tarboro to kickoff 2017 season. Edenton/East Carteret will be very good as well as a lot of other teams. 2017 will be wide open.

 

[BK13T-$]

Robbinsville returns 7 on offense and I think 7 on defense.

I think we only had 6 seniors on this yrs team.

 

[Realfreedom]

East Wilkes will be much better than this year. They were younger and finding their oats during this season. They have some talent returning and their JV's have went undefeated the last two years so they are expected to do things in Ronda. Their non conference slate should be much harder with East Surry getting added. Sure they will keep SC as well so the other two games could be interesting. As long as Adkins stays there they will contend.

Glad to see East Wilkes and East Surry back on the field again this year. This East Wilkes team is loaded and should contend. The last two years in JV the only team on their level was Wilkes Central and East still had kids playing on Varsity that could have been on JV. To truly reach their potential they need another off season of hard work in the weight room. QB and skilled positions are stacked. There is a lot of talent on the line, but they need to continue to get stronger.

 

[davisdorm]

Sounds like we are going to a have "good one". The JV football teams at East Surry have lost only one game in the last 4 seasons. And that one was this year against Mt. Airy in overtime! We started 3 freshmen on defense in our second round playoff game.
However, after our game The Cardinals will be happy!! LOL
Have a Merry Christmas ! From the RED and WHITE to the RED and WHITE!!!

 

[ESODcards]

East Wilkes v. East Surry should be a good test early both programs are expecting great year from what I can tell the main thing to watch for in this one will be East Surry's Defense returning 10 starters and the best 2 secondary players on the team didn't play in the big win at MA last year this team will be ready to go on the Defensinve side of the ball while on offense basically all skill players are back losing 2 big O-linemen are the only thing I see slowing them down at all this year

 

[ESODcards]

East Wilkes v. East Surry should be a good test early both programs are expecting great year from what I can tell the main thing to watch for in this one will be East Surry's Defense returning 10 starters and the best 2 secondary players on the team didn't play in the big win at MA last year this team will be ready to go on the Defensinve side of the ball while on offense basically all skill players are back losing 2 big O-linemen are the only thing I see slowing them down at all this year

East Surry picked up 4a Ragsdale as well for strength of schedule honestly I see that being their toughest game of the year until state playoffs MA is returning a good amount of skill players but seems to suffer in the trenches and will lack leadership at the QB position I know it's early but I look for East to take that one by a surprisingly high margin

 

[ESOD]

The guys are highly motivated and have something to prove. After talking to some of the rising seniors they are ready to make 2017 a season to remember for a long time. Hard work between now and August will pay off greatly.

 

[bareman]

1A west will be tough in '17.....

 

[ESODcards]

The guys are highly motivated and have something to prove. After talking to some of the rising seniors they are ready to make 2017 a season to remember for a long time. Hard work between now and August will pay off greatly.

Have you seen the kids?? I saw some of them going into eat the other night and they were BIG I'd say that they have put on a solid 10-15 lbs since the end of this past season hard work in the weight room paying off big time for these young men

 

[ESOD]

They've been living in the weight room. Already getting a chip on their shoulders for football season. I'll have the popcorn ready, gonna sit back and watch the show and enjoy!!

Go Big Red!!!

 

[dogtuff]

They've been living in the weight room. Already getting a chip on their shoulders for football season. I'll have the popcorn ready, gonna sit back and watch the show and enjoy!!

Go Big Red!!!

That's what it takes , we had that hunger last season.

 

[Slasher Killer]

Has East or Mount Airy finalized their schedules yet?

 

[AHVikingNation]

top teams out east: Tarboro, Edenton Holmes, East Bladen, Plymouth, East Carteret

top teams out west: Murphy, West Montgomery, North Rowan, Mount Airy, Mitchell

sleepers: Mountain Island Charter (graduated a lot, depends on transfers)

I think Polk County might be a sleeper too.

 

[gurnade]

Viking vs Viking showdown week one may be one of the best games of the year in 1-A! I wish it was being played week 4 or 5 instead of leading the season off, but so glad these two old conference rivals are renewing this series. I'm old so I'm talking about the 3-A days when they were in the same conference as Williamston, Washington, Bertie, Ahoskie, Roanoke Rapids. Both could represent the East come December in 1-A & 1-AA. Edenton will not make it easy on Tarboro, and if Southside can find a few athletes they will give Plymouth their best again. Give Manteo a year or two under Sport Sawyer and the Redskins will be in the mix. Expect Murphy to be the team to beat from the West in 1-A with Robbinsville making a push to return to the top of the SMC. I don't know what it is, but I've got a funny feeling about Cherokee. Not saying the Braves will make a deep run, but will not be surprised if they do. 1-AA West isn't my strong suit, but West Montgomery has plenty left and if the right coach can connect with those kids quickly, the Warriors could return to the Championship. WSP & MICS are wild cards. I don't want to get started on train again. I'll just be glad when they strap it up again and start slapping leather.

 

[davisdorm]

West Montgomery should remain the favorite. But remember North Rowan will now be 1 AA. They have a ton of athletes! And Mitchell, East Wilkes, Mount Airy, Swain, and East Surry should be pretty dare good. Winston Salem Prep has just hired a new head football coach.

 

[bareman]

talking big in paper I see from new coach" gonna beat MA, gonna beat ES" .....hope they have enough to make a team...hear enrollment going down

 

[Kevin2346]

Im sure they will recruit enough, only a matter of time....