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Thoughts on 1A football in NC

Doppleganger#

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Jul 4, 2003
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Don't seem to be alot of great teams in 1A

Great teams
East Surry
Tarboro
MT Airy
Robbinsville
Murphy
Edenton Holmes (I am not sure about in 2020
Mitchell ( I am not sure about in 2020

Teams on the Rise
Thomas Jefferson
Mountain Island Charter
Elkin

Teams that have been down since 2014
Starmount
Swain

Who could be the small 1A team in the East to watch?

Any other thoughts?
 
Will this could be said for all divisions. There is not necessary a lot of great teams that have the chance to win titles any of of the 4 divisions. No doubt in a lot of years 1a is not that deep. The other divisions have more ok to good teams but at the end of the day the same teams win titles.
 
Will this could be said for all divisions. There is not necessary a lot of great teams that have the chance to win titles any of of the 4 divisions. No doubt in a lot of years 1a is not that deep. The other divisions have more ok to good teams but at the end of the day the same teams win titles.
This
 
While I dont think Mitchell will be bad, they will be down in 2020 compared to the past few seasons. Missing out on this summer will set them back, (as it will with most) but not having the time to get a new qb and receivers on the same page will hurt.

IF everyone stays healthy and continues to play 2021-22 Mitchell could be back for another deep playoff run.

Go Mountaineers
 
Probably wouldn't put Elkin on the rise. They're going to be solid this year if not the top dog in the MVAC, but they are going to fall into a deep dark hole again after this year I'd say.
 
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Don't seem to be alot of great teams in 1A

Great teams
East Surry
Tarboro
MT Airy
Robbinsville
Murphy
Edenton Holmes (I am not sure about in 2020
Mitchell ( I am not sure about in 2020

Teams on the Rise
Thomas Jefferson
Mountain Island Charter
Elkin

Teams that have been down since 2014
Starmount
Swain

Who could be the small 1A team in the East to watch?

Any other thoughts?
Edenton graduated a lot but I still think they will be a contender. As for Tarboro we lose a lot on defense but offensively we return a lot from last year I think it will be us and edenton again. As for east Surry I feel they will still be the favorite out of the west but watch out for Mount airy and MIC.
 
Mountian Island isn’t a sleeper pick, they’re going to be in the mix, they’ll be very strong.
 
I think East Surry is the favorite out of the west again, with MIC being close right behind them. Murphy could also make a push as well. East loses a lot on offense, but they had some really good athletes and players standing on the sideline that just didn’t get the opportunities for obvious reasons.

I don’t know about Mount Airy. They get their 2018 QB back if he can stay healthy, so everyone will get to see how good he actually is without the Greene brothers. They lose their workhorse running back & he won’t be replaced. They rode him until they could not ride him any longer. I don’t know that the MA players and community have bought into their new coach completely either, which doesn’t help.
 
Ma is going to be very interesting this year. Line play will be solid, question marks in the backfield. Cameron Moore should get the go at Running Back, needs snaps , comes from a great lineage of Bear Backs in his dad and grandfather. Just so happens that he drew the unlucky straw in playing behind Smith last few years. Looked good in the limited times he seen the field last year. He should be running it behind Nathan Nance at full back . They look good on paper but alot of unknowns in the bear backfield. With Poindexter back stroup will move out wide with josh penn to make a couple of real good targets. Penn will be very big out there , he was 6-1 and 190 lbs as a 15 year old last year, i imagine he has grown a bit since last year. stroup is a ball player, a gamer, i feel like he can line up about anywhere and be succesful. with another year under his belt he should be pretty dog gone good. Defense is gonna be very good. Lot of down stream talent for the bears the next few years should be very good ones. Should be interesting to see what moves up and stays down from the jv team, most talent down there since the wheeler / dobson days. Should be a two Horse race in the nw1a with east and Ma with prep right there behind . Whats really gonna be interesting is how pre season prep has gone amid the virus and if the nchsaa flips seasons. Ive heard alot of talk of switching baseball/ softball with football this year, anyone else hearing any of this?
 
The poster who questioned the MA community “buying into the new coach”, I was told MA just spent $70,000 on their weight room! Somebody “bought in”! If the grandfather and Dad are Joe Ray Moore and Anthony Moore- watch out !!!!!!! Both of Prep’s defensive ends are D-1 players, one a CLEMSON commit. East Surry should give the ball to Gosnell 30 times a game!!
My opinion: both East Surry and Mount Airy will be as good as anybody in the West!!!
 
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Davisdorm i agree with 100 percent of your post, Cameron is Anthony's son. He finally gets his shot to carry the rock this year. Just a matter of time with prep, they went out last year with a bang in Murphy, that should be a ton of confidence for them heading into the season. Have to admit that i was a lotta jealous of the cards last year but now that we are in a new season i have to admit that was probably the best offensive 1a football team i've ever seen.
 
The poster who questioned the MA community “buying into the new coach”, I was told MA just spent $70,000 on their weight room! Somebody “bought in”! If the grandfather and Dad are Joe Ray Moore and Anthony Moore- watch out !!!!!!! Both of Prep’s defensive ends are D-1 players, one a CLEMSON commit. East Surry should give the ball to Gosnell 30 times a game!!
My opinion: both East Surry and Mount Airy will be as good as anybody in the West!!!

That weightroom was part of the success for JK at East Wilkes.
 
I think East Surry is the favorite out of the west again, with MIC being close right behind them. Murphy could also make a push as well. East loses a lot on offense, but they had some really good athletes and players standing on the sideline that just didn’t get the opportunities for obvious reasons.

I don’t know about Mount Airy. They get their 2018 QB back if he can stay healthy, so everyone will get to see how good he actually is without the Greene brothers. They lose their workhorse running back & he won’t be replaced. They rode him until they could not ride him any longer. I don’t know that the MA players and community have bought into their new coach completely either, which doesn’t help.

Mt Airy will be fine if the Monday morning QBs will shut up and let JK do his job or if people will just tone the MMQBs out.
 
Andrews teaming up with Murphy in a few years could be a good thing at the 2A level.
 
First off if you listened to Superintendent at meeting last night. They estimate new Oaks Career path school will draw about 200 students with the early college about the same. That would put new high school with at it near where Murphy is now. Also there will be three separate schools on one campus with three different admin and athletic programs. As someone posted earlier success of athletic program will depend on community support and I fear consolidation will erode all existing community support. As far as naming school school colors and mascot I won’t be happy unless it is called MHS black and gold and Bulldogs but my happiness is not at play here If they have any chance at community support they should start with the first graduating class down to pre k and let each student have a vote with out any limitations current or new name mascot and colors after all we know how we old farts would like it but it’s going to be there school so let them decide
My favorite compromise is Red and Black and have two mascots like Auburn. Bulldogs and War dam eagles

Now that right there is what you call a perfect marriage boys

Sorry BK your nightmare continues

Andrews teaming up with Murphy in a few years could be a good thing at the 2A level.

We'll see. A lot more goes into a good program than just the sum of the athletes at the school. Washington County isn't as good as Plymouth was, and they didn't even move up a class. Smoky Mountain isn't near as good as Sylva-Webster was. Neither of the Martin County consolidated high schools has had the level of success Williamston and Roanoke did.
 
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IF Murphy and Andrews had a combined team this year they would be very hard to handle for just about anyone in 2A, let alone 1A.This is a special group in Andrews right now but it's not the norm either, they don't have group like this come through often. The last comparable group was back in 2011.

Of course a lot of that is just numbers, they have enough individual talent to be a good contributor to a consolidated football program every year, but like O&R said many times a consolidated school is not the sum of it's parts. Smoky just now 30 years later seems to be getting their football program on the right track.

Coaching and community support are huge factors, there are enough branches of the Gentry tree in this county to have a good coaching staff, but the communities will have to get behind the school, if the culture isn't there then it will be difficult.
 
I think East Surry is the favorite out of the west again, with MIC being close right behind them. Murphy could also make a push as well. East loses a lot on offense, but they had some really good athletes and players standing on the sideline that just didn’t get the opportunities for obvious reasons.

I don’t know about Mount Airy. They get their 2018 QB back if he can stay healthy, so everyone will get to see how good he actually is without the Greene brothers. They lose their workhorse running back & he won’t be replaced. They rode him until they could not ride him any longer. I don’t know that the MA players and community have bought into their new coach completely either, which doesn’t help.
If Poindexter stays healthy, he will be a candidate for NW1A player of the year. The Green's were great and had many long touchdowns with their run after the catch but watching some of his throws, Poindexter made it easy for them. He will make these receivers good too.
 
IF Murphy and Andrews had a combined team this year they would be very hard to handle for just about anyone in 2A, let alone 1A.This is a special group in Andrews right now but it's not the norm either, they don't have group like this come through often. The last comparable group was back in 2011.

Of course a lot of that is just numbers, they have enough individual talent to be a good contributor to a consolidated football program every year, but like O&R said many times a consolidated school is not the sum of it's parts. Smoky just now 30 years later seems to be getting their football program on the right track.

Coaching and community support are huge factors, there are enough branches of the Gentry tree in this county to have a good coaching staff, but the communities will have to get behind the school, if the culture isn't there then it will be difficult.
I always pull for smc, 2a football is a different level in terms of speed and passing game.
 
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I always pull for smc, 2a football is a different level in terms of speed and passing game.
3A sure, maybe even 2AA but small 2A isn't much different from 1AA other than depth, Reidsville is a juggernaut but comparable to what 1AA deals with in Tarboro and before that, Wallace Rose Hill. For over a decade now Mtn Heritage has near annually made deep runs in small 2A... recently Brevard has been making deep runs as well.

Generally speaking Murphy stacks up very well talent wise to a Mtn Heritage and I would say more often than not Murphy is more athletic. Murphy has had a couple of teams that would've went very far in small 2A in the last decade: 2010, 2014 before the injuries, 2016 and 2018. So add in a once in a decade type of talent from Andrews with what Murphy has coming back this year and if you don't think they would do serious damage in 2A this season then we are just going to have to agree to disagree. On paper I don't think there is a single team in small 2A that I wouldn't like their chances against this season with the exception of maybe Reidsville but even Reidsville, despite being a juggernaut, isn't unbeatable. Heritage and Brevard have given Reidsville all they could handle a few times in recent years.
 
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We'll see. A lot more goes into a good program than just the sum of the athletes at the school. Washington County isn't as good as Plymouth was, and they didn't even move up a class. Smoky Mountain isn't near as good as Sylva-Webster was. Neither of the Martin County consolidated high schools has had the level of success Williamston and Roanoke did.

Not having Cody as the coach is the issue at Washington County.
 
3A sure, maybe even 2AA but small 2A isn't much different from 1AA other than depth, Reidsville is a juggernaut but comparable to what 1AA deals with in Tarboro and before that, Wallace Rose Hill. For over a decade now Mtn Heritage has near annually made deep runs in small 2A... recently Brevard has been making deep runs as well.

Generally speaking Murphy stacks up very well talent wise to a Mtn Heritage and I would say more often than not Murphy is more athletic. Murphy has had a couple of teams that would've went very far in small 2A in the last decade: 2010, 2014 before the injuries, 2016 and 2018. So add in a once in a decade type of talent from Andrews with what Murphy has coming back this year and if you don't think they would do serious damage in 2A this season then we are just going to have to agree to disagree. On paper I don't think there is a single team in small 2A that I wouldn't like their chances against this season with the exception of maybe Reidsville but even Reidsville, despite being a juggernaut, isn't unbeatable. Heritage and Brevard have given Reidsville all they could handle a few times in recent years.

they’re not more athletic than heritage.
 
they’re not more athletic than heritage.
Maybe not the last year Murphy played Mitchell (I'm not sure) but I said more often than not, not every year. The Mitchell people I talked to when ya'll came here in 2016 said Murphy definitely were that year and they were saying similar things when Murphy and Mitchell played each other for a couple years in the regular season when Mitchell was 2A. I still remember the year you lost to Lincolnton in the 2A playoffs, your people were saying Murphy was the fastest team you had seen all season up until you played Lincolnton.

I've seen Heritage play before a couple times and most years they definitely don't have the speed Murphy does. The skill athleticism has been down some at Murphy recently though and I'm not sure it will ever be what it use to be. Murphy has always had some tremendous skill players over the years but looking at what was on JV last year and what's going to be on JV again this year... I'm hoping it's just a down period but when the years start stacking it goes from a blip to possibly trend.

Anyway this athleticism talk is beside the point. My point was that talent wise Murphy and Mtn Heritage have been pretty comparable over the last decade. And more specifically to my point, to not think a Murphy group that returns 15 starters supplemented by a once in a decade class out of Andrews wouldn't be a real threat in 2A, I just can't agree at all.
 
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Honestly no team in the mtns has much speed except Reynolds and Asheville sometimes Erwin. The really good heritage teams have good team speed like 2009 and 2018. but overall I say Murphy has little more speed most seasons. And I agree Murphy will do good in 2a it depends who that get for coach.
 
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We'll see. A lot more goes into a good program than just the sum of the athletes at the school. Washington County isn't as good as Plymouth was, and they didn't even move up a class. Smoky Mountain isn't near as good as Sylva-Webster was. Neither of the Martin County consolidated high schools has had the level of success Williamston and Roanoke did.

I teach and coach at Washington County now, but Martin County is my home. Washington County hired Coach Hunt around the end of June, because they kept procrastinating. When Coach Hunt came in a lot of the players were on the road playing AAU basketball because majority of them wanted to play for Coach Cody. Riverside on the other hand could have went far in the playoffs if they were still in small 1A, because they were giving small 1a teams here in the east trouble passing the ball. For example, majority of the kids that came from Jamesville dont even play football at riverside or they go to Bear Grass Charter to play baseball, most of the kids are from Williamston.
 
I teach and coach at Washington County now, but Martin County is my home. Washington County hired Coach Hunt around the end of June, because they kept procrastinating. When Coach Hunt came in a lot of the players were on the road playing AAU basketball because majority of them wanted to play for Coach Cody. Riverside on the other hand could have went far in the playoffs if they were still in small 1A, because they were giving small 1a teams here in the east trouble passing the ball. For example, majority of the kids that came from Jamesville dont even play football at riverside or they go to Bear Grass Charter to play baseball, most of the kids are from Williamston.

I appreciate the insight, and didn't mean any disrespect. What I was just getting at is that things come up when consolidation happens, so Murphy fans can't necessarily expect their new consolidated school to be the level of the Murphy program plus 400 more students. Murphy's coach has already said he'll be out of the game before consolidation, so will the new hire go smoothly and be the right one? And like you pointed out, some kids might not go to the new consolidated school.
 
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