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A preview of local teams

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Page 1: 2011 Football Preview

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Page 2: 2011 Football Preview

MARK MATHEWS

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS WRITER

CROWELLS CROSS-ROADS — The SoutheastHalifax Trojans never gotuntracked in 2010, win-ning only once in 10 tries.Head coach Larry Ed-wards expects better re-sults this season.

“I can’t promise thenumber of wins we’llhave,” Edwards said. “Butthere is no question we area much improved team.We’ll go into every gameexpecting to win.”

Edwards said his squadhad its best offseasonsince he has been at South-east Halifax, going fromeight or nine playersshowing up for workoutsthe previous year, to 23 to25 this year.

“They took it on them-selves to get better,” Ed-wards said. “And thatstarted right after footballseason ended last year.”

Defensively, the Trojanswere fine for the most partin 2010, but a struggling of-

fense (11.6 ppg.) put the de-fense in bad situationsthey couldn’t overcome.An improved offense willhelp.

The Trojans (1-0) willcome at opponents frommultiple offensive sets.Edwards said the teamwill use an offset-I, Wing Tand other sets to take bet-ter advantage of theirskill.

The 2010 revolving doorat quarterback seems tobe solved, and Edwardslikes what he sees from his

running backs.“We didn’t have leader-

ship from the quarterbackposition last year,” Ed-wards said. “J’maiz Pow-ell has grown a lot anddone a good job of being aleader.”

The senior signal calleralso has some talent be-hind him at the runningback position to relievesome pressure, somethingEdwards said the Trojansdidn’t have for most of2010.

“I have a better under-

standing of what we aredoing this year,” Powellsaid. “I’m more comfort-able.”

Wilmonte Hendrick wasthe team’s best back frommidseason on last year,gaining the most yardsfrom the fullback posi-tion.

Deon White and Ra-keem Jones will also be inthe backfield mix forSoutheast.

A new face Trojan fanscan look forward to seek-ing for the next four yearsis freshman running backJarquez McDaniel.

Senior Diavonta Browngives Edwards a versatileathlete to plug into themix, and a strong returnman on special teams.Jones will also figure in

the kick return duties.Powell has a talented

target in receiver Demon-dre Caudle. Edwards saidthe 6 feet, 3 inch senior hasshown great hands andsolid footwork throughoutthe summer.

Forest Bailey movesfrom center to tight end,giving the Trojans a widebody for the runninggame, and a good posses-sion receiver according toEdwards.

Should the offense showthe improvement expect-ed by Edwards, the de-fense may get a chance toshine.

“Rodney McGuire hasreally stood out this sum-mer,” Edwards said of hissenior cornerback. “Cau-dle is another “White

(MLB) and Jones (LB)have also looked reallygood.”

The Trojans will findout about themselves ear-ly, playing up in classifica-tion in three of their fournon-conference games,Hertford County (3A),Granville Central (2A)and Currituck (3A).

In their first game of theseason, Southeast Halifaxfound out that they canplay with the big boys, de-feating rival NorthwestHalifax 18-16, winning theannual ‘King of the Coun-ty’ game.

The Trojans ended a six-year winning streak bythe Vikings. Itwas also thefirst time the Tojans havewon their season openersince 2009.

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

AURELIAN SPRINGS— Expectations are highat Northwest Halifax thisfall.

The Vikings are return-ing 18 starters from lastyear and have had a greatoffseason in the weightroom.

Entering Andre Stew-art’s fifth year at the helm,outsiders and the Vikingsplayers alike are expect-ing a big season.

When asked just howgood they expect to be thisseason, senior L.J. White-head shows just how highthe ceiling is.

“Tarboro good,” he an-swered without hesita-tion.

As in, two-time defend-ing state champion Tar-boro. The same Tarboroteam that has lost onegame in two years.

“A championship team,”Whitehead said. “We lostfour seniors, and if we canreplace them, with all theexperience we have, wecan go.”

That’s brash talk for ateam that had a losing sea-son in 2010 (5-7) and onlywon one conference game.But with all the playerscoming back, Stewart wel-comes the challenge.

“We don’t shy away from

the expectations,” Stew-art said. “We expect to begood. We expect to winfootball games and find away to get it done.”

Whitehead said hisbiggest concern was histeammates “getting bigheaded” with all the hype.As a senior, his job hasbeen to keep his team-mates grounded.

Stewart has a differentapproach.

“We are looking at oneday at a time, one game ata time, one practice at atime,” the coach ex-plained. “Plus I beat onthem a little bit in prac-tice, conditioning andthings like that to breakthem down and buildthem up stronger mental-ly. I’m trying to get them tothat point right now. Weare just going to take itone step at a time.”

Northwest Halifax end-ed the season on a five-game losing streak, in-cluding a 61-18 playoff lossto East Duplin, and beforethat a 42-0 shutout loss torival Roanoke Rapids.

At this point, theVikings are just ready toget back on the field andget that bad taste out oftheir mouths.

“I’ve been waiting forthis,” Whitehead said.“We started liftingweights earlier to do whatwe have to do when we getback on the field.”

One of the biggest prob-lems Northwest Halifaxhas had in recent years isstarting strong, but fiz-zling down the stretch. In2010 the Vikings startedthe season 5-2 and lookedlike the team to beat.

After they defeated War-ren County on Oct. 1, there

only league win, they fellapart.

“We need to understandwe need to get better as weprogress and get better atthe end of the season,”Stewart said. “I think thisyear we have the capabili-ty to be at home in theplayoffs. That’s one of mygoals is to play at homeand have a high seed.”

That won’t be easy in theNorthern Carolina Con-ference. Bunn and NorthJohnston are alwaystough, and the two-timedefending league champi-ons, Roanoke Rapids, liveright in the Vikings back-yard.

Franklinton is expectedto be much improved

from a year ago and havebeen picked by some pub-lications as the No. 3 teamin the Northern CarolinaConference standings.

“It’s not going to beeasy,” Stewart said. “Butwe can put ourselves inthe right position to get itdone.”

The Vikings hopes forthe season were side-tracked when they fell torival Southeast Halifax int he season opener lastweek 18-16 in the ‘King ofthe County’ game. Still,that doesn’t change whatNorthwest Halifax hopesto accomplish.

“All of our goals are stillin front of us,” Stewartsaid.

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Trojans expect a bounce-back year

2011 Southeast Halifax Trojans

2011 Northwest Halifax Vikings

What can we expect in Viking land?5 questions about the Vikings

WITH L.J. WHITEHEAD

Senior RB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Me

2.) Who is thestrongest?Nigel Lee

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Tank Head’,Ser-maja Lynch

4.) Who is thefunniest?Marcell Cain

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Stewart

5 questions about the Trojans

WITH J’MAIZ POWELL

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Demondre Caudle

2.) Who is thestrongest?Wilmonte Hendrick

3.) Who has thebest nickname?

‘B.H.’- DerrickTillery

4.) Who is thefunniest?Diavonta Brown

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Larry Edwards

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Vikings take the fieldagainst Southeast HalifaxSaturday.

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Trojans defense swarm a Northwest Halifax ball carrier Saturday.

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Page 3: 2011 Football Preview

MARK MATHEWS

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS WRITER

The Roanoke Rapidsfootball program is com-ing off back-to back con-ference championshipsfor the first time in schoolhistory. Head coach Rus-sell Weinstein said thisyear’s team can’t rest onrecent success, but willhave to carve its own iden-tity.

The biggest change willcome at the quarterbackposition with the gradua-tion of four-year starterJustin Rawles, who wastwo-time Northern Car-olina 2-A ConferencePlayer of the Year. JuniorJackie Caudle will be tak-ing the snaps for the Yel-low Jackets this fall.

Last year’s jayvee quar-terback has been workinghard and could be helpedout by four-year starterA.J. Alston, who Wein-stein said will be fine ifcoaches put him in atquarterback.

Roanoke Rapids will al-so have to replace 1,000-yard running back TyrellEverette, a three-yearstarter for the Jackets.Weinstein said seniorsMatt Wood and ByronMaye will handle the du-ties.

The 250-pound Woodrushed for 127 yards andthree scores in limited ac-tion last year. Maye is a

newcomer to the position,still learning the runningback duties.

Weinstein likened theduo to a thunder (Wood)and lightning (Maye)combination.

The graduation of four-year starter D.J. Eppersonand an injury to StephenVasser took a big chunk ofproduction at the receiverposition. Alston hauled in35 catches for nearly 500yards last season and isthe most experienced tar-get.

Clay Lockamon was astarter last season, butwill move to Epperson’sslot position. Grey Jones,Steven Bradford, BrycePearson, Josh Lewis, JoshBrown and Wesley Heightround out the receivingcorp.

“The spread takes a lotof timing,” Weinsteinsaid. “We’ve been moving

as fast as it takes for theyoungsters to comealong.”

Pre-season All-state se-lection J.J. Patterson re-turns at left tackle on theoffensive line. The four-star prospect has alreadycommitted to the Univer-sity of North Carolina,giving the Yellow Jacketsa strong building block,but four starters will benew.

Tony Marshall, ReidBolt, Steve Gillfillan andColby Short bring size tothe offensive front but lit-tle experience. Tight endShelton Bennefield is an-other lineman when he is-n’t a passing target.

The defense will also seemany new faces this sea-son, and a tweak in philos-ophy.

“We’ve basically been ina 4-3 look,” Weinsteinsaid. “But we’ll show

more 3-4, be more hybridand multiple to shore up acouple of areas from lastyear.”

Weinstein said the of-fense scoring so manypoints in 2010 allowed thedefense to pin its earsback and attack oppo-nents.

Patterson and Ben-nefield are returningstarters on the defensivefront, an area that couldbe the strength of the de-fense.

The linebacking corpwill be completely new.Wood, Abel Hernandez,Sam Atkins, Matt Hun-sucker, Cole Phelps andPhillip Harris are in themix. Wood has some expe-rience with 29 tackles lastseason.

Steven Bradford movesfrom linebacker to strongsafety, a position that is attimes like another line-backer in the Yellow Jack-ets scheme, a spot Wein-stein said is the most im-

portant on the defense.His 93 tackles last year istops for returning play-ers.

“The change has gonefairly smooth,” Bradfordsaid. “In a lot of ways ithasn’t changed a lot.”

Free safety A.J. Alstonled the Jackets with sixpicks in 2010. Maye, Cau-dle, Lockamon and Lewiswill also see action in thesecondary.

The kicking positionhas been in solid handssince Jud Dunlevy cameon the scene in 1999. De-spite the loss of an all-con-ference leg in OwenBridges, the RoanokeRapids kicking gameshould be strong againthis fall.

Taylor Archer connect-ed on all 13 of his extrapoint attempts last sea-son, though punting willbe a new experience forArcher on the varsity lev-el. Long-snapper JordanHargrove is also back for

the Yellow Jackets.Alston, Maye, Lewis

and Brown will handlekick and punt return du-ties. Though Weinsteintold this year’s group theywould have to carve itsown niche, he said thegoal is always a confer-ence championship be-cause it assures a playoffspot.

2011 Roanoke Rapids Yellow Jackets

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2011Yellow Jackets charting their own course

2011 KIPP Pride Panthers

STEPHEN HEMELT

THE DAILY HERALD

GASTON — To say vet-eran Roanoke Valley foot-ball coach Diego Hasty hasa challenge this season is abit of an understatement.

Hasty is in his first yearat KIPP Gaston CollegePreparatory, and said hewas only averaging 10players per practice aweek into the season.

However, it was the chal-lenge — or better put —the opportunity to buildsomething at KIPP that at-tracted him to the Pan-thers, who only won fourfootball games in the pasttwo season.

“I’m not being critical,”Hasty said in early Au-gust. “I don’t think (myplayers) know anythingabout summer workouts.They’ve had three or fourdifferent coaches in thelast four years. I’ve got tostart building a stablefoundation and get a littletradition going. The num-bers may pick up.”

Hasty said he needs toset a standard this year forhis players, and he expectsthose that return for 2012assume the responsibiltyfor the program’s contin-ued growth.

“It’s going to be an up-

hill battle,” he said. “We’renot going to see instantsuccess. The true test of aman is not whether youquit, but where you fightthe fight. Everybody canquit. Where we play iswhere we play, just beready to play.”

Hasty said he can coachall types of schemes on thefield and has no problemsadjusting his style to hisplayers’ strength, butKIPP’s philosophy on of-fense and defense will bebasic.

Kadarius Goode, a soph-omore, linebacker andtackle, said players are al-ready seeing a change,adding in August of 2010there was a lot more jok-ing around.

Goode said there is a dif-ferent mindset this sea-son, because Hasty com-

municates with his play-ers in a more direct fash-ion.

“When we were in theweight room (beforeHasty), we were just inthere,” Goode said. “Ourcoach is watching us now,making sure we do whatwe need to do.”

On the field, Goode justwants his teammates to dowhat they have to do.

“We may not come outwinning them all, but thisis a new program,” hesaid. “If everybody givestheir all, towards the endof the season, we will startto see improvement.

“Whoever it is,whereverit is, we’re going hard; nomatter. Some of the newplayers may have to pushthemselves. No matterwho it is or where it is at,we going in to give it our

Challenges ahead for KIPP

5 questions about the Jackets

WITH STEVEN BRADFORD

Senior WR/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?A.J.Alston (inpads)

2.) Who is thestrongest?J.J.Patterson

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Woodchuck’,

Matt Wood

4.) Who is thefunniest?J.J.Patterson

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Chad Thompson

5 questions about the Panthers

WITH K.D. GOODE

Soph. OL/LB

1.) Who is thefastest?William Rothwell

2.) Who is thestrongest?Me

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Justin Bieber’,

Jessup King

4.) Who is thefunniest?Shawn Evans

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Hasty

COVER from

page 7

caused headaches andpain for opposing offens-es and defenses a yearago, and the five seniorsare back for an encoreperformance. On Fridaynights these familiarfaces will no doubt be onthe opposing teams radar,as well they should be.They have to be account-ed for on every play, if not,they can be game chang-ers. With talent so scary, itshould be illegal.

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Page 4: 2011 Football Preview

STEPHEN HELMET

THE DAILY HERALD

GASTON — Josh Wal-lace wasn’t officiallynamed head footballcoach at NorthamptonWest until Aug. 1.

That gave him less thantwo weeks to get his teamready for its first competi-tion — the annual footballjamboree hosted at hisschool’s campus Aug. 12.

To make the transitionas smooth as possible,Wallace said he acquiredand watched all the gamefilm from the 2010 seasonand based his ’11 offensiveattack on the talent he in-herited.

He describes the Hurri-canes offense as a multi-ple-attack front that com-bines a lot of different of-fensive schemes, addingthe base set is a combina-tion of a wing-T/spreadformation.

“It was definitely a chal-lenge coming in so late,”he said. “The guys were inlimbo. I definitely thinkwe have the right peoplein place. I talked to all theseniors personally andtold them it is up to them.If they are willing to buyin to what we are trying todo, then there is no lim-its.”

The Hurricanes wonfour regular seasongames last season butcaught fire in the playoffs,winning two more beforelosing in the third-roundof post-season play.

To repeat that success,Northampton West willrely in part on runningback Matthew Peebles.

The senior said in ninthand 10th grade, his goalwas to help the seniorclass. That mindset has tochange this year for him-

self and fellow 12thgraders.

“Now, we’re going intothe games realizing it’s upto us and some of the jun-iors to win these games,”Peebles said. “(I’m mostexcited about) being theleader of our footballteam. A couple of gameslast year I was kind ofheld back with an ankleinjury. I’m healthy now.”

Peebles said his favoriterunning back is the NFL’sAdrian Peterson. On agood day, he would like to

give the Hurricanes whatPeterson provides theMinnesota Vikings — therare combination ofstrength and speed.

It’s a high standard, butone Wallace endorses.

“I would second that,”the coach said. “He is defi-nitely a very well-builtkid. He has got some goodpower, good speed andgood size. He is an evenbetter young man.”

Christian Boone will al-so get plenty of carries.

Wallace is up front in his

goals, stressing disciplineand academics come first.

“We never put a (win)number on goals,”he said.“One of our goals is aca-demics. We want to makesure everyone gets theirgrades right first. Wewant to see a 100-percentgraduation rate. We alsowant to make sure every-one is being disciplinedand taking responsibility.

“We feel like if we ac-complish our goals, theoutcomes will be statechampionships and unde-feated seasons. Those arethe outcomes of our goalsif we accomplish that.”

To get the success in theclassroom and on the fieldWallace wants, he has tochange certain players’mentality and culture.

Many of his players had

never been through a two-a-day summer proactivebefore he arrived thismonth.

Wallace said the squadis buying into the pro-gram and showing signsof excitement, whichstarted when they finallyfound out who their coachwould be.

“They are ready to go,and they just want to playsome football,” Wallacesaid. “The kind of kids wehave, they are willing todo anything and every-thing.”

The Hurricanes beganthe season with a tough42-6 loss to RoanokeRapids in Gaston. Fresh-man quarterback MikeBrown replaced juniorAndre Evans in the sec-ond quarter.

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

CREEKSVILLE —Northampton East headcoach George Privott willbe the first to tell you he isan offensive-minded guy.He played on the offensiveline in college and loves tosee points on the score-board.

Last season, his first ashead coach with the Rams,Privott adopted the tripleoption system that was in-stalled by former headcoach Greg Watford.

This summer, duringthe seven-on-seven pass-ing league, Privott un-veiled a brand new, fast-paced offense.

He also broke in a newquarterback, seniorEvans Grant, who playedwide receiver and run-ning back in the triple-op-tion offense, but has madethe smooth transition to

the signal caller. So far hehas enjoyed the new at-tack.

“This gives me opportu-nities to be more involvedin the offense,” Grantsaid.

Privott said Grant didn’thesitate when asked tomake the move from re-ceiver to quarterback andwas a team player about it.

“He stepped right in andmade a difference,” Priv-

ott said. “In the past, mostof our quarterbacks, youcouldn’t depend on them.Evans has been there forevery workout and every-thing we have done. Ithink he is going to be agood leader.”

Privott decided to gowith the new offense oncehe took a look at his 2011roster. He noticed hewould be loaded with skillguys, but not a lot of line-

man. He was looking foran advantage, and a way towear down defenses. Hefigured the best way to uti-lize his talents was to finda way to work the ball intothe hands of his laundrylist of skill guys.

“We have maybe sevenor eight linemen,” Privottsaid. “One of our linemengoes down, we have a prob-lem. In this offense, theydon’t have to hold theirblocks as long, and we

have so many skill guys.I’m just doing the best Ican with what I got.”

And Grant and his team-mates love it.

“It’s excellent,” he saidwith a smile.

Grant noted his runningbacks, Tyrell Powell, Ke-shawn Gaskins and BrianLassiter, are all play mak-ers who can line up in thebackfield or at wide re-ceiver.

Privott acknowledged

the trio are flexible andcan cause match-up prob-lems all over the field.

“Basically it’s going tobe a one back offense,”Privott said. “But at any-time I can change the for-mation and move one ofthose guys.”

And when Grant wantsto throw the ball around,he has plenty of options,including a trio of gazelleslining up wide.

Seniors JamarWilliams, Travis White-head and junior TravisWiggins all stand at 6 feet,2 inches or taller. Williamsis the tallest at 6 feet, 4inches.

Tony Sledge andShaquan Mitchell are alsowide outs who will have aheight advantage overtheir opponents.

“We are going to try tothrow it around a little bitmore this year,” Privottsaid.

Grant couldn’t help butbeam the more he talkedabout the offense.

“It’s going to click,” hesaid. “It’s going to be real,real fast-paced. I think wehave what we need to winthe conference.”

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Rams should be fun to watch in ‘11 Wallace ready for first season with Hurricanes

2011 Northampton West Hurricanes2011 Northampton East Rams

5 questions about the Rams

WITH EVANS GRANT

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Brian Lassiter

2.) Who is thestrongest?Christian Harri-son

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Gridiron’,Ke-

shawn Gaskins

4.) Who is thefunniest?Max Taylor

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Privott

5 questions about the ’Canes

WITH MATTHEW PEEBLES

Senior RB

1.) Who is thefastest?Marshall Barksdale

2.) Who is thestrongest?Avery Johnson

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Truckload ’,

Christian Boone

4.) Who is thefunniest?Wilton Cotton

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Wallace

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldLinebackers Tyrell Powell, left, and Tony Sledge, No. 9,will be two of the Rams defensive leaders in 2011.

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Northampton West defense gang tackle Matt Wood,No. 39, during the season opener for both teams.

10 to watch in ‘11Keep your eye on these 10standouts this season.1. JJ Patterson (RRHS)OL/DL

2.) Marcell Cain (NW Hal.)Quarterback

3.) Josh Thaxton (HA)QB/DB

4.) Mathew Peebles (NCHS-West)Running back

5.) A.J. Alston (RRHS)WR/DB

6.) L.J. Whitehead (NW Hal.)RB/DB

7.) K.D. Goode (KIPP)Linebacker

8.) Forrest Bailey (SE Hal.)TE/DE

9.) Tony Sledge (NCHS-East)Linebacker

10.) Demondre Caudle (SEHal.)WR/DB

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Page 5: 2011 Football Preview

MARK MATHEWS

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS WRITER

WELDON — The Wel-don Chargers finished 3-3in the Tar Roanoke lastseason, good enough for athird place finish, but the4-7 overall record fell wellbelow recent standardsfor the program.

In 2008 and 2009 theChargers won 21 of 26games. Good health willbe key if Weldon hopes toclimb closer to the double-digit win success of thoseseasons’ past.

With around 30 playersout for football, the num-bers are a little down, buttheir is starting experi-ence returning for 2011.

“We’re young, but I’mreally excited,” headcoach Grady Williamssaid. “We return sixstarters on defense. We’vealways had kids here thatcould hit. We’ll have thatagain this year. Big hitscan change a game.”

How the Chargers willline up defensively is aquestion mark. Williamsprefers running a 6-2alignment, but with somany area teams going tothe spread, the Chargershave been forced tochange how they attackdefensively.

A multiple defensemight be the best way todescribe Weldon’s defen-

sive philosophy.To illustrate the point,

Curtis Watson could lineup at corner, safety or line-backer. Wherever Watsonlines up, he could be one ofthe area’s best defensiveplayers.

Juwon Arrington willlikely play on the defen-sive line regardless of thealignment. Williams saidArrington has stood outthis summer.

Other players who havecaught the eyes of thecoaches are WilliamYancey, Travon Shearinand Ray Deloatch. None ofthe three are seniors.

Offensively, the Charg-ers will spread the field attimes to put pressure onthe defense, but the breadand butter is still a powergame.

“We expect to see 10 inthe box,” Williams said.

“You will see us in a lot ofbone (wishbone) and wingT sets. We’ve always likedthe power game.”

When the Chargers lineup in the wishbone, theyaren’t running the truewishbone offense most ofthe time. They are usingtwo of the running backsas lead blockers for astraight ahead powergame.

Lining up behind centeris Aaron Martin, who wasjayvee quarterback in2010.

Williams said Martinhas looked good in 7-on-7drills in the summer. Wat-son, Javonte Scott andJoseph Wilson are therunning backs this sea-son.

Watson is a shifty run-ner with breakawayspeed. Wilson providespower, but can hurt oppo-

nents on the edge, as well.Weldon is known for usingseveral backs in the run-ning game. Don’t expect abig change this fall.

“We had a good summerin 7 on 7,” Watson said.“We came together as ateam. We’ll be good in thebackfield.”

The success of the of-

fense will likely be deter-mined by the men in thetrenches. DariusHawkins, Grady Williamslll, Arrington andMilliner Williams providea good nucleus accordingto coach Williams.

Three different schoolshave won the Tar Roanokein the last three seasons,

including Weldon in 2009.The defending championis Gates County, andWilliams sees them bat-tling North Edgecombefor top honors, but said theleague is balanced.

“You have to be ready toplay every week in thisleague,” Williams said.

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2011 Weldon Chargers

The few, the proud, the 2011 Weldon Chargers

5 questions about the Chargers

WITH C.J. WATSON

Senior RB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Me

2.) Who is thestrongest?Grady Williams III

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘C.J.’ Myself

4.) Who is thefunniest?Myself

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Grady Williams

Vikings have big goals

2011 Halifax Academy Vikings

STEPHEN HEMELT

THE DAILY HERALD

Before any games be-gan, Halifax Academycoaches had players writedown goals they wanted toaccomplish during thefootbal season like no fum-bles, no turnovers and nopenalties.

Offensive coordinatorDrew Salmon, enteringhis third season on thecoaching staff, said every-one already understandsthe bigger goals like goingto the playoffs and win-ning a state champi-onship.

“We’re really big ontalking about having totake care of the littlethings to take care of thebig things,” Salmon said.“You have to win the one-on-one battles and knowyour responsibility beforeyou can ever start to talkabout winning games, go-ing to the playoffs andwinning the state champi-onship.”

The Vikings finishedlast season with threewins, but with six seniorsreturning for the 2011 sea-son, the team is looking tomake some noise in the

world of eight-man highschool football.

Salmon said the return-ing players combinedwith the couple of guys re-cently brought should beable to compete this sea-son, provided the Vikingscan avoid the ever-presentinjury bug.

The team will be led onthe field by quarterbackJosh Thaxton. The seniorsignal caller said the mostexciting part of his finalprep high school year isknowing seniors are ontop — “There is a lot moreresponsibility. I like tak-ing on that role to help theteam.”

Thaxton’s obvious on-field goals include taking

care of the football with-out costly fumbles or in-terceptions; however, hestressed not “losing myhead, keeping compo-sure” as his main objec-tive on the football fieldthis season.

The Vikings start outthe season playing CaryChristian, a team thatbeat them in the first -round of the playoffs last,as well as the regular sea-son. Cary ended up ad-vancing all the way to thesemifinals. Halifax Acad-emy follows it up in weektwo againt rival North-east Academy, a gameplayers and coaches say isalways circled on the cal-endar.

5 questions about the Vikings

WITH JOSH THAXTON

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Me

2.) Who is thestrongest?J.W.Thomas

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘The Bull’,AustinArthur

4.) Who is thefunniest?Clint Sieber

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Drew Salmon

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Weldon defense brings down a ball carrier during the jamboree at NCHS-West.

W. Louis Chetty, M. D. Halifax Northampton Internal Medicine, P.A. 244 Smith Church Road, Ste D, Roanoke Rapids, NC

Please call for an appointment (252) 537-0077 Good Luck to all area teams!!!

1015 West 5th Street • Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina 27870 252.537.4742 • Fax 252.537.6862

Best of luck to all

area teams!!

Page 6: 2011 Football Preview

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

LASKER — There aresome new faces at keyplaces in Lasker this sea-son. Starting at the top,Northeast Academyalumni Stevie Flythetakes over for CollinSnead as the head coach ofthe Eagles.

At the quarterback posi-tion, senior Brad Johnsonreplaces three-yearstarter Davis Harrell, the2010 Daily Herald Offen-sive Player of the Year.

Those two factors alonehave a lot of outsidersoverlooking the Eaglesfootball program. Andthey wouldn’t have it anyother way.

“I think a lot of peopleare overlooking us,” Fly-the said. “But I like flyingbelow the radar.”

Johnson added, “I havehigh expectations for thisseason. I like when peopleoverlook us.”

The Eagles must re-place Snead, Harrell andthe entire backfield thisseason, but the cupboardisn’t completely empty.They return a good seniorclass, and five out of eightplayers on defense. Not abad start for a team that’sbeing overlooked.

“Pretty much when peo-

ple are saying that aboutus,”Flythe said,“it makesus work harder.”

Hard work has neverbeen an issue in Lasker.

Under Snead, the Eagleswere one of, if not the bestconditioned team in theRoanoke Valley. Johnsonsaid the work effort didn’tleave with Snead, and ithas been business as usu-al for the team during theoff-season.

“Not at all,” Johnsonquickly replied whenasked if much haschanged. “Nothing haschanged and nothing isgoing to change.”

One thing that haschanged is Johnson’s role.He started on defense lastseason and served as thebackup to Harrell, anironman who hardlycame off the field. NowJohnson steps into thespotlight to lead the ‘BigRed Machine,’ which isn’ta problem for him.

“I love attention,” hesaid, drawing a laughfrom his coach. “Not in abad way. I like challenges... I’m really, really look-ing forward to it.”

Flythe added Johnsonwas caught in a bad spotlast season, backing upHarrell, but that doesn’tmean he lacks the skills to

get it done.“I think with most of

the teams in our confer-ence, if he were at thatschool he would havebeen the starting quarter-back,” Flythe said. “Hehas a good arm and prettygood speed. He has a goodhead on his shoulders andhe will be able to handlethis.”

One thing that shouldhelp Johnson in his tran-sition is the group in frontof him.

The Eagles return theirthree interior linemen,Jacob Rogers, Willie Roseand Jake Ellis, as well asexperienced ends ClayRobbins and Justin Willi-ford. The backfield hasbeen remodeled, but Ben-ton Barrett and AdamCreech brings tons of ex-perience.

Flythe said he expectsbig contributions fromfreshman Logan Si-monowich and TreyFutrell, who have rawability, but have to pick upthe system. The first-yearcoach hasn’t changedmuch from Snead’s fast-paced, spread offense, andsaid having plenty of sen-iors this year made it asmooth transition.

“We’ll have little tweakshere and there,” he said.

The Eagles ended lastseason with a heartbreak-ing one-point loss to CaryChristian in the state se-mi-finals. While Johnsonand Flythe said there has-n’t been much talk aboutthat game during the offseason, they are confidentan experienced defensewill be one of thestrengths this season.Against Cary, NortheastAcademy had a toughtime stopping the

Knights’ offense. Withseven starters returning,defense should be a teamstrength this season.

“We are going to bestacked on defense,” Fly-the said. “We should be re-ally good there. We have alot of sophomores whoare going to step in andstep up. Blake Si-monowich is going tohave to be the quarter-back of our defense.”

Flythe believes theleague is wide open thisyear. The Eagles openwith Word of God inLasker, the defendingstate champions. He alsosaid Parrott Academy re-turns a lot of players andas always, rival HalifaxAcademy is going to be atough match up.

“I don’t think there isgoing to be an easy game

this year,” Flythe said.“Halifax is always a biggame with us, same thingwith Hobgood. I think topto bottom, you are lookingat a really good league thisyear.”

And Flythe, the homegrown product who grewup across the street fromthe school, knows this isgoing to be a special yearbecause he gets to lead hisalma mater.

“I stress to these guyshow important this pro-gram is to me,” he said.“And I can see in theireyes it means a lot tothem.”

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Northampton West8/26-Northwest Halifax 9/02-Northampton-East 9/09 - @ Plymouth 9/16 - @ Northampton-East 9/23 - North Edgecombe 9/30 - @ Gates County 10/07 - Southeast Halifax 10/21 - @ KIPP Pride 10/28 - Weldon

WELDON8/26 - @ Roanoke Rapids 9/02 - @ Northwest Halifax 9/09 - Warren County 9/16 - Gates County 9/23 - KIPP Pride 10/07 - Northampton-East 10/14 - North Edgecombe 10/21 - @ Southeast Halifax 10/28 - @ Northampton-West

SE HALIFAX8/26 - Hertford County 9/027 - @ Spring Creek 9/09 - Granville Central 9/16 - North Edgecombe 9/23 - @ Currituck County 9/30 - KIPP Pride 10/07 - @ Northampton-West 10/14 - @ Gates County 10/21 - Weldon 10/28 - @ Northampton-East

NCHS-EAST

8/25 - @ Plymouth 9/02 - @ Northampton-West 9/09 - @ South Creek 9/16 - Northampton-West 9/23 - @ Gates County 9/30 - @ North Edgecombe 10/07 - @ Weldon 10/14 - KIPP Pride 10/28 - Southeast Halifax

KIPP8/26 - Pasquotank 9/02 - East Montgomery 9/09 - @ Bertie 9/16 - @ Kestrel Heights 9/23 - @ Weldon 9/30 - @ Southeast Halifax 10/07 - @ North Edgecombe10/14 - @ Northampton-East 10/21 - Northampton-West10/28 - Gates County

NW HALIFAX8/20 - Southeast Halifax 8/26 - @ Northampton-West 9/02 - Weldon 9/16 - @ Louisburg 9/23 -@ Corinth Holders 9/30 - Franklinton 10/07 - North Johnston 10/14 - @ Warren County 10/21 - Bunn 10/28 - @ Roanoke Rapids

ROANOKE RAPIDS

8/19 -@ Northampton-West 8/26 - Weldon 9/01 - @ Nash Central 9/09 - Southern Nash 9/16 - @ Warren County 9/30 - North Johnston 10/07 - @ Corinth Holders 10/14 - Franklinton 10/28 - Northwest Halifax

HALIFAX ACADEMY8/26 - Cary Christian 9/02@ Northeast Academy9/09 - Arendell Parrott Academy 9/16 - @ St. David’s 9/23 - Word of God ChristianAcademy 9/30 -@ Lawrence Academy 10/07 - Rocky Mount Academy 10/14 - Community Christian 10/21 - @ Hobgood Academy

NORTHEAST ACADEMY8/26 - Word of God ChristianAcademy 9/02 - Halifax Academy 9/09 - @ Hobgood Academy 9/16 - Community Christian 9/23 - @ Lawrence Academy 9/23 - @ Providence Day 9/29 - Rocky Mount Academy 10/07 - @ Arendell ParrottAcademy 10/14 - Cary Christian10/21 - @ St. David’s

2011 Roanoke Valley Schedules Don’t overlook Northeast Academy in 2011

2011 Northeast Academy Eagles

5 questions about the Eagles

WITH BRAD JOHNSTON

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Logan Simonowich

2.) Who is thestrongest?Blake Simonowich

3.) Who has thebest nickname?

‘Chicken Coup’,Micheal Cooper

4.) Who is thefunniest?Micheal Cooper

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Stevie Flythe

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD HERALD

SPORTS EDITOR

These five playersare wanted men:Northwest Halifaxquarterback MarcellCain, NorthamptonEast linebacker TonySledge, RoanokeRapids lineman J.J.Patterson,Northampton Westrunning back Math-ew Peebles, and Hali-fax Academy quar-terback Josh Thax-ton. ‘The Usual Sus-pects.’

These five players

About thetab cover

SEE CCOOVVEERR PAGE 10

2011 Tab photos byRandy Wrenn and JonasPope IV.Front cover design byHope Callahan.

Check with us for all your propane gas needs!!

Now Available

• 12” Skillet • 14” Skillet • 3 Pc. Skillet Set (Includes 6”, 8” & 10”) • 3 Qt. Dutch Oven w/lid • 4 Qt. Dutch Oven w/lid

• 8.5 Qt. Dutch Oven w/lid • 12 Qt. Oval Roaster w/lid • Fajita Pan • 4 Gallon Jambalaya Pot • 30 Gallon Stew Pot. and Much More

Good Luck to all area teams on a successful season!

NEW LOCATION!! 1728 E. 10th St. (next to Shoe Show)

Roanoke Rapids, NC 27870

252-533-0101 Mon-Fri 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Page 7: 2011 Football Preview

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

LASKER — There aresome new faces at keyplaces in Lasker this sea-son. Starting at the top,Northeast Academyalumni Stevie Flythetakes over for CollinSnead as the head coach ofthe Eagles.

At the quarterback posi-tion, senior Brad Johnsonreplaces three-yearstarter Davis Harrell, the2010 Daily Herald Offen-sive Player of the Year.

Those two factors alonehave a lot of outsidersoverlooking the Eaglesfootball program. Andthey wouldn’t have it anyother way.

“I think a lot of peopleare overlooking us,” Fly-the said. “But I like flyingbelow the radar.”

Johnson added, “I havehigh expectations for thisseason. I like when peopleoverlook us.”

The Eagles must re-place Snead, Harrell andthe entire backfield thisseason, but the cupboardisn’t completely empty.They return a good seniorclass, and five out of eightplayers on defense. Not abad start for a team that’sbeing overlooked.

“Pretty much when peo-

ple are saying that aboutus,”Flythe said,“it makesus work harder.”

Hard work has neverbeen an issue in Lasker.

Under Snead, the Eagleswere one of, if not the bestconditioned team in theRoanoke Valley. Johnsonsaid the work effort didn’tleave with Snead, and ithas been business as usu-al for the team during theoff-season.

“Not at all,” Johnsonquickly replied whenasked if much haschanged. “Nothing haschanged and nothing isgoing to change.”

One thing that haschanged is Johnson’s role.He started on defense lastseason and served as thebackup to Harrell, anironman who hardlycame off the field. NowJohnson steps into thespotlight to lead the ‘BigRed Machine,’ which isn’ta problem for him.

“I love attention,” hesaid, drawing a laughfrom his coach. “Not in abad way. I like challenges... I’m really, really look-ing forward to it.”

Flythe added Johnsonwas caught in a bad spotlast season, backing upHarrell, but that doesn’tmean he lacks the skills to

get it done.“I think with most of

the teams in our confer-ence, if he were at thatschool he would havebeen the starting quarter-back,” Flythe said. “Hehas a good arm and prettygood speed. He has a goodhead on his shoulders andhe will be able to handlethis.”

One thing that shouldhelp Johnson in his tran-sition is the group in frontof him.

The Eagles return theirthree interior linemen,Jacob Rogers, Willie Roseand Jake Ellis, as well asexperienced ends ClayRobbins and Justin Willi-ford. The backfield hasbeen remodeled, but Ben-ton Barrett and AdamCreech brings tons of ex-perience.

Flythe said he expectsbig contributions fromfreshman Logan Si-monowich and TreyFutrell, who have rawability, but have to pick upthe system. The first-yearcoach hasn’t changedmuch from Snead’s fast-paced, spread offense, andsaid having plenty of sen-iors this year made it asmooth transition.

“We’ll have little tweakshere and there,” he said.

The Eagles ended lastseason with a heartbreak-ing one-point loss to CaryChristian in the state se-mi-finals. While Johnsonand Flythe said there has-n’t been much talk aboutthat game during the offseason, they are confidentan experienced defensewill be one of thestrengths this season.Against Cary, NortheastAcademy had a toughtime stopping the

Knights’ offense. Withseven starters returning,defense should be a teamstrength this season.

“We are going to bestacked on defense,” Fly-the said. “We should be re-ally good there. We have alot of sophomores whoare going to step in andstep up. Blake Si-monowich is going tohave to be the quarter-back of our defense.”

Flythe believes theleague is wide open thisyear. The Eagles openwith Word of God inLasker, the defendingstate champions. He alsosaid Parrott Academy re-turns a lot of players andas always, rival HalifaxAcademy is going to be atough match up.

“I don’t think there isgoing to be an easy game

this year,” Flythe said.“Halifax is always a biggame with us, same thingwith Hobgood. I think topto bottom, you are lookingat a really good league thisyear.”

And Flythe, the homegrown product who grewup across the street fromthe school, knows this isgoing to be a special yearbecause he gets to lead hisalma mater.

“I stress to these guyshow important this pro-gram is to me,” he said.“And I can see in theireyes it means a lot tothem.”

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Northampton West8/26-Northwest Halifax 9/02-Northampton-East 9/09 - @ Plymouth 9/16 - @ Northampton-East 9/23 - North Edgecombe 9/30 - @ Gates County 10/07 - Southeast Halifax 10/21 - @ KIPP Pride 10/28 - Weldon

WELDON8/26 - @ Roanoke Rapids 9/02 - @ Northwest Halifax 9/09 - Warren County 9/16 - Gates County 9/23 - KIPP Pride 10/07 - Northampton-East 10/14 - North Edgecombe 10/21 - @ Southeast Halifax 10/28 - @ Northampton-West

SE HALIFAX8/26 - Hertford County 9/027 - @ Spring Creek 9/09 - Granville Central 9/16 - North Edgecombe 9/23 - @ Currituck County 9/30 - KIPP Pride 10/07 - @ Northampton-West 10/14 - @ Gates County 10/21 - Weldon 10/28 - @ Northampton-East

NCHS-EAST

8/25 - @ Plymouth 9/02 - @ Northampton-West 9/09 - @ South Creek 9/16 - Northampton-West 9/23 - @ Gates County 9/30 - @ North Edgecombe 10/07 - @ Weldon 10/14 - KIPP Pride 10/28 - Southeast Halifax

KIPP8/26 - Pasquotank 9/02 - East Montgomery 9/09 - @ Bertie 9/16 - @ Kestrel Heights 9/23 - @ Weldon 9/30 - @ Southeast Halifax 10/07 - @ North Edgecombe10/14 - @ Northampton-East 10/21 - Northampton-West10/28 - Gates County

NW HALIFAX8/20 - Southeast Halifax 8/26 - @ Northampton-West 9/02 - Weldon 9/16 - @ Louisburg 9/23 -@ Corinth Holders 9/30 - Franklinton 10/07 - North Johnston 10/14 - @ Warren County 10/21 - Bunn 10/28 - @ Roanoke Rapids

ROANOKE RAPIDS

8/19 -@ Northampton-West 8/26 - Weldon 9/01 - @ Nash Central 9/09 - Southern Nash 9/16 - @ Warren County 9/30 - North Johnston 10/07 - @ Corinth Holders 10/14 - Franklinton 10/28 - Northwest Halifax

HALIFAX ACADEMY8/26 - Cary Christian 9/02@ Northeast Academy9/09 - Arendell Parrott Academy 9/16 - @ St. David’s 9/23 - Word of God ChristianAcademy 9/30 -@ Lawrence Academy 10/07 - Rocky Mount Academy 10/14 - Community Christian 10/21 - @ Hobgood Academy

NORTHEAST ACADEMY8/26 - Word of God ChristianAcademy 9/02 - Halifax Academy 9/09 - @ Hobgood Academy 9/16 - Community Christian 9/23 - @ Lawrence Academy 9/23 - @ Providence Day 9/29 - Rocky Mount Academy 10/07 - @ Arendell ParrottAcademy 10/14 - Cary Christian10/21 - @ St. David’s

2011 Roanoke Valley Schedules Don’t overlook Northeast Academy in 2011

2011 Northeast Academy Eagles

5 questions about the Eagles

WITH BRAD JOHNSTON

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Logan Simonowich

2.) Who is thestrongest?Blake Simonowich

3.) Who has thebest nickname?

‘Chicken Coup’,Micheal Cooper

4.) Who is thefunniest?Micheal Cooper

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Stevie Flythe

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD HERALD

SPORTS EDITOR

These five playersare wanted men:Northwest Halifaxquarterback MarcellCain, NorthamptonEast linebacker TonySledge, RoanokeRapids lineman J.J.Patterson,Northampton Westrunning back Math-ew Peebles, and Hali-fax Academy quar-terback Josh Thax-ton. ‘The Usual Sus-pects.’

These five players

About thetab cover

SEE CCOOVVEERR PAGE 10

2011 Tab photos byRandy Wrenn and JonasPope IV.Front cover design byHope Callahan.

Check with us for all your propane gas needs!!

Now Available

• 12” Skillet • 14” Skillet • 3 Pc. Skillet Set (Includes 6”, 8” & 10”) • 3 Qt. Dutch Oven w/lid • 4 Qt. Dutch Oven w/lid

• 8.5 Qt. Dutch Oven w/lid • 12 Qt. Oval Roaster w/lid • Fajita Pan • 4 Gallon Jambalaya Pot • 30 Gallon Stew Pot. and Much More

Good Luck to all area teams on a successful season!

NEW LOCATION!! 1728 E. 10th St. (next to Shoe Show)

Roanoke Rapids, NC 27870

252-533-0101 Mon-Fri 8:00 am - 5:00 pm

Page 8: 2011 Football Preview

MARK MATHEWS

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS WRITER

WELDON — The Wel-don Chargers finished 3-3in the Tar Roanoke lastseason, good enough for athird place finish, but the4-7 overall record fell wellbelow recent standardsfor the program.

In 2008 and 2009 theChargers won 21 of 26games. Good health willbe key if Weldon hopes toclimb closer to the double-digit win success of thoseseasons’ past.

With around 30 playersout for football, the num-bers are a little down, buttheir is starting experi-ence returning for 2011.

“We’re young, but I’mreally excited,” headcoach Grady Williamssaid. “We return sixstarters on defense. We’vealways had kids here thatcould hit. We’ll have thatagain this year. Big hitscan change a game.”

How the Chargers willline up defensively is aquestion mark. Williamsprefers running a 6-2alignment, but with somany area teams going tothe spread, the Chargershave been forced tochange how they attackdefensively.

A multiple defensemight be the best way todescribe Weldon’s defen-

sive philosophy.To illustrate the point,

Curtis Watson could lineup at corner, safety or line-backer. Wherever Watsonlines up, he could be one ofthe area’s best defensiveplayers.

Juwon Arrington willlikely play on the defen-sive line regardless of thealignment. Williams saidArrington has stood outthis summer.

Other players who havecaught the eyes of thecoaches are WilliamYancey, Travon Shearinand Ray Deloatch. None ofthe three are seniors.

Offensively, the Charg-ers will spread the field attimes to put pressure onthe defense, but the breadand butter is still a powergame.

“We expect to see 10 inthe box,” Williams said.

“You will see us in a lot ofbone (wishbone) and wingT sets. We’ve always likedthe power game.”

When the Chargers lineup in the wishbone, theyaren’t running the truewishbone offense most ofthe time. They are usingtwo of the running backsas lead blockers for astraight ahead powergame.

Lining up behind centeris Aaron Martin, who wasjayvee quarterback in2010.

Williams said Martinhas looked good in 7-on-7drills in the summer. Wat-son, Javonte Scott andJoseph Wilson are therunning backs this sea-son.

Watson is a shifty run-ner with breakawayspeed. Wilson providespower, but can hurt oppo-

nents on the edge, as well.Weldon is known for usingseveral backs in the run-ning game. Don’t expect abig change this fall.

“We had a good summerin 7 on 7,” Watson said.“We came together as ateam. We’ll be good in thebackfield.”

The success of the of-

fense will likely be deter-mined by the men in thetrenches. DariusHawkins, Grady Williamslll, Arrington andMilliner Williams providea good nucleus accordingto coach Williams.

Three different schoolshave won the Tar Roanokein the last three seasons,

including Weldon in 2009.The defending championis Gates County, andWilliams sees them bat-tling North Edgecombefor top honors, but said theleague is balanced.

“You have to be ready toplay every week in thisleague,” Williams said.

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2011 Weldon Chargers

The few, the proud, the 2011 Weldon Chargers

5 questions about the Chargers

WITH C.J. WATSON

Senior RB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Me

2.) Who is thestrongest?Grady Williams III

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘C.J.’ Myself

4.) Who is thefunniest?Myself

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Grady Williams

Vikings have big goals

2011 Halifax Academy Vikings

STEPHEN HEMELT

THE DAILY HERALD

Before any games be-gan, Halifax Academycoaches had players writedown goals they wanted toaccomplish during thefootbal season like no fum-bles, no turnovers and nopenalties.

Offensive coordinatorDrew Salmon, enteringhis third season on thecoaching staff, said every-one already understandsthe bigger goals like goingto the playoffs and win-ning a state champi-onship.

“We’re really big ontalking about having totake care of the littlethings to take care of thebig things,” Salmon said.“You have to win the one-on-one battles and knowyour responsibility beforeyou can ever start to talkabout winning games, go-ing to the playoffs andwinning the state champi-onship.”

The Vikings finishedlast season with threewins, but with six seniorsreturning for the 2011 sea-son, the team is looking tomake some noise in the

world of eight-man highschool football.

Salmon said the return-ing players combinedwith the couple of guys re-cently brought should beable to compete this sea-son, provided the Vikingscan avoid the ever-presentinjury bug.

The team will be led onthe field by quarterbackJosh Thaxton. The seniorsignal caller said the mostexciting part of his finalprep high school year isknowing seniors are ontop — “There is a lot moreresponsibility. I like tak-ing on that role to help theteam.”

Thaxton’s obvious on-field goals include taking

care of the football with-out costly fumbles or in-terceptions; however, hestressed not “losing myhead, keeping compo-sure” as his main objec-tive on the football fieldthis season.

The Vikings start outthe season playing CaryChristian, a team thatbeat them in the first -round of the playoffs last,as well as the regular sea-son. Cary ended up ad-vancing all the way to thesemifinals. Halifax Acad-emy follows it up in weektwo againt rival North-east Academy, a gameplayers and coaches say isalways circled on the cal-endar.

5 questions about the Vikings

WITH JOSH THAXTON

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Me

2.) Who is thestrongest?J.W.Thomas

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘The Bull’,AustinArthur

4.) Who is thefunniest?Clint Sieber

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Drew Salmon

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Weldon defense brings down a ball carrier during the jamboree at NCHS-West.

W. Louis Chetty, M. D. Halifax Northampton Internal Medicine, P.A. 244 Smith Church Road, Ste D, Roanoke Rapids, NC

Please call for an appointment (252) 537-0077 Good Luck to all area teams!!!

1015 West 5th Street • Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina 27870 252.537.4742 • Fax 252.537.6862

Best of luck to all

area teams!!

Page 9: 2011 Football Preview

STEPHEN HELMET

THE DAILY HERALD

GASTON — Josh Wal-lace wasn’t officiallynamed head footballcoach at NorthamptonWest until Aug. 1.

That gave him less thantwo weeks to get his teamready for its first competi-tion — the annual footballjamboree hosted at hisschool’s campus Aug. 12.

To make the transitionas smooth as possible,Wallace said he acquiredand watched all the gamefilm from the 2010 seasonand based his ’11 offensiveattack on the talent he in-herited.

He describes the Hurri-canes offense as a multi-ple-attack front that com-bines a lot of different of-fensive schemes, addingthe base set is a combina-tion of a wing-T/spreadformation.

“It was definitely a chal-lenge coming in so late,”he said. “The guys were inlimbo. I definitely thinkwe have the right peoplein place. I talked to all theseniors personally andtold them it is up to them.If they are willing to buyin to what we are trying todo, then there is no lim-its.”

The Hurricanes wonfour regular seasongames last season butcaught fire in the playoffs,winning two more beforelosing in the third-roundof post-season play.

To repeat that success,Northampton West willrely in part on runningback Matthew Peebles.

The senior said in ninthand 10th grade, his goalwas to help the seniorclass. That mindset has tochange this year for him-

self and fellow 12thgraders.

“Now, we’re going intothe games realizing it’s upto us and some of the jun-iors to win these games,”Peebles said. “(I’m mostexcited about) being theleader of our footballteam. A couple of gameslast year I was kind ofheld back with an ankleinjury. I’m healthy now.”

Peebles said his favoriterunning back is the NFL’sAdrian Peterson. On agood day, he would like to

give the Hurricanes whatPeterson provides theMinnesota Vikings — therare combination ofstrength and speed.

It’s a high standard, butone Wallace endorses.

“I would second that,”the coach said. “He is defi-nitely a very well-builtkid. He has got some goodpower, good speed andgood size. He is an evenbetter young man.”

Christian Boone will al-so get plenty of carries.

Wallace is up front in his

goals, stressing disciplineand academics come first.

“We never put a (win)number on goals,”he said.“One of our goals is aca-demics. We want to makesure everyone gets theirgrades right first. Wewant to see a 100-percentgraduation rate. We alsowant to make sure every-one is being disciplinedand taking responsibility.

“We feel like if we ac-complish our goals, theoutcomes will be statechampionships and unde-feated seasons. Those arethe outcomes of our goalsif we accomplish that.”

To get the success in theclassroom and on the fieldWallace wants, he has tochange certain players’mentality and culture.

Many of his players had

never been through a two-a-day summer proactivebefore he arrived thismonth.

Wallace said the squadis buying into the pro-gram and showing signsof excitement, whichstarted when they finallyfound out who their coachwould be.

“They are ready to go,and they just want to playsome football,” Wallacesaid. “The kind of kids wehave, they are willing todo anything and every-thing.”

The Hurricanes beganthe season with a tough42-6 loss to RoanokeRapids in Gaston. Fresh-man quarterback MikeBrown replaced juniorAndre Evans in the sec-ond quarter.

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

CREEKSVILLE —Northampton East headcoach George Privott willbe the first to tell you he isan offensive-minded guy.He played on the offensiveline in college and loves tosee points on the score-board.

Last season, his first ashead coach with the Rams,Privott adopted the tripleoption system that was in-stalled by former headcoach Greg Watford.

This summer, duringthe seven-on-seven pass-ing league, Privott un-veiled a brand new, fast-paced offense.

He also broke in a newquarterback, seniorEvans Grant, who playedwide receiver and run-ning back in the triple-op-tion offense, but has madethe smooth transition to

the signal caller. So far hehas enjoyed the new at-tack.

“This gives me opportu-nities to be more involvedin the offense,” Grantsaid.

Privott said Grant didn’thesitate when asked tomake the move from re-ceiver to quarterback andwas a team player about it.

“He stepped right in andmade a difference,” Priv-

ott said. “In the past, mostof our quarterbacks, youcouldn’t depend on them.Evans has been there forevery workout and every-thing we have done. Ithink he is going to be agood leader.”

Privott decided to gowith the new offense oncehe took a look at his 2011roster. He noticed hewould be loaded with skillguys, but not a lot of line-

man. He was looking foran advantage, and a way towear down defenses. Hefigured the best way to uti-lize his talents was to finda way to work the ball intothe hands of his laundrylist of skill guys.

“We have maybe sevenor eight linemen,” Privottsaid. “One of our linemengoes down, we have a prob-lem. In this offense, theydon’t have to hold theirblocks as long, and we

have so many skill guys.I’m just doing the best Ican with what I got.”

And Grant and his team-mates love it.

“It’s excellent,” he saidwith a smile.

Grant noted his runningbacks, Tyrell Powell, Ke-shawn Gaskins and BrianLassiter, are all play mak-ers who can line up in thebackfield or at wide re-ceiver.

Privott acknowledged

the trio are flexible andcan cause match-up prob-lems all over the field.

“Basically it’s going tobe a one back offense,”Privott said. “But at any-time I can change the for-mation and move one ofthose guys.”

And when Grant wantsto throw the ball around,he has plenty of options,including a trio of gazelleslining up wide.

Seniors JamarWilliams, Travis White-head and junior TravisWiggins all stand at 6 feet,2 inches or taller. Williamsis the tallest at 6 feet, 4inches.

Tony Sledge andShaquan Mitchell are alsowide outs who will have aheight advantage overtheir opponents.

“We are going to try tothrow it around a little bitmore this year,” Privottsaid.

Grant couldn’t help butbeam the more he talkedabout the offense.

“It’s going to click,” hesaid. “It’s going to be real,real fast-paced. I think wehave what we need to winthe conference.”

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Rams should be fun to watch in ‘11 Wallace ready for first season with Hurricanes

2011 Northampton West Hurricanes2011 Northampton East Rams

5 questions about the Rams

WITH EVANS GRANT

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Brian Lassiter

2.) Who is thestrongest?Christian Harri-son

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Gridiron’,Ke-

shawn Gaskins

4.) Who is thefunniest?Max Taylor

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Privott

5 questions about the ’Canes

WITH MATTHEW PEEBLES

Senior RB

1.) Who is thefastest?Marshall Barksdale

2.) Who is thestrongest?Avery Johnson

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Truckload ’,

Christian Boone

4.) Who is thefunniest?Wilton Cotton

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Wallace

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldLinebackers Tyrell Powell, left, and Tony Sledge, No. 9,will be two of the Rams defensive leaders in 2011.

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Northampton West defense gang tackle Matt Wood,No. 39, during the season opener for both teams.

10 to watch in ‘11Keep your eye on these 10standouts this season.1. JJ Patterson (RRHS)OL/DL

2.) Marcell Cain (NW Hal.)Quarterback

3.) Josh Thaxton (HA)QB/DB

4.) Mathew Peebles (NCHS-West)Running back

5.) A.J. Alston (RRHS)WR/DB

6.) L.J. Whitehead (NW Hal.)RB/DB

7.) K.D. Goode (KIPP)Linebacker

8.) Forrest Bailey (SE Hal.)TE/DE

9.) Tony Sledge (NCHS-East)Linebacker

10.) Demondre Caudle (SEHal.)WR/DB

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Page 10: 2011 Football Preview

MARK MATHEWS

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS WRITER

The Roanoke Rapidsfootball program is com-ing off back-to back con-ference championshipsfor the first time in schoolhistory. Head coach Rus-sell Weinstein said thisyear’s team can’t rest onrecent success, but willhave to carve its own iden-tity.

The biggest change willcome at the quarterbackposition with the gradua-tion of four-year starterJustin Rawles, who wastwo-time Northern Car-olina 2-A ConferencePlayer of the Year. JuniorJackie Caudle will be tak-ing the snaps for the Yel-low Jackets this fall.

Last year’s jayvee quar-terback has been workinghard and could be helpedout by four-year starterA.J. Alston, who Wein-stein said will be fine ifcoaches put him in atquarterback.

Roanoke Rapids will al-so have to replace 1,000-yard running back TyrellEverette, a three-yearstarter for the Jackets.Weinstein said seniorsMatt Wood and ByronMaye will handle the du-ties.

The 250-pound Woodrushed for 127 yards andthree scores in limited ac-tion last year. Maye is a

newcomer to the position,still learning the runningback duties.

Weinstein likened theduo to a thunder (Wood)and lightning (Maye)combination.

The graduation of four-year starter D.J. Eppersonand an injury to StephenVasser took a big chunk ofproduction at the receiverposition. Alston hauled in35 catches for nearly 500yards last season and isthe most experienced tar-get.

Clay Lockamon was astarter last season, butwill move to Epperson’sslot position. Grey Jones,Steven Bradford, BrycePearson, Josh Lewis, JoshBrown and Wesley Heightround out the receivingcorp.

“The spread takes a lotof timing,” Weinsteinsaid. “We’ve been moving

as fast as it takes for theyoungsters to comealong.”

Pre-season All-state se-lection J.J. Patterson re-turns at left tackle on theoffensive line. The four-star prospect has alreadycommitted to the Univer-sity of North Carolina,giving the Yellow Jacketsa strong building block,but four starters will benew.

Tony Marshall, ReidBolt, Steve Gillfillan andColby Short bring size tothe offensive front but lit-tle experience. Tight endShelton Bennefield is an-other lineman when he is-n’t a passing target.

The defense will also seemany new faces this sea-son, and a tweak in philos-ophy.

“We’ve basically been ina 4-3 look,” Weinsteinsaid. “But we’ll show

more 3-4, be more hybridand multiple to shore up acouple of areas from lastyear.”

Weinstein said the of-fense scoring so manypoints in 2010 allowed thedefense to pin its earsback and attack oppo-nents.

Patterson and Ben-nefield are returningstarters on the defensivefront, an area that couldbe the strength of the de-fense.

The linebacking corpwill be completely new.Wood, Abel Hernandez,Sam Atkins, Matt Hun-sucker, Cole Phelps andPhillip Harris are in themix. Wood has some expe-rience with 29 tackles lastseason.

Steven Bradford movesfrom linebacker to strongsafety, a position that is attimes like another line-backer in the Yellow Jack-ets scheme, a spot Wein-stein said is the most im-

portant on the defense.His 93 tackles last year istops for returning play-ers.

“The change has gonefairly smooth,” Bradfordsaid. “In a lot of ways ithasn’t changed a lot.”

Free safety A.J. Alstonled the Jackets with sixpicks in 2010. Maye, Cau-dle, Lockamon and Lewiswill also see action in thesecondary.

The kicking positionhas been in solid handssince Jud Dunlevy cameon the scene in 1999. De-spite the loss of an all-con-ference leg in OwenBridges, the RoanokeRapids kicking gameshould be strong againthis fall.

Taylor Archer connect-ed on all 13 of his extrapoint attempts last sea-son, though punting willbe a new experience forArcher on the varsity lev-el. Long-snapper JordanHargrove is also back for

the Yellow Jackets.Alston, Maye, Lewis

and Brown will handlekick and punt return du-ties. Though Weinsteintold this year’s group theywould have to carve itsown niche, he said thegoal is always a confer-ence championship be-cause it assures a playoffspot.

2011 Roanoke Rapids Yellow Jackets

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2011Yellow Jackets charting their own course

2011 KIPP Pride Panthers

STEPHEN HEMELT

THE DAILY HERALD

GASTON — To say vet-eran Roanoke Valley foot-ball coach Diego Hasty hasa challenge this season is abit of an understatement.

Hasty is in his first yearat KIPP Gaston CollegePreparatory, and said hewas only averaging 10players per practice aweek into the season.

However, it was the chal-lenge — or better put —the opportunity to buildsomething at KIPP that at-tracted him to the Pan-thers, who only won fourfootball games in the pasttwo season.

“I’m not being critical,”Hasty said in early Au-gust. “I don’t think (myplayers) know anythingabout summer workouts.They’ve had three or fourdifferent coaches in thelast four years. I’ve got tostart building a stablefoundation and get a littletradition going. The num-bers may pick up.”

Hasty said he needs toset a standard this year forhis players, and he expectsthose that return for 2012assume the responsibiltyfor the program’s contin-ued growth.

“It’s going to be an up-

hill battle,” he said. “We’renot going to see instantsuccess. The true test of aman is not whether youquit, but where you fightthe fight. Everybody canquit. Where we play iswhere we play, just beready to play.”

Hasty said he can coachall types of schemes on thefield and has no problemsadjusting his style to hisplayers’ strength, butKIPP’s philosophy on of-fense and defense will bebasic.

Kadarius Goode, a soph-omore, linebacker andtackle, said players are al-ready seeing a change,adding in August of 2010there was a lot more jok-ing around.

Goode said there is a dif-ferent mindset this sea-son, because Hasty com-

municates with his play-ers in a more direct fash-ion.

“When we were in theweight room (beforeHasty), we were just inthere,” Goode said. “Ourcoach is watching us now,making sure we do whatwe need to do.”

On the field, Goode justwants his teammates to dowhat they have to do.

“We may not come outwinning them all, but thisis a new program,” hesaid. “If everybody givestheir all, towards the endof the season, we will startto see improvement.

“Whoever it is,whereverit is, we’re going hard; nomatter. Some of the newplayers may have to pushthemselves. No matterwho it is or where it is at,we going in to give it our

Challenges ahead for KIPP

5 questions about the Jackets

WITH STEVEN BRADFORD

Senior WR/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?A.J.Alston (inpads)

2.) Who is thestrongest?J.J.Patterson

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Woodchuck’,

Matt Wood

4.) Who is thefunniest?J.J.Patterson

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Chad Thompson

5 questions about the Panthers

WITH K.D. GOODE

Soph. OL/LB

1.) Who is thefastest?William Rothwell

2.) Who is thestrongest?Me

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Justin Bieber’,

Jessup King

4.) Who is thefunniest?Shawn Evans

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Hasty

COVER from

page 7

caused headaches andpain for opposing offens-es and defenses a yearago, and the five seniorsare back for an encoreperformance. On Fridaynights these familiarfaces will no doubt be onthe opposing teams radar,as well they should be.They have to be account-ed for on every play, if not,they can be game chang-ers. With talent so scary, itshould be illegal.

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Page 11: 2011 Football Preview

MARK MATHEWS

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS WRITER

CROWELLS CROSS-ROADS — The SoutheastHalifax Trojans never gotuntracked in 2010, win-ning only once in 10 tries.Head coach Larry Ed-wards expects better re-sults this season.

“I can’t promise thenumber of wins we’llhave,” Edwards said. “Butthere is no question we area much improved team.We’ll go into every gameexpecting to win.”

Edwards said his squadhad its best offseasonsince he has been at South-east Halifax, going fromeight or nine playersshowing up for workoutsthe previous year, to 23 to25 this year.

“They took it on them-selves to get better,” Ed-wards said. “And thatstarted right after footballseason ended last year.”

Defensively, the Trojanswere fine for the most partin 2010, but a struggling of-

fense (11.6 ppg.) put the de-fense in bad situationsthey couldn’t overcome.An improved offense willhelp.

The Trojans (1-0) willcome at opponents frommultiple offensive sets.Edwards said the teamwill use an offset-I, Wing Tand other sets to take bet-ter advantage of theirskill.

The 2010 revolving doorat quarterback seems tobe solved, and Edwardslikes what he sees from his

running backs.“We didn’t have leader-

ship from the quarterbackposition last year,” Ed-wards said. “J’maiz Pow-ell has grown a lot anddone a good job of being aleader.”

The senior signal calleralso has some talent be-hind him at the runningback position to relievesome pressure, somethingEdwards said the Trojansdidn’t have for most of2010.

“I have a better under-

standing of what we aredoing this year,” Powellsaid. “I’m more comfort-able.”

Wilmonte Hendrick wasthe team’s best back frommidseason on last year,gaining the most yardsfrom the fullback posi-tion.

Deon White and Ra-keem Jones will also be inthe backfield mix forSoutheast.

A new face Trojan fanscan look forward to seek-ing for the next four yearsis freshman running backJarquez McDaniel.

Senior Diavonta Browngives Edwards a versatileathlete to plug into themix, and a strong returnman on special teams.Jones will also figure in

the kick return duties.Powell has a talented

target in receiver Demon-dre Caudle. Edwards saidthe 6 feet, 3 inch senior hasshown great hands andsolid footwork throughoutthe summer.

Forest Bailey movesfrom center to tight end,giving the Trojans a widebody for the runninggame, and a good posses-sion receiver according toEdwards.

Should the offense showthe improvement expect-ed by Edwards, the de-fense may get a chance toshine.

“Rodney McGuire hasreally stood out this sum-mer,” Edwards said of hissenior cornerback. “Cau-dle is another “White

(MLB) and Jones (LB)have also looked reallygood.”

The Trojans will findout about themselves ear-ly, playing up in classifica-tion in three of their fournon-conference games,Hertford County (3A),Granville Central (2A)and Currituck (3A).

In their first game of theseason, Southeast Halifaxfound out that they canplay with the big boys, de-feating rival NorthwestHalifax 18-16, winning theannual ‘King of the Coun-ty’ game.

The Trojans ended a six-year winning streak bythe Vikings. Itwas also thefirst time the Tojans havewon their season openersince 2009.

JONAS POPE IV

THE DAILY HERALD SPORTS EDITOR

AURELIAN SPRINGS— Expectations are highat Northwest Halifax thisfall.

The Vikings are return-ing 18 starters from lastyear and have had a greatoffseason in the weightroom.

Entering Andre Stew-art’s fifth year at the helm,outsiders and the Vikingsplayers alike are expect-ing a big season.

When asked just howgood they expect to be thisseason, senior L.J. White-head shows just how highthe ceiling is.

“Tarboro good,” he an-swered without hesita-tion.

As in, two-time defend-ing state champion Tar-boro. The same Tarboroteam that has lost onegame in two years.

“A championship team,”Whitehead said. “We lostfour seniors, and if we canreplace them, with all theexperience we have, wecan go.”

That’s brash talk for ateam that had a losing sea-son in 2010 (5-7) and onlywon one conference game.But with all the playerscoming back, Stewart wel-comes the challenge.

“We don’t shy away from

the expectations,” Stew-art said. “We expect to begood. We expect to winfootball games and find away to get it done.”

Whitehead said hisbiggest concern was histeammates “getting bigheaded” with all the hype.As a senior, his job hasbeen to keep his team-mates grounded.

Stewart has a differentapproach.

“We are looking at oneday at a time, one game ata time, one practice at atime,” the coach ex-plained. “Plus I beat onthem a little bit in prac-tice, conditioning andthings like that to breakthem down and buildthem up stronger mental-ly. I’m trying to get them tothat point right now. Weare just going to take itone step at a time.”

Northwest Halifax end-ed the season on a five-game losing streak, in-cluding a 61-18 playoff lossto East Duplin, and beforethat a 42-0 shutout loss torival Roanoke Rapids.

At this point, theVikings are just ready toget back on the field andget that bad taste out oftheir mouths.

“I’ve been waiting forthis,” Whitehead said.“We started liftingweights earlier to do whatwe have to do when we getback on the field.”

One of the biggest prob-lems Northwest Halifaxhas had in recent years isstarting strong, but fiz-zling down the stretch. In2010 the Vikings startedthe season 5-2 and lookedlike the team to beat.

After they defeated War-ren County on Oct. 1, there

only league win, they fellapart.

“We need to understandwe need to get better as weprogress and get better atthe end of the season,”Stewart said. “I think thisyear we have the capabili-ty to be at home in theplayoffs. That’s one of mygoals is to play at homeand have a high seed.”

That won’t be easy in theNorthern Carolina Con-ference. Bunn and NorthJohnston are alwaystough, and the two-timedefending league champi-ons, Roanoke Rapids, liveright in the Vikings back-yard.

Franklinton is expectedto be much improved

from a year ago and havebeen picked by some pub-lications as the No. 3 teamin the Northern CarolinaConference standings.

“It’s not going to beeasy,” Stewart said. “Butwe can put ourselves inthe right position to get itdone.”

The Vikings hopes forthe season were side-tracked when they fell torival Southeast Halifax int he season opener lastweek 18-16 in the ‘King ofthe County’ game. Still,that doesn’t change whatNorthwest Halifax hopesto accomplish.

“All of our goals are stillin front of us,” Stewartsaid.

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Trojans expect a bounce-back year

2011 Southeast Halifax Trojans

2011 Northwest Halifax Vikings

What can we expect in Viking land?5 questions about the Vikings

WITH L.J. WHITEHEAD

Senior RB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Me

2.) Who is thestrongest?Nigel Lee

3.) Who has thebest nickname?‘Tank Head’,Ser-maja Lynch

4.) Who is thefunniest?Marcell Cain

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Coach Stewart

5 questions about the Trojans

WITH J’MAIZ POWELL

Senior QB/DB

1.) Who is thefastest?Demondre Caudle

2.) Who is thestrongest?Wilmonte Hendrick

3.) Who has thebest nickname?

‘B.H.’- DerrickTillery

4.) Who is thefunniest?Diavonta Brown

5.) Who is themost intensecoach?Larry Edwards

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Vikings take the fieldagainst Southeast HalifaxSaturday.

Randy Wrenn | The Daily HeraldThe Trojans defense swarm a Northwest Halifax ball carrier Saturday.

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