Foothills Football - 2010 Season WrapUp

WHAT A RUSH!

2010 POST-SEASON WRAP-UP EDITION

2010 SEASON WRAP-UP 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS

the starting line-up4 Worth 1,000 Words Some of our favorite images from the 2010 season.

8 Burning Questions AnsweredIn our preseason preview we posed five big questions that loomed over the 2010 season. The three months that followed provided the answers.

9 Three Questions for 2011It’s winter now but the new season will be upon us before you know it. We pose three story lines to follow heading into ’11.

11 Foothills Elite Eight - FinalWhich team finished at the top of our Foothills power rankings? One hint. It wasn’t the team that started the year on top.

13 News, Notes & ObservationsFive players make all-state team ... Two players from opposite sides of the Battle of the Bridge rivalry commit to Campbell ... North Stokes names stadium in honor of beloved former prin-cipal ... Match-ups we would have loved to see ... Starmount rushes into record books ... MVAC edges Northwest in head-to-head meetings ... Three teams lose to eventual state champs.

22 Best of the BestAnnouncing the first ever Foothills All-Area Team

24 Instant ClassicNorth Surry’s comeback from a 31-7 deficit against East Surry will be remembered for a long time.

25 Team Focus: Bishop McGuinnessThe Villains have developed into a formidable football power

26 We Got Next: JV RecapWest Stokes and Starmount claim junior varsity titles

28 Mountain Valley RecapA look back at the 2010 season in the Mountain Valley 1A/2A ... All-conference teams ... Final records, standings, results.

36 Northwest RecapA look back at the 2010 season in the Northwest 1A/2A ... All-conference teams ... Final records, standings, results.

45 Alumni UpdateHow did players with ties to Foothills high schools fare during this past college football season?

Volume 1 * Issue 2 * 2010 Season Wrap-upEric Lusk

Editor & PublisherPam Lusk

Business ManagerStarr Poplin

Advertising, Sales

On The CoverMAIN PHOTO

North Surry senior Joston Phipps rushed for more than 2,000 yards.

TOP PHOTOMount Airy coach Kelly Holder directed

the Bears to another league title.

ContributorsTim Weatherman, Phil Goble, Chris Noble, Robert Money, Deana King

Foothills Football is a publication of:Lusk Media

126 Valleybrook DriveElkin, NC 28621

All rights reserved.

Photo by Eric LuskWest Wilkes earned its first win of the season at Forbush in week four (above). The Blackhawks eventually went on to finish 4-4 in the MVAC and earn a state playoff victory.

BARR NONEJake Barr and the Starmount Rams ran roughshod over all 11 of its regular-season foes, including North Surry back in September. The Rams set numerous school records, outscored opponents 589-105, and Barr was voted the Mountain Valley 1A/2A Conference’s offensive player of the year. Photo by Tim Weatherman

LEADING OFF...

FOLLOW THE LEADERZaquan Dobson takes a handoff from quarterback Ben Hinson and looks to follow the block of Ty Simmons in Mount Airy’s 28-14 win over West Stokes on Sept. 24. Like the 2007, 2008 and ’09 Granite Bear squads, the 2010 edition of Mount Airy football beat all challengers to win a conference championship.

LEADING OFF...

LAST TEAM STANDINGWilkes Central senior Adam Parker (20) and junior Austin McConnell celebrate a touchdown in a late-season game. The Eagles were the final Foothills team ousted from the playoffs, beating West Lincoln and Pisgah before falling at Shelby on the day after Thanksgiving.

LEADING OFF...

2010 SEASON WRAP-UP 98 FOOTHILLS FOOTBALL

WELCOME TO FOOTHILLS FOOTBALL

5 BURNING QUESTIONSansweredRevisiting the big story lines heading into the season

In our Foothills Football Summer edition, we posed five burning questions heading into the 2010 season. Here is how the 2010 cam-paign provided some answers.

1. Can a Foothills team win a state championship?

We wrote: “If there is a state title contend-er in our midst this season … three schools (Mount Airy, Starmount and Elkin) are the likely favorites. But you can’t count out teams like West Stokes, Bishop McGuinness, East Surry, Wilkes Central or Ashe County having the potential to make deep playoff runs.”

What happened: No one played for a state championship this season, but Mount Airy, North Surry and Bishop McGuinness each were beaten by an eventual champion. Albe-marle took out Mount Airy and Bishop on the way to another 1AA trophy. Salisbury beat North Surry in its opener before capturing the 2AA crown.

Wilkes Central made the deepest playoff run, advancing to the third round. Mount Airy, Elkin, North Stokes and West Wilkes joined Wilkes Central in the second round.

2. What will life be like on the Elkin sidelines without Richard Grissom?

We wrote: “Elkin gave the keys to the pro-gram to a long-time faithful assistant, Scott Wood. He has been well-received by the Buckin’ Elks community from the get-go and should have a conference contender this fall with a strong contingent of linemen returning.”

What happened: While no one wanted to see Grissom walk away from the program he led to four state championships, Wood and the Elks did a solid job in the face of a lot of ad-versity this season. Elkin struggled with some injury issues and played a grueling schedule (six 2A teams as well as independent schools power Charlotte Latin).

The line lived up to billing, and power foot-ball became the Elks’ forte. Elkin won seven games in all, including a 59-19 playoff romp against Cherokee that revived memories of some of the big post-season victories from the state championship seasons.

3. How will the new playoff ‘pod’ system affect Foothills schools?

We wrote: “Don’t be surprised to see more inter-conference battles between MVAC and Northwest teams this year as the state tries to keep all schools much closer to home. East Wilkes and East Surry met in the first round a year ago in the 1AA playoffs…”

What happened: The seeding process proved incredibly confusing to the average fan, since school enrollment numbers (not released until late October) and geography played a big role in determining match-ups and seeding. You were better off just waiting for the state to release the brackets than try to prognosticate who might be part of the various eight-team pods.

In the end, though, there was only one reg-ular season rematch that resulted from using the new playoff system. That was East Wilkes having to visit West Wilkes in round one of the 1AA bracket. But neither school seemed to mind, and it was a great night for Wilkes fans to have three teams playing within county bor-ders on opening night.

The bigger issue might be how the state should address schools that have to forfeit games because of ineligible players. In the

end, the decision to make Albe-marle forfeit three regular season victories ended up hurting Mount Airy and Bishop McGuinness, who had to play the Bulldogs earlier than they would have otherwise in the 1AA playoffs.

The Granite Bears and Villains might have been hosting another game or two — or more — had Al-bemarle been seeded where its 10-1 on-the-field record would have put them.

4. Who will win the Northwest 1A/2A and Mountain Valley 1A/2A conference champion-ships?

We wrote: “Coaches and area media have picked Mount Airy (by a nose) to take the Northwest trophy this season and Starmount (unanimously) to win the MVAC.”

What happened: The coaches and media were correct, though Mount Airy had a two-game cush-ion over its nearest challengers in the Northwest. Starmount went un-

defeated — and mostly unchallenged — in the Mountain Valley.

5. Which team will provide the biggest positive surprise?

We wrote: “It depends on who you ask. There are some who think Forbush will make a quick jump up the MVAC ladder under new coach Chris Johnson … Ashe County and Al-leghany may be the dark horses in the MVAC … North Surry seems poised for a big rebound after a 1-10 campaign in 2009 … East Wilkes has lost some big stars from 2009 but has a strong cast of characters back from its 2009 team that finished strong.”

What happened: Forbush did make great strides in 2009, winning three conference games — including a pleasing 27-14 win at Ashe County. North Surry was by far the big-gest rags-to-riches story of the season, though, improving from 1-10 to 8-4. Joston Phipps electrified crowds with more than 3,000 all-purpose yards and bundles of touchdowns.

The 2010 season has been in the books for a few months, but preseason camp for 2011 will be here before you know it. Here are some questions to ponder during the off-season.

1. Can Starmount and Mount Airy keep it going in their respec-tive conferences?

The Rams and Granite Bears both have long league winning streaks in tact. Starmount will graduate a very talented senior class from its program, but so will some of the other 2010 Mountain Valley contenders like Wilkes Cen-tral and Elkin.

Mount Airy broke in several young play-ers at key positions. Their losses to graduation don’t look to be as great, but there will be some big holes to fill (at quarterback, etc.).

League coaches and media project Star-mount and Wilkes Central to be the front-run-ners in the MVAC in 2011, while West Stokes and Mount Airy look on paper like the teams to beat in the Northwest.

Who will be next year’s North Surry? May-be North Surry again. Surry Central? Forbush? East Wilkes? West Wilkes? South Stokes?

2. Who will be the marquee players of 2011?

Coaches and media observers were able to pinpoint many of the 2010 stars heading into the season. Our cover boys for the preseason Foothills Football magazine — Starmount’s Jake Barr, Elkin’s Alex Ratley, West Stokes’ Austin Fleming, Mount Airy’s Ben Hinson and Wilkes Central’s Trae Alexander — all were top notch.

Fleming is the only underclassmen from that group and should be poised for some more monster numbers from the quarterback posi-tion in 2011.

This was the year of the running back in many ways. Look for Surry Central’s Wes Brown and East Wilkes’ Landon Walker to help power rushing attacks at their respective schools in the fall. Starmount loses its most punishing rusher in MJ Bryant but will return fleet-footed athletes like Fondae McDaniel, Eugene Billips and Christian Hurt.

West Stokes and Starmount both had great JV programs that could keep the pipelines go-ing in King and Boonville.

Wilkes Central has an emerging defensive

star in Kasain Tillman.

3. How will shortening the sea-son by a week impact teams, schedules and rivalries?

Instead of having 12 weeks to play either 10 or 11 games, the N.C. High School Athletic Association now will give teams 11 weeks to play either 10 or 11 games.

If schools that have typically scheduled 11 games want to keep their open date, they’ll have to drop a non-conference foe. Already, we know that Starmount and North Surry won’t meet in 2011 (the loss of a great rivalry game).

What other big games will be on the chop-ping block?

Rather than shortening the regular season by a week, it might have been more prudent for the NCHSAA to trim the playoffs by a week. That would make the regular season that much more important and still give schools a chance to play three or four non-conference games without having to sacrifice an open date.

Photo by Eric LuskAlex Ratcliff (11), Joston Phipps (1) and the North Surry Grey-hounds engineered a rags-to-riches turnaround this season. North Surry, which went 1-10 in 2009, won eight games this past fall.

Three questions looming for the ’11 season


2010 POST-SEASON POWER RANKINGS

FOOTHILLS ELITE EIGHTWe faced a tough task deciding which team

to put on top of our Foothills Football end-of-season Elite Eight power rankings.

Starmount blitzed through the regular sea-son, winning all 11 games and outscoring foes 575-81. But the Rams stumbled in the open-ing round of the state playoffs, 24-14 to East Rutherford. Wilkes Central, meanwhile, won a pair of state playoff games in the tough 2AA bracket, the only Foothills team still standing on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Do you reward the team with the best body of work (Starmount) or the team that made the deepest playoff run (Wilkes Central)?

In the end, we give the nod to the Starmount Rams. Their overall season performance was just too impressive to overlook at No. 1, de-spite the surprising opening round KO from the post-season. Plus, Starmount’s final vic-tory came by three touchdowns against Wilkes Central (35-14) on the last night of the regular season.

Both schools can hang their hats on great 2010 campaigns, along with these other six teams that comprise our final Elite Eight:

1. Starmount2010 Record: 11-1 overall, 8-0 MVACPlayoffs: Lost in the opening round to East

Rutherford, 24-14.The Mountain Valley was down overall as

a conference this season, but it’s hard to argue against a team that beat some pretty good op-position all season long by eye-popping num-bers. Starmount started the season with a 50-23 triumph against Mount Airy, handed North Surry a 52-0 shellacking and drilled Elkin 59-0 in a record-setting Battle of the Bridge perfor-mance. The 35-14 win at Wilkes Central on Nov. 5 clinched the Rams spot at No. 1.

2. Wilkes Central2010 Record: 10-4 overall, 7-1 MVACPlayoffs: Beat West Lincoln 35-27 and won

at Pisgah 24-16 before falling in round three at Shelby.

Coach Jeremy Funderburk’s Eagles lost their first two games before ripping off eight wins in a row. Undeterred by a home loss to Star-mount in what amounted to the Mountain Val-ley championship game, Central rebounded to beat two pretty good teams in the 2AA bracket. Trae Alexander proved one of the most electric players in the Foothills region, finishing with 2,015 yards and 25 rushing touchdowns.

3. Mount Airy2010 Record: 10-3 overall, 7-0 NorthwestPlayoffs: Beat Central Academy 41-6 for

starters before falling to eventual 1AA cham-pion Albemarle in round two.

What started as a season full of question marks became another autumn full of excla-mation points. The Granite Bears gave up 50 points in their opener at Starmount, but then came back and battled Thomasville close in week two. From there, coach Kelly Holder’s team reeled off 10 wins in a row, not stopping until collecting its fourth-straight undefeated conference championship. Only the 1AA state champions from Albemarle halted their run.

T-4. Bishop McGuinness North Surry West Stokes

Bishop’s 2010 Record: 9-3 overall, 5-2 Northwest

North Surry’s 2010 Record: 8-4 overall, 5-2 Northwest

West Stokes’s 2010 Record: 7-5 overall, 5-2 Northwest

Playoffs: Bishop lost to 1AA champion

Albemarle 27-14 in the opening round. North Surry fell 56-28 to Salisbury in its 2AA playoff opener. West Stokes dropped a 51-30 decision to Berry Academy in its 2AA round one game.

During the season, we updated our Elite Eight list each week at www.YadkinVal-leySports.com. The final Elite Eight power rankings of the regular season had Bishop, North Surry and West Stokes all tied for fourth

Despite early playoff exit, Starmount deserves top spot in our final poll

place, and we figured the teams would do some-thing to separate themselves in the playoffs.

Well, no one really did. And we just can’t find a way to separate them now either. Bishop has the best overall record, winning nine games. But it’s hard to compare schedules since two of West Stokes’ defeats came against 4A foes, while the Villains played a couple of non-public school teams that no one else from the area faced.

All three teams had the same 5-2 conference re-cord -- with each losing to Mount Airy, each beat-ing South Stokes, Surry Central, East Surry and North Stokes; and each splitting with one another. Sure, North Surry had a much more lopsided loss to Mount Airy than Bishop or West Stokes, but the Greyhounds played without starting quarter-back Tanner Hiatt that night -- something that surely slowed their offense down considerably.

Rather than nitpick details, we’ll just leave the three tied at No. 4 and tip our hat to all three for a great season.

7. West Wilkes2010 Record: 6-7 overall, 5-3 MVACPlayoffs: Won its opener 17-14 against East

Wilkes before falling 35-29 at Mitchell in round two.

The ’Hawks were way off most radar screens early in the season after losing their first three games, including a 46-14 defeat at home against

Wilkes Central. But West Wilkes rebounded to win three of the next four, including a shutout at Forbush and a 17-14 triumph against Elkin.

Coach Scott Hallock’s group won its last two regular season games to earn a home playoff game, then beat East Wilkes for a second time to advance to round two. The Blackhawks led Mitchell 22-21 after three quarters but couldn’t hang on. Mitchell eventually played for the 1AA West title two weeks later before falling by two touchdowns to Albemarle.

8. Elkin2010 Record: 7-6 overall, 5-3 MVACPlayoffs: Enjoyed a 59-19 win against Chero-

kee in its opener before falling at Robbinsville 42-7 in round two.

Scott Wood took over for the legendary Rich-ard Grissom and fielded a solid team in his debut as the head coach. Elkin was stocked at Wood’s former position of linemen, but they lacked the true breakaway speed that marked some of the Buckin’ Elks title teams from earlier in the de-cade.

There were some uncustomary losses (Star-mount, Charlotte Latin) but some big wins as well, including an impressive showing against East Wilkes to start the conference campaign and a 59-point effort in the playoff opener against vis-iting Cherokee.

Photo by Eric LuskFondae McDaniel (4) of Starmount holds up the ball after recovering a fumble in an early November game at Wilkes Central. The Rams won that one 35-14 to seal up the Mountain Valley 1A/2A Conference title.

Preseason Elite EightPower Rankings

1. Mount Airy Granite Bears2. Starmount Rams3. Elkin Buckin’ Elks4. West Stokes Wildcats5. Bishop McGuinness Villains6. Wilkes Central Eagles7. East Surry Cardinals8. Ashe CountyKnocking on the door: East Wilkes … North Surry … Forbush

Photo by Eric LuskTyler Billings (77) and Ethan Creed celebrate an Elkin touchdown in an early season game. The Elks finished 7-6 this fall.

WINTER 2010-11 EDITION 13

Downtown

ElkinA great townA great place to shop

2010 NEWS, NOTES & OBSERVATIONS

Five earn spots on all-state team

Four players from Surry County and one from Yadkin County earned spots on the NCPreps.

com all-state football teams.The Mount Airy High trio of Josh

Smith, Jokton Moore and Austin Tay-lor made the NCPreps 1A all-state hon-ors list, while Starmount’s Jake Barr and North Surry’s Joston Phipps were recognized as 2A all-state.

Smith, a senior captain, played on the offensive line for the Granite Bears. With Smith helping pave the way, Mount Airy (10-3) averaged 230.8 rushing yards per game and 117.6 pass-ing yards per contest.

Moore, a junior, was recognized as a defensive back. He piled up 114 tackles, averaging 8.8 hits per contest. Moore intercepted six passes, recov-ered two fumbles and covered three more loose balls.

Taylor, a sophomore, earned 1A all-state as an “athlete” — a word used in football circles for someone who is an all-purpose talent. He caught 20 passes for 358 yards and three touchdowns. Defensively, he was in on 48 tackles and picked off seven passes. Taylor was especially dangerous on kick returns, re-turning one 92 yards for a touchdown against Surry Central for example.

Barr and Phipps also were recognized as all-state “athletes” by NCPreps.com.

Barr played quarterback and defensive back for the Rams, who won their third straight Mountain Valley Conference championship. He was voted the league’s offensive player of the year for the second year in a row. Barr

rushed for 808 yards and 14 touch-downs. He completed 30 of 53 passes for 683 yards and eight touchdowns, with three interceptions.

On the defensive end, Barr recorded 47 tackles, a fumble recovery, a fum-ble returned for a touchdown, seven pass break-ups and four interceptions. He returned two picks for touchdowns.

Phipps rushed for 2,484 yards as the featured running back in North Sur-ry’s offense, helping the Greyhounds bounce back from a 1-10 campaign in 2009 to an eight-win season this past fall.

Phipps finished with 3,344 all-pur-pose yards and scored 39 total touch-downs. He was voted the Northwest 1A/2A Conference’s offensive MVP.

The NCPreps.com 1A Offensive Player of the Year was Murphy quar-terback Seth Curtis. The 1A Defensive Player of the Year was Travian McK-enzie of Wallace-Rose Hill. The 1A Coach of the Year was Tom Eanes of Pender.

On the 2A side, Carrboro quarter-back Derek Bryant was voted the 2A Offensive Player of the Year. The 2A

Defensive Player of the Year was linebacker Matthew Fuhr of South Granville. Coaches of the year included Jeff Craddock of Tarboro and Joe Pinyan of Salisbury.

Mount Airy trio, Starmount QB, North Surry RB honored by NCPreps.com

Photo by Eric LuskSenior offensive lineman Josh Smith was one of three Mount Airy play-ers to make the NCPreps.com all-state team.

Elkin’s Ratley, Starmount’s Barr commit to CampbellFor the past four years, Jake

Barr of Starmount and Alex Ratley of Elkin have been on

opposite sides of the Battle of the Bridge football rivalry.

Starting this fall, the pair will be teammates.

Barr and Ratley both announced in late January they had committed to play football for Campbell Uni-versity.

The private school, located in Buies Creek about 45 minutes south of Raleigh, restarted its foot-ball program in 2008. Campbell plays in the Pioneer League, a member of the Football Champion-

ship Subdivision (formerly Divi-sion I-AA). The Camels were 3-8 last season.

Barr started at quarterback and defensive back for Starmount most of his four years in the pro-gram. He earned all-conference honors on both sides of the ball the past two seasons and was voted the MVAC’s offensive MVP both years. NCPreps.com recognized Barr as an all-state athlete for 2A schools.

Ratley emerged as a starting offensive lineman for Elkin as a sophomore. He went on to start on both sides of the ball, earning

all-conference status the past two years.

Campbell’s roster heading into spring practice is filled mostly with North Carolina players. The Fight-ing Camels are coached by Dale Steele, a former assistant coach for a number of programs, including East Carolina, Baylor, Kansas State and Elon.

Bishop McGuinness announced one football commitment in Janu-ary. Senior tight end/linebacker Peter Fields planned to sign with the University of Findlay in Ohio. Findlay is a Division II school.

Photo by Eric LuskElkin’s Alex Ratley.



Introducing Eugene Lyons Stadium

North Stokes officially named its football stadium after a beloved principal before ending the 2010 season.

The Vikings renamed its gridiron home Eugene Lyons Stadium and honored its first-ever principal during its Nov. 5 home game against Bishop McGuinness.

Lyons served as North Stokes principal from when the school opened in 1964 until 1984. He later served as a Stokes County commissioner.

The Viking bleachers were packed for Lyons ceremony.

“His name is synonymous with North Stokes,” John Booth, who worked for Lyons and later served as principal at South Stokes High, told The Stokes News. “When he spoke, you walked the line. He’s earned the respect to have this.”

Lyons, now 84, jokes that he never applied for the principal’s position. He was asked to take the job at one of the new consolidated county schools by former superintendent R.M. Green.

“I am so happy that I made that decision,” Ly-ons was quoted as saying in a November story in The Stokes News. “I have had so many students that came through that school up there, and they have been so successful at what they do in life … I just love working with young people, seeing them accomplish things.”

North Stokes names football home in honor of beloved long-time principal

Photo by Eric LuskNorth Stokes’ football team now plays its home games in Eugene Lyons Stadium. Lyons was the school’s first principal and served for many years. “His name is synonumous with North Stokes,” one colleague said.

Football with a roarPhoto by Eric Lusk

Flanked by roaring Harley Davidson motorcyles, West Wilkes High’s football team prepares to charge on to the field before its state playoff game against rival East Wilkes. The Harley intro is a unique tradition at West Wilkes home games, one that draws riders and fans from far and wide to participate. First, cheerlead-ers take a lap around the track, then the motorcycles form a tunnel on the field, which players and coaches run through.

16 FOOTHILLS FOOTBALL


Match-ups we would have loved to see

High school football fans across the Yadkin Valley saw plenty of great games

and performances this past fall. But here are a few match-ups many fans may have paid extra to see that un-fortunately weren’t in the cards:

1. Wilkes Central vs. North SurryAn Eagles vs. Greyhounds

showdown this season would have featured a pair of 2,000-yard run-ning backs (Wilkes Central’s Trae Alexander and North Surry’s Jos-ton Phipps) in opposing backfields. Can you say potential offensive showcase?

2. Wilkes Central vs. Mount AiryA series between the 2A Eagles

and 1A Granite Bears was talked about when the new conference alignments came out before the start of the 2009 season. But neither school could find an opening on their schedule for the other. Imag-ine Trae Alexander and the Eagles going against Mount Airy’s tough-as-nails defense this past fall.

3. Starmount vs. Charlotte LatinElkin played the second half of

a home-and-home series against Latin this season (and probably re-gretted scheduling the Hawks after absorbing a 51-0 loss leading up to the Starmount game). This might have been the year for a team like Starmount, which had one of its best squads in school history, to tackle such a tough non-conference challenge.

4. Starmount vs. West StokesThe teams played each other early in the

season for a few years prior to 2009. Imagine a game this season featuring all-conference quar-terbacks Austin Fleming (West Stokes) and Jake Barr (Starmount) going head-to-head. It would have been the local version of Tim Tebow vs. Sam Bradford.

5. Elkin vs. Mount AiryOne of the casualties of the new-look North-

west and Mountain Valley conferences has been the loss of what had been one of the most an-ticipated games each season between the 1A county rivals.

The Elks and Bears have played in six “small

1A” state championship games since 2002, with Elkin winning four titles and Mount Airy one.

The Elks and Bears met in the 2007 playoffs but there has been a big void in Surry County football since the schools were shuffled into dif-ferent conferences two years ago and dropped each other from their respective schedules.

6. East Wilkes vs. East SurryThese teams played some great games in the

former Northwest 1A. The two red-clad teams nicknamed Cardinals faced off in the opening round of the 2009 playoffs as well, with East Wilkes squeaking out a win in the final seconds. It would be nice to see new life given to this rivalry in the future.

7. Starmount vs. ThomasvilleThere were many who predicted a Rams vs.

Bulldogs showdown in the 2A West Regional fi-

nal. Starmount didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs, while Thomasville was ousted in round two. Maybe they should have played anyway on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

8. Mount Airy vs. Wallace-Rose HillA rematch of the 2009 Class 1A state cham-

pionship game (won by Wallace-Rose Hill by one point in OT) might have been a reality had the Granite Bears played in the small 1A bracket this season. Instead, Mount Airy’s en-rollment pushed the Bears into the “big 1A” (or 1AA) bracket. Mount Airy fell to eventual 1AA champion Albemarle in the second round. Wal-lace-Rose Hill, meanwhile, won another state championship squeaker — beating Murphy by a point for its seconds straight 1A title.

Eight games that weren’t on the 2010 schedule that could have been blockbusters

Photo by Eric LuskThis would have been a great year to see West Stokes and Starmount play each other. The Wildcats and Rams featured two of the top quarterbacks in the area in Austin Fleming (left) and Jake Barr.



Starmount rushes into record books

Starmount literally ran over a number of its football opponents this season.

The Rams rushed their way into the state record books on a couple of occasions and broke some of its own single-season school re-cords as well.

The Rams’ 581-yard rushing performance against Elkin on Oct. 1 was the 14th most prolif-ic single-game effort in state history, according to the N.C. High School Athletic Association.

Starmount’s 531 rushing yards against West Wilkes on Oct. 15 was the 23rd best ground-game performance in state history.

The NCHSAA noted both efforts on its Web site (www.nchsaa.org). The state record for most rushing yards in a single game is 745 yards, set by South Columbus against Eastern Guilford in 1998.

Despite being eliminated from the playoffs in the first round, Starmount edited its own single season rushing record by several football fields. The previous record had been 4,442 yards. The 2010 Rams finished with 4,655 yards in the reg-ular season and 4,954 yards total. Starmount ball carriers found the end zone 73 times and aver-aged an amazing 10.13 yards per attempt.

Coach Scott Johnson’s teams broke the school’s scoring record as well. Starmount scored 589 points in 12 games, besting the 527 points the 2002 squad earned (over 14 games). The Rams crossed the half-century mark in eight games and reached the 60-point plateau on three different occasions (with a season high of 68 against North Wilkes).

Senior MJ Bryant was Starmount’s leading ground-gainer, piling up 1,453 yards and 21

Rams break school records, earn spot among the state’s best ground gainers

Photo by Eric LuskSenior Israel Murphy was one cog in the Rams’ rushing juggernaut this past season. Murphy finished with 754 rushing yards and eight touchdowns. In all, Starmount backs accounted for 4,655 yards on the ground.

touchdowns.Amazingly, the Rams had seven players

rush for 200 or more yards.Israel Murphy was second-highest on the

team with 857 yards, followed by Jake Barr

(808), Fondae McDaniel (554), Eugene Billips (438), Jac McCracken (265) and Brian King (207).

Ten different backs scored at least one touchdown.

Rams’ 68-point outburstpales in comparison

Starmount scored a whopping 10 touchdowns and put up 68 points against North Wilkes on Oct. 22. But the Rams weren’t even close to be-ing the state’s high scorer that weekend.

Polk County earned that distinction with its 90-17 win over Thomas Jefferson Academy. Polk led the game 70-0 at halftime.

Quarterback Andre Overholt returned the opening kickoff for a touchdown and threw five touchdown passes in the rout.

While Polk coaches came under fire for the

lopsided final margin, Thomas Jefferson coach-es declined to use a running clock in the second half and threw 52 passes to extend the game.

Polk only ran 17 offensive plays in the first half and starters didn’t play beyond the second quarter.

Neither Starmount nor Polk were anywhere near a state record for points in a game. Accord-ing to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, the single- game record for points is 142, held by the now-defunct Windsor High.

THEY SAID IT“I think that second half was

about the best we’ve played all year. This team has done some things

recently that I’m very proud of. We’ve really started to gel as a team and

it’s just too bad that it’s unfortunately come too late.”

Chris JohnsonFirst-year Forbush coach after his

team’s season finale vs. Elkin


High scoresThe top scoring performances of 201068 Starmount, against North Wilkes on Oct. 22

66 Starmount, against Alleghany on Oct. 29

63 East Wilkes, against Alleghany on Oct. 8

62 Wilkes Central, against North Wilkes on Sept. 17

59 Elkin, against Cherokee on Nov. 12

59 Starmount, against Elkin on Oct. 1

58 Elkin, against North Wilkes on Oct. 15

55 Forbush, against North Wilkes on Sept. 24

55 North Surry, against Ashe County on Sept. 10

55 Starmount, against West Wilkes on Oct. 15

54 East Wilkes, against. North Wilkes on Oct. 1

53 Starmount, against East Wilkes on Sept. 17

52 Mount Airy, against South Stokes on Oct. 29

52 Wilkes Central, against Surry Central on Sept. 3


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Hounds, Bears, Villains each lose to eventual state champs in playoffsNorthwest 1A/2A conference rivals North Surry, Mount Airy

and Bishop McGuinness had one big thing in common this season. All three teams lost to eventual state champions dur-

ing the state playoffs.North Surry fell in its playoff opener to Salisbury, 56-21. The Hor-

nets kept winning, topping Northeastern 30-0 in the 2AA state cham-pionship game on Dec. 11.

Bishop McGuinness and Mount Airy both fell to eventual 1AA champion Albemarle. Bishop pushed the Bulldogs to the limit before falling 27-14 in the opening round. Mount Airy lost to Albemarle 38-14 at home the next week.

Albemarle should have been a higher seed in the 1AA brackets based on its on-the-field play, but the Bulldogs had to forfeit three easy wins because it used an ineligible player.

That discrepancy actually served to punish Mount Airy and Bishop as well. Mount Airy was seeded first in the 1AA West bracket, while Bishop drew the No. 4 seed. Albemarle, which won the 2009 state title, dropped to a No. 5 seed when it could have been a No. 1 or No. 2 since it had won 10 of its 11 games on the field in the regular season.

There were 13 inter-conference games played this season between teams from the Mountain Valley 1A/2A and Northwest 1A/2A.

The MVAC had the edge in head-to-head meetings 7-6.Starmount earned three wins over Northwest foes, sweeping Mount Airy,

East Surry and North Surry during the first weeks of the season. Despite losing to the Rams, North Surry enjoyed three victories against MVAC op-ponents, beating Elkin, Forbush and Ashe County.

East Wilkes helped put the MVAC over the top with a pair of victories, slipping past Surry Central in overtime and shutting out North Stokes on the road.

With the state athletic association moving to a regional pod format for the state playoffs, it was reasonable to think that more MVAC vs. Northwest match-ups might have been in the offering during the post-season. But none materialized. The closest we got was East Wilkes traveling to West Wilkes in the first round of the 1AA bracket. Both of those teams are in the MVAC.

At least for a year anyways, the Mountain Valley can enjoy a slight brag-ging rights advantage of its neighboring conference.

Photo by Eric LuskSteven Gregory of East Wilkes knocks the ball away from Matthew Hopkins of North Stokes in the teams’ September meeting.East won 25-0.

Mountain Valley teams edge Northwest in head-to-head


2010 POST-SEASON ALL-FOOTHILLS TEAM

BEST OF THE BEST

Trying to pick the top football play-ers for the first-ever Foothills All-Area team was certainly no easy

task. How do you boil down a list of more than 100 all-conference performers from two talented conferences into a roster of 25 all-stars?

Well, we gave it our best shot. We asked coaches from the Mountain Valley 1A/2A and Northwest 1A/2A conferences to nominate prospects. We scoured through pages of stats. We read stories from the season and asked other trusted football experts.

In the end, there was so much talent that we decided to field a first-team lineup as well as a second-team lineup and an hon-orable mention list.

Unlike other awards teams, we broke things down by position group for the first and second teams. And we limited our-selves to using each player only once (i.e, if they were picked for an offensive spot, they wouldn’t be picked on defense, etc).

If only we could take the field with this group all together as one unit. That would be something to see for sure.

This deck of Mountain Valley and Northwest elite is stacked with aces

Photos by Eric LuskJordan Hall of West Stokes, Jokton Mooore of Mount Airy and Tyler Billings of Elkin were three of our first-team All-Foothills selections. All three earned first-team all-conference status, with Hall voted his conference’s defensive MVP

1st-Team Offense

QUARTERBACK (1)Austin Fleming (West Stokes)

RUNNING BACKS (3)Joston Phipps (North Surry)Trae Alexander (Wilkes Central)Wes Brown (Surry Central)

WIDE RECEIVER (2)Andrew Adams (West Wilkes)Andrew Hunter (East Surry)

OFFENSIVE LINE (5)Josh Smith (Mount Airy)Tyler Billings (Elkin)Dillon Bray (Starmount)Drew Vestal (Starmount)Jack Haymore (South Stokes)

PLACE-KICKER (1)Scott Leonard (West Stokes)

1st-Team Defense

DEFENSIVE LINE (4)Tommy Pruitt (West Wilkes)Chou Lor (Mount Airy)Kasain Tilman (Wilkes Central)Steven Sawyers (North Surry)

LINEBACKER (3)M.J. Bryant (Starmount)Jordan Hall (West Stokes)Devin Slate (East Surry)

DEFENSIVE BACK (4)Jake Barr (Starmount)Jokton Moore (Mount Airy)Chase Vogt (West Wilkes)Lucas Elliott (West Stokes)

PUNTER (1)Steven Gregory (East Wilkes)

RETURN SPECIALIST (1)Marty DeFrancesco (Bishop)

2nd-Team Offense

QUARTERBACK (1)Ben Hinson (Mount Airy)

RUNNING BACK (3)Tyler Woods (West Wilkes)Landon Walker (East Wilkes)Jared Pluciniczak (Bishop)

WIDE RECEIVER (2)DeMarion Jones (West Stokes)Luke Bowen (West Stokes)

OFFENSIVE LINE (5)Alex Ratley (Elkin)Noel Helms (West Stokes)Dylan Ferri (Bishop McGuinness)Aaron Sparks (Wilkes Central)Rex Reynolds (Wilkes Central)

PLACEKICKER (1)Ben O’Donnell (Starmount)

2nd-Team Defense

DEFENSIVE LINE (4)Brandon Oliver (Starmount)Steven Guillian (Starmount)Eric Garrett (Wilkes Central)Zach Hudler (Ashe County)

LINEBACKER (3)Israel Murphy (Starmount)Jason King (North Surry)Chris Watt (Wilkes Central)

DEFENSIVE BACK (4)Buck Southern (West Stokes)Austin Taylor (Mount Airy)Dustin Triplett (Wilkes Central)Jonathan Brown (North Surry)

PUNTER (1)Jacob Hauser (North Surry)

RETURN SPECIALIST (1)Jared Dimmette (Surry Central)

Honorable MentionOffense

Terry Adams (Mount Airy), Ethan Creed (Elkin),Stephen Ervin (West Wilkes), Tim Fahrner (East Surry), Grayson Fulp (Forbush), Evan Handy (North Wilkes), Tanner Hiatt (North Surry), Kyle Hoff-man (Alleghany), Corey Huffman (North Wilkes), Dalton Johnson (Wilkes Central), Austin McConnell (Wilkes Central), Fondae McDaniel (Starmount), Tyler Morgan (Forbush), Kyle Moser (North Surry), Alek Ottaway (North Stokes), Adam Parker (Wilkes Central), Ben Pierce (West Wilkes), Nick Ricks (Mount Airy), Cody Riddle (East Wilkes), Dillon Rogers (North Stokes), Dee Rucker (Mount Airy), Jordan Schwartz (Mount Airy), Matthew Sexton (Ashe County), Nick Sgroi (Bishop McGuinness), Caleb Shoupe (East Wilkes), Zach Shumate (North Wilkes), Nick Thomas (Surry Central), Mike Urban (Bishop McGuinness), Connor Vanhoy (Starmount), Joe Weaver (Ashe County), McKinley White (East Wilkes)

Honorable MentionDefense

Eugene Billips (Starmount), Drew Bowman (North Stokes), Jordan Carlton (Wilkes Central), Chasey Caul (Wilkes Central), Chris Coles (Wilkes Central)Julius Coram (Mount Airy), Elijah Cox (West Stokes), Jason Esparza (Surry Central), Chris Greene (East Wilkes), Luke Hampton (Alleghany)Blake Johnston (North Wilkes), Pat Kennedy (Elkin)Darryl Little (West Stokes), Jac McCracken (Star-mount), Garrett Miller (East Wilkes), Andrew Russell (Ashe County), Ethan Smith (North Stokes), Fara-khan Smith (Mount Airy), Zack Singleton (South Stokes), Ryan Tucker (North Stokes), Tanner Vestal (Starmount), Jimmy Wagoner (Elkin), Ryan Ward (West Stokes), Kyle Weatherman (Starmount), Jesse White (East Wilkes), Tyler White (Surry Cen-tral), Alex Wilmoth (Surry Central), Josh Wineberg (Ashe County).

Honorable MentionKickerJose Hernandez (Forbush)

2010 Foothills All-Area Team, Continued


GAME OF THE YEAR

Editor’s Note: This story was first published at www.Yadkin ValleySports.com on Oct. 29.

By Phil GobleContributing Writer

N orth Surry was dead Friday night. The offense was sputtering, scoring just seven points in the first two and a half quarters. The defense had given up 31 points. Time was running out and East Surry’s varsity football team was rocking

and rolling on Senior Night at Cardinal Stadium. There was just one problem – nobody bothered to tell the Greyhounds they were goners.

In a game that will go down as one of the greatest in coun-ty history, North Surry scored 32 points in the last 18:52 to walk off with a 39-38 win in the county clash of Northwest 1A/2A Conference teams.

And even that description does not do this rally justice.“It feels like, now, we can win any ball game we’re in,”

North Surry quarterback Tanner Hiatt said after his team moved to 8-2 overall and 5-1 in the league. “It feels like we can win … oh man!”

Don’t believe him? Well, consider this: the Greyhounds were down, 31-7, with 6:52 left in the third quarter — and 38-19 as the fourth quarter began. And oh, what a fourth quarter it was. Actually, the last 52 seconds were the best.

INSTANT CLASSICNorth Surry rallies from 31-7 deficit to beat Cards

grabbed his most important reception of the night – the two-point conversion that gave North Surry the 39-38 lead. It was the only lead of the game for the Greyhounds, but it’s a lead that will live forever.

“I thought it was incomplete,” Coach Hampton said. “Then I saw his (referee’s) hands go up and I just started running.”

But the game was not over. East Surry still had 25 seconds to play. The Cardinals returned the kickoff to their own 33 with 19 seconds left. Quarterback Ryan Johnson dropped back and fired a pass quickly downfield. It was caught, but not by a Cardinal – Phipps hauled in the pass and ran it back to the North Surry 34. Hiatt took a knee on the next play and the clock ticked its way to 0:00.

The comeback was complete.“I did a sorry job as a coach and I let our team down,” East

Surry coach David Diamont said. “All I can say is I did a bad job as a coach. I totally accept responsibility for this collapse. It never should have gotten to that point (in the last 52 seconds). I’m disappointed for our seniors. Very frustrated.”

The Cardinals wound up with 340 yards of total offense, led by junior Jordan Miller, who rushed for 154 yards and a touch-down. Johnson completed 4-of-16 passes for 53 yards and two touchdowns and had a spectacular play when he blocked a punt and grabbed the ball with one swipe en route to the end zone.

Phipps had 104 yards rushing, 16 yards receiving and three scores for the Greyhounds. Hiatt completed 14-of-40 passes for 211 yards and four touchdowns. Brown led all receivers with 85 yards and two scores on five grabs.

“They were stopping us (the first half),” Phipps said. “Coach told us (at halftime) to play hard and to play to the whistle.”

A whistle that marked not the death of their hopes, but the beginning of their celebration.

North Surry 39, East Surry 38October 29 * at Pilot Mountain

North Surry 0 7 12 20 — 39East Surry 7 21 3 7 — 38

ES – Ryan Johnson 9-yard run (Trevor Simmons kick), 2:10, 1st.ES – Chase Mills 9-yard pass from R. Johnson (T. Simmons kick), 7:55, 2nd.ES – R. Johnson, 29-yard punt block and return (T. Simmons kick), 6:09, 2nd.NS – Jonathan Brown 11-yard pass from Tanner Hiatt (Jacob Hauser kick), 3:28, 2nd.ES – Jordan Miller 50-yard run (T. Simmons kick), 3:06, 2nd.ES – T. Simmons 27-yard field goal, 6:52, 3rd.NS – Joston Phipps 5-yard run (kick failed), 4:58, 3rd.NS – Phipps 48-yard run (pass failed), 3:00, 3rd.ES – Andrew Hunter 24-yard pass from R. Johnson (T. Simmons kick), 1:39, 3rd.NS – Daniel Draughn 3-yard pass from T. Hiatt (pass failed), 11:13, 4th.NS – J. Brown 22-yard pass from T. Hiatt (pass failed), 0:52, 4th.NS – J. Phipps 8-yard pass from T. Hiatt (T. Hiatt pass to D. Draughn), 0:25, 4th.

INDIVIDUAL STATSRushing — North Surry (21-100): J. Phipps 18-104, two touchdowns; Dillon Hawks 1-8; T. Hiatt 2-(-12). East Surry (43-287): J. Miller 20-154, touchdown; R. Johnson 9-44, touchdown; Andrew Gosnell 7-48; Cole Watson 6-35; Kyle Shinault 1-6.Passing — North Surry: T. Hiatt 14-for-40, 211 yards, four touch-downs. East Surry: R. Johnson 4-for-16, 53 yards, two interceptions, two touchdowns.Receiving — North Surry: J. Brown 5-85, two touchdowns; J. Phipps 3-16, touchdown; D. Draughn 1-3, touchdown; D. Hawks 2-33; A. Rat-cliff 2-54; C. Gough 1-20. East Surry: Chase Mills 2-23, touchdown; Andrew Hunter 1-24, touchdown; Dustin Holder 1-6.

Trailing 38-25 with 2:34 left in the game, Hi-att completed 5-of-8 passes in a 67-yard drive that ended with a touchdown pass to Jonathan Brown on the right side. Brown caught Hiatt’s 22-yard strike on the sideline and stretched over the goal line.

The two-point conversion fell incomplete and the Greyhounds trailed by seven.

On the ensuing kickoff, with East Surry’s en-tire special teams playing in two lines barely 10 yards apart, North Surry kicker Jacob Hauser bounced a kick that caromed off a Cardinal and into the hands of Greyhound junior Chase Gough.

North Surry had possession of the ball 42 yards from the end zone with 46 seconds to play. Hiatt’s first pass went to Alex Ratcliff and covered 26 yards, down to the East Surry 16. Hiatt and Ratcliff missed on the next attempt, but East Surry was flagged for pass interference. That made it first down and goal from the East Surry 8-yard line with 31 seconds to go.

The Cardinals called timeout.That’s when North Surry running back Joston

Phipps, who had been shut down for most of the game from the backfield, told Hiatt about a wrinkle he saw in the defense.

“I told him they are lining up a linebacker on the receiver,” Phipps said. “I told him I would step up (and block) and then leak out.”

The scheme worked to perfection. Phipps made his block, then slipped to the left – with no one between him and the end zone.

Eight yards later, North Surry was within one and the clock was down to 25 seconds.

The Greyhounds called timeout. The ques-tion became: Go for two and the win or one and the tie? North Surry had managed just one extra-point kick all game. The Greyhounds had

one extra-point kick blocked and failed on three other two-point conversions.

It would have been easy to kick the extra point and go to overtime. Not for the Greyhounds.

Coach Brian Hampton called timeout and gave Hiatt a play. The senior quarterback stepped into the huddle, barked his orders and marched the Greyhounds to the line.

“We called a roll-out,” Hiatt said. “I was looking at the backside of the end zone.”

East Surry countered with a blitz. Before Hi-att knew it, Cardinal defenders were closing in from all sides.

“I was blocking out for him,” Phipps said. “I saw him just throw it up.”

“I just backed up and saw somebody in the back,” Hiatt said.

So he threw it up.Three yards away, in a scrum of bodies and

motion, the game would be won or lost.The ball crossed the goal line and, like a

highspeed pinball, bounced off a defender, then Gough.

“I said: ‘Somebody just go get it’,” Phipps said.

“Somebody” did.“Chase tipped it,” Hiatt said. “I saw him tip it

and it went right into Daniel’s arms.”Junior Daniel Draughn, who had already

snared a 3-yard touchdown pass from Hiatt,

Photo by Eric LuskNorth Surry’s spirit squad had plenty to cheer about this past season. The Greyhounds won eight games, including a 39-38 come-from-behind thriller at East Surry in late October. Photo by Eric Lusk

Daniel Draughn caught the game-winning two-point conversion for North Surry late in the fourth quarter.


TEAM IN FOCUS

By Eric LuskFoothills Football Editor

Charlie Jones still gets a good laugh when he thinks about the first Thursday game walk-through he ever did as head coach

of the Bishop McGuinness football program.“I remember kids showed up in flip-flops,”

Jones said. “They thought, well a walk-through really means a walk-through.”

A lot has changed since that time. Bishop McGuinness is no longer an afterthought on the gridiron, a team that foes want to schedule for homecoming. The private Catholic school from Kernersville — that is probably best known athletically for its five-time NCHSAA state champion girls basketball program — is growing into a football school, too.

The Villains posted their best football sea-son in program history in 2009, with their 9-3 overall record resulting in new school records for total wins, conference wins (five) and total points.

Along the way, Bishop recorded five shut-outs, spoiled West Stokes’ senior night with a 33-32 win in King and nearly handed East Surry its first regular season loss (falling 9-7 in Pilot Mountain on Oct. 9).

The nine-win campaign, which ended with a 34-21 playoff loss at West Montgomery in the first round, came on the heels of a 7-5 season in 2008.

Most pundits pre-dicted a top three showing for Bishop this past season in the Northwest 1A/2A Conference, a major dose of re-spect considering the level of football talent and tradi-tion in a league that features 2008 state champion Mount Airy, East Surry, West Stokes, North Stokes, North Surry, etc.

The Villains lived up to their billing, finish-ing in a three-way tie for runner-up honors with North Surry and West Stokes — a pair of 2A schools. Bishop finished 9-3 overall for the second year in a row, 5-2 in the Northwest.

Each loss was respectable, coming to unde-feated league champion Mount Airy (35-19), an eight-win North Surry squad (35-21) and

eventual 1A state champion Albemarle in the first round of the 1AA state playoffs (27-14).

“When we got here, it was pretty much at the beginning,” Jones said. “Our words were that we needed to build a football culture. Our kids really do understand that now. We have

good numbers in everything. We have the right num-ber of coaches and a very solid number of assistants who have been here for years.”

During the early part of Jones’ ten-ure, Bishop was known as a team that ran an un-orthodox offense, a variation of the Single-Wing, where a number of players go in motion before the snap to try and

confuse the defense. These days, Bishop’s talent, speed and skill

get as much notoriety. In 2009, the offense pro-duced two running backs — Marty DeFrances-co and Jared Pluciniczak — who earned more than 1,000 yards of total offense. Pluciniczak rushed for 950 yards and scored 13 touch-downs. DeFrancesco added another 700 on the ground and hauled in 500 through the air.

This past season, the speedy Pluciniczak rushed for 1,101 yards and 15 touchdowns — averaging more than six yards per carry. Quarterback Nick Sgroi galloped for another 895 yards and 13 scores, netting almost seven yards per tote. DeFrancesco added 606 rushing yards and nine scores.

“(The offense) really evolved when we were weaker and were just trying to stay in ball games,” Jones said. “Once we got used to it and we’ve seen that it has worked with our better athletes, we have just stayed with it. We don’t have a bunch of big guys who can run between the tackles, so this gives us a lot of deception and gives us a way to get our speed going.

“The coaches in our conference, nobody is fooled by it any more,” Jones continued. “But if we can just slow you down a second, that’s all we’re trying to do. If you can just create a little doubt.”

In the playoff game against Albemarle, Bishop rushed for more than 200 yards.

DeFrancesco was one yard shy of the cen-tury mark, including a 51-yard touchdown burst. The performance drew the praise of Al-bemarle coach Danny Akins, whose team went on to beat Mount Airy 38-14 the next week and then topped three more foes to repeat as state champs.

“I’m not surprised that the game was as close as it was,” Akins told the Winston-Salem Journal after the contest. “They’re a solid team. We knew we would be in for a battle.”

Villains building football tradition

Photo by Eric LuskHead coach Charlie Jones has guided Bishop McGuinness to back-to-back nine-win seasons. This past fall, the Villains finished in a three-way tie for second place in the ultra-tough Northwest 1A/2A.

Bishop McGuinness joined the N.C. High School Athletic Association in 2005. The Villains had their best season in school history in 2009 and duplicated that feat this past fall. Here’s a look at the team’s record since 2004.

2010 Record 9-3 NCHSAA2009 Record 9-3 NCHSAA2008 Record 7-5 NCHSAA2007 Record 3-9 NCHSAA2006 Record 2-9 NCHSAA2005 Record 5-6 NCHSAA2004 Record 3-7 NCISAA

JUNIOR VARSITY RECAP

By Eric LuskFoothills Football Editor

How does the old saying go? Some teams don’t rebuild, they just reload.

West Stokes and Starmount appear in great position to reload their 2011 varsity rosters thanks to strong junior varsity pro-grams.

The Wildcats and Rams both went undefeat-ed in their respective conferences. West Stokes finished 9-0 overall and 6-0 in the Northwest 1A/2A. Starmount enjoyed a 9-1 overall record

and went 8-0 against Mountain Valley foes.West Stokes earned five JV shutouts, includ-

ing three against conference opponents. They preserved their unbeaten streak with a 12-6 overtime victory against county rival South Stokes. Grayson Cobb rushed for the game-clinching TD in the extra period.

Cobb was voted the Offensive MVP of the JV Wildcats. Anthony Wilding was Defensive MVP, while Brock Reynolds was the overall Team MVP.

Starmount clinched the MVAC junior var-sity title with a 26-15 victory against Wilkes

Central in the final week. Chaston Martin rushed 13 times for 165 yards and scored three touchdowns in the victory.

The 15 points represented the most points Starmount’s JV’s surrendered all season. The lone loss came against North Surry, a 6-0 de-feat in week two.

Martin and Will Simpson were among the backfield leaders for Starmount. Martin rushed for nearly 200 yards and scored three times against West Wilkes. His second quarter score was the only one of the game in a 6-0 win against Elkin.

Wildcats, Rams capture JV league titlesCourtesy photo

West Stokes seems in prime position to reload its varsity roster thanks to a stellar JV program. The junior varsity Wildcats finished 9-0 overall, 6-0 in the Northwest.

Photo by Eric LuskIt was a great autumn of football for Starmount High School. The Rams varsity team went 11-1 while the junior varsity squad (pictured above) earned a 9-1 overall record. Neither Starmount team lost against a Mountain Valley 1A/2A opponent.


Mountain Valley1A/2A Conference

Photo by Eric LuskHOW SWEET IT IS: M.J. Bryant of Starmount enjoys a hard-earned touchdown against Wilkes Central in the regular season finale.

CONFERENCE RECAPS

Photo by Eric LuskWilkes Central’s Jordan Carlton looks for running room against Elkin’s Nick Phillips in a late Octo-ber game. The Eagles finished 7-1 in the Mountain Valley 1A/2A and won two state playoff games.

Starmount runs the table againBy Eric Lusk

Foothills Football Editor

M ost people figured Starmount’s football team would be pretty good this past season.

The Rams, after all, returned most of their skill players from

an undefeated conference championship squad — including the reigning Mountain Valley 1A/2A offensive player of the year (Jake Barr) and Mountain Valley defensive player of the year (M.J. Bryant).

While Starmount was the unanimous pick by league coaches to win the 2010 conference tro-phy, few likely expected the boys from Boon-ville to be the juggernaut they turned out to be. The 11-0 regular season record — 8-0 against MVAC opponents — is only the tip of the ice-berg.

The Rams outscored their 11 regular season foes 575-81. They put up 50 points against a Mount Airy team that would go on to win 10 games and another conference championship. They humbled a much improved North Surry team 52-0. They pinned a 59-0 defeat on a solid Elkin squad in what amounted to the most lopsided vic-tory margin since the series became known as the Battle of the Bridge in the late 1990s.

The only team to really give the Rams a scare was Wilkes Central on the final night of the regular season. The Eagles had the Rams tied up 14-14 after three quarters before Starmount tacked on three touchdowns

in the final period to pull away for a 35-14 triumph.

Rams coach Scott Johnson said he could sense how special this season would be back over the summer, when his players would participate in pass-ing league events (7-on-7 exhibi-tions, with no pads) against other area

schools.“You could see the speed then,” he said. “The only question mark was

how the line would come together.”No problems there. With standouts like Connor Vanhoy, Steven Guil-

lian, Ethan Mathis, Drew Vestal, Dillon Bray and Bobby Trivette lead-

ing the way, Starmount enjoyed the most prolific rushing attack in the school’s storied football history.

A bevy of backs toted the pigskin for nearly 50 football fields worth of yardage (4,954) in 12 total games and found the end zone 73 times.

Bulldozing fullback M.J. Bryant had the most yards with 1,453 yards. Tailback Israel Murphy (857 yards), quarterback Jake Barr (808 yards) and Fondae McDaniel (554 yards) made for a mean 1-3-3-4 punch out of the backfield. Those four tallied 55 touchdowns between them.

You know you’re having a great year when your No. 7 rushing option, in this case sophomore fullback Brian King, scored six touchdowns. King only needed 30 carries to achieve that feat, finishing with 207 yards in very productive mop-up duty.

Starmount’s dominance didn’t end when the other team had the ball either. Collectively, the Rams’ 12 opponents rushed for an average of less than 100 yards per game and only found the end zone eight times on the ground.

While Barr repeated as the MVAC’s offensive player of the year, Bry-ant once again locked up the league’s defensive MVP award. Bryant’s 82 tackles only tell a little bit of the story. His battle-scarred helmet reveals a whole lot more about him being one of the most feared players on the field in the Foothills area.

“He was the quarterback of our defense,” Johnson said. “He really worked hard.”

Regular Season Standings

Team Conf. PF PA Total PF PAStarmount (2A) 8-0 431 50 11-0 575 81Wilkes Central (2A) 7-1 311 133 8-3 376 213West Wilkes (1A) 5-3 185 187 5-6 214 298Elkin (1A) 5-3 189 151 6-5 233 242Ashe County (2A) 4-4 180 211 4-7 204 339 East Wilkes (1A) 3-5 197 188 5-6 275 238Forbush (2A) 3-5 174 203 3-7 191 279North Wilkes (1A) 1-7 109 400 1-10 117 513Alleghany (1A) 0-8 107 360 0-11 121 461

Rams outscore league foes 431-50 on way to MVAC repeat

Senior tailback Trae Alexander accounted for nearly half of Central’s rushing yardage, earning 2,015 and finding the end zone 25 times. While Starmount’s Bryant was a pun-isher, Alexander was more of a speedster and a slasher. Give him a crease or two, and he was tough to catch.

Funderburk said Alexander averaged more than nine yards per carry in both 2009 and 2010 and accounted for 54 touchdowns total over those two years.

“He was the best running back we saw all year, anytime and anywhere,” Funderburk said. “Hate to boast so much about him but he is that good. He has helped to put our program over the top this year. Humble, hardwork-ing, explosive, irreplaceable. A great student athlete that gets it done in every sense of the word.”

Central was far from a one-man band for sure. Quarterback Austin McConnell, a junior, emerged as a solid team leader and passed for 1,138 yards and 10 touchdowns. Brandon Par-sons added another 654 yards to the rushing ledger.

Tight end Adam Parker made 18 catches for 319 yards and three scores. Inside linebackers Chris Watt and Chasey Caul each accounted for 113 tackles on the defensive side.

Rex Reynolds and Aaron Sparks paved the way, along with Parker, on the offensive line. Kasain Tillman, a sophomore, evolved into one of the MVAC’s top defensive linemen —recording more than 70 tackles and 20 tack-les for loss. Tillman was the runner-up behind Bryant for defensive player of the year in the MVAC, Funderburk said, and helped set up de-fensive tackle Eric Garrett to make more than 100 hits.

Funderburk describes Tillman as “big, strong, mean and nasty when he needs to be. He made over 70 tackles and over 20 tackles for loss while fighting off double teams on a regular basis.”

Dustin Triplett led the defensive backfield and also was a dangerous kick-returner.

“This was an exciting year for Wilkes Cen-tral football and a special group of seniors left a legacy for others to live up to,” Funder-burk said. “We hope that our program can no longer be considered an also-ran. We would like to be competing with the likes of Pisgah and Shelby on a regular basis. Hopefully, 2010 was the sign of where our program is and will continue to be.”

West Wilkes gave the county two state playoff winners in week one, downing coun-ty rival East Wilkes 21-7 at home.

While Wilkes Central and Starmount used sheer explosiveness, the Blackhawks were more blue collar. They refused to get down after an 0-3 start, blanking Forbush 23-0 and then grinding out a 14-9 win against East Wilkes to start the conference season.

Despite losing to Ashe County, West re-

bounded to beat Elkin the next week, 17-14. That win ultimately helped push the Hawks into a state playoff home game.

The regular season closed with impressive wins against North Wilkes and Alleghany.

Tyler Woods, rushing behind the likes of Ben Pierce and Stephen Ervin, finished with 1,354 yards and 14 touchdowns. Andrew Ad-ams became one of the league’s top receivers. He hauled in 31 catches for 374 yards and six touchdowns.

“Adams is our biggest threat to make a big play at any time during the game,” West coach Scott Hallock said. “He was double-teamed most of the year and still dominated. He is a great kid, leader and athlete.”

Chase Vogt and Tommy Pruitt logged great seasons on the defensive side of the ball. Vogt racked up 146 tackles from his free safety spot.

He caused three fumbles and earned nine tack-les for loss.

In the playoff loss to Mitchell in week two of the post-season, Vogt got in on 26 tackles, keeping West Wilkes in contention until the end.

“He is all over the field and was also our best cover guy,” Hallock said. “He made over half of our biggest hits for the season. There is no player in Wilkes County who breaks on the ball better than Chase and has better stats to prove it.”

Pruitt played at defensive end and finished with 77 tackles and an amazing 22 tackles-for-loss. He had eight sacks. A bench press of more than 400 pound turned into a monstrous season on the line.

“Teams ran away from him all year,” Hal-lock said. “They made special game plans geared toward how they were going to block.”

Elkin made a coaching transition in the off-season, with the legendary Richard Grissom stepping aside and giving the reins to long-time assistant Scott Wood. The Buckin’ Elks were certainly stocked at Wood’s old position of lineman, and that proved the team’s strength much of the season.

It was a roller-coaster year at times. Elkin lacked its usual depth at the skill positions, and injuries seemed to be an issue from the start. Still, the Elks managed to win seven games against ultra-tough competition (which includ-ed six Class 2A schools, plus a date against independent schools power Charlotte Latin).

The state playoff opener against Cherokee likely revived memories of the state champi-onship runs from earlier in the 2000s. Elkin rolled up a 59-19 victory, getting more than 400 rushing yards from backs like Donovan Smith, Nick Phillips, Chris Hudspeth and Sam Lane. Zach Johnson turned a pass from quar-terback Ethan Creed into another long touch-down run.

All-conference linemen Tyler Billings and Alex Ratley — a pair of three-year starters —led the way up front. Pat Kennedy had an all-conference year on the defensive front. Jimmy Wagoner was a give-your-heart-and-soul type

Eugene Billips, one of the most improved Rams, picked off six passes this past season. Barr had another four INTs.

Dillon Bray recorded four sacks, recovered four fumbles and caused two more bobbles. Brandon Oliver earned three sacks, as did Kyle Weatherman and Steven Guillian. In all, Star-mount defenders wrapped up quarterbacks for 23 sacks.

Teams just couldn’t score against the Rams. Starmount gave up 23 points to Mount Airy in the opener, though two of those touchdowns came against reserves late in the fourth quarter. After that, the Rams shut out three foes and held five others to eight points or less. Ashe County and Wilkes Central were the only MVAC teams to score more than once.

You would expect with a resume like this during the regular season for Starmount to have followed that up with a deep state playoff run — maybe even make it back to the state semifinals like the 2008 squad.

But, of course, that didn’t materialize. East Rutherford knocked the Rams out of the

2A tournament in round one, 24-14. It was a strange night when the ball didn’t bounce Star-mount’s way and the Rams suffered through several self-inflicted wounds.

Starmount turned the ball over three times in the red zone and committed 85-yard in penal-ties — with one 15-yarder being key in East

Rutherford’s go-ahead touchdown drive in the third quarter.

The Rams had another stat-stuffer type of night, outrushing the Cavaliers 261-69. But in the end, they were on the short end of the scoreboard.

The questions lingered for awhile after the loss. Did the lack of competition during the regular season hurt the Rams once the play-offs started? Or was it just one of those nights where anything that could go wrong did? May-be a little of both?

Either way, Coach Johnson said he’s chosen not to reflect on the negative, but to appreciate that this group played its way into Starmount lore as one of the best teams in the 40-plus year history of the school. The team broke several program records and notched some state rec-ognition as well.

“If you talk about the seniors from this sea-son – as a class, they won four conference championships (JV as freshmen) and many never lost a varsity conference game,” John-son said. “For Jake and M.J. to be conference player of the year on offense and defense two

years in a row and to be all-Northwest (voted by the Winston-Salem Journal) two years in a row is impressive.”

While Starmount carried the banner for the MVAC in the regular season, a couple of teams from Wilkes County made their mark in the state playoffs.

Wilkes Central had the honor of playing deeper into the season than anyone else from the Foothills region. The Eagles won twice in the 2AA bracket, beating West Lincoln 35-27 in the opening round before toppling Pisgah on the road 24-16 in the second round. Shelby fi-nally ended Central’s run in the third round, on the Friday night after Thanksgiving.

Coach Jeremy Funderburk listed as one of his top three highlights from the season being able to share Thanksgiving morning with his players and assistant coaches at a practice.

Though sometimes overshadowed by Star-mount’s sheer dominance, Wilkes Central mounted an impressive offensive attack as well. The Eagles finished with more than 4,100 yards on the ground and enjoyed 49 rushing TDs.


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‘QUALITY SERVICE’

Photo by Eric LuskStarmount seniors rarely tasted defeated during their careers. Seniors pictured are, from front row, left to right: Ben O’Donnell, Kyle Weatherman, Israel Murphy, Drew Vestal, Steven Guillian and Shayne Johnson. Second row: Coach Scott Johnson, Tanner Vestal, Jake Barr, Bobby Trivette, Brandon Oliver and Ben Houser.

Photo by Eric LuskSeth Absher of West Wilkes celebrates a fumble recovery against Forbush early in the season. The Blackhawks won six games this fall.

Photo by Eric LuskTrae Alexander of Wilkes Central led the MVAC with more than 2,000 rushing yards in 2010.

four (topping Forbush, North Wilkes and Al-leghany).

Walker proved elusive much of the season, rushing for 1,610 yards and 21 scores for the Cardinals. The junior will be one of the top backs to return to the MVAC in 2011. Walker and White (a senior) both had 100-yard games in a key win over Forbush.

Cody Riddle and Chris Greene were two of the Cards’ top linemen. McKinley White added spark to the offense with great work at receiver. Garrett Miller and White earned all-conference status for their work on the defensive side of the ball.

Steven Gregory quarterbacked the Cardinals but earned the most notoriety for his work in special teams. He earned all-conference as both a punter and place-kicker. “He was solid — a great hang-time and directional punter,” Wil-kes Central’s Funderburk said. “He was a great kickoff man and solid on extra points and field goals.”

Forbush ushered in the Chris Johnson coach-ing era and made tremendous strides under their new leader. While it didn’t always show up on the scoreboard, Johnson and company seem to have laid a great foundation for future success.

Confidence seemed to grow with each week, both on the varsity and JV level.

“The desire to be better is present but our commitment from previous seasons must im-prove,” Johnson said in December. “This year’s off-season work ethic is important. If we start right now dedicating ourselves to be better as individuals and as a team then we will move up the ladder in conference play.”

Tyler Morgan emerged as Forbush’s top of-fensive threat in 2010. He packed quite a punch for his size and had breakaway speed, earning 962 yards total and scoring 11 touchdowns.

“He accounted for 43 percent of the total offense and 35 percent of the scoring,” Chris Johnson said.

The 2011 Falcons likely will build around three juniors who had breakout years in 2010. Bruce Sims developed into a solid fullback, picking up 435 yards on the ground. Grayson Fulp became a starter on both the offensive and defensive lines. He was second in tackles. Britan Baity led the Falcons in tackles from his safety spot.

Jose Hernandez gave Forbush a reliable place-kicker, making 16 extra point tries and five of seven field-goal attempts. His longest field goal sailed through the uprights from 45 yards away.

Forbush will have to replace several senior starters before Johnson’s second year in com-mand, including the top two tailbacks, three receivers, and the starting quarterback. But the group coming up will have had a year in John-son’s system.

“The kids know what to expect and believe we are on the verge of being successful,” John-son said.

North Wilkes had a tough year in the MVAC, struggling to stop opponents from scoring.


of player who earned MVAC recognition as a defensive back.

Creed, Jordan Coe and Ben Kramm earned honorable mention all-conference status. Coe played on the line. Kramm was solid as a re-ceiver, defensive back and kicker.

Ashe County was a late bloomer this season and that wasn’t necessarily a surprise. Coach Bill Strong had to replace 21 seniors off a 2009 squad that won six games. The youthful 2010 bunch faced one of the toughest early season schedules around, having to contend with Watauga, Mount Airy, North Surry, Elkin and Starmount right off the bat.

Despite losing those five games, Ashe re-bounded to win the next three, taking out West Wilkes, North Wilkes and Alleghany. The Hus-kies played Wilkes Central close (29-20 loss) and got a fourth victory in the regular season finale against East Wilkes. That helped propel them into the state playoffs.

Running back Joe Weaver, lineman Zach Hudler, linebacker Andrew Russell and wide-out Matthew Sexton headlined the list of all-conference players from Ashe. Four others —Sam Gammons, Taylor Trivette, Josh Wineberg and Andrew Lopp — made the honorable men-tion team.

East Wilkes generated some early waves around the area thanks to the running of Land-on Walker. The swift tailback rushed for 229

yards and four touchdowns in an overtime win against Surry Central in week two of the sea-son. The week before that, Walker had notched 270 yards against West Davidson.

A 25-0 win at North Stokes in week three — with Walker and backfield mate Jesse White both having solid games — seemed to set the Cardinals up well for the conference schedule. But Elkin stymied those plans with a 21-0 shut-out of the Cards in the MVAC opener.

East Wilkes lost its first three league games before rebounding to take three of the next

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But coach David Haynie’s group certainly had highlights to appreciate. The Vikings beat Al-leghany 24-16 in their conference opener, put-ting them at the top of the league standings heading into week two.

Jared Story’s first career start proved memo-rable. The 5-4, 130-pound linebacker made 12 tackles and recovered three fumbles.

“I don’t believe in MVPs, but Corey Huff-man was our leader on offense and Jared Story and Blake Johnston our leaders on defense,” Haynie said. “Breakout seasons for us were Blake Johnston as a DB and J.B. Absher at OL. Both improved as the season progressed.”

Huffman quarterbacked the Vikings and had nearly 1,000 passing yards. Rusty Bell caught a number of Huffman’s passes, finishing with 414 receiving yards. Zach Shumate had another 397 receiving yards and led the team with five

TD catches. Shumate also returned two kicks for touchdowns.

Alleghany was the lone Foothills team not to win a game this season. The Trojans did score 21 points against Wilkes Central and 20 against Elkin but couldn‘t translate their hard work into a victory.

Quarterback Kyle Hoffman, an honorable mention all-conference pick, had a big game against the Elks, rushing for 175 yards. He rushed for nearly 100 against Forbush. Luke Hampton and Adam Gambill joined Hoffman as all-conference honorable mention picks.

Adolph Shepardson will not be back as Al-leghany’s head coach in 2011, he announced in December.

Photo by Eric LuskEast Wilkes junior Landon Walker was one of the state’s top rushers in the early season. He finished with 1,610 yards and 21 touchdowns.

Photo by Chris NobleForbush speedster Tyler Morgan runs against North Wilkes. Morgan nearly reached 1,000 rushing yards.

Photo by Eric LuskNick Phillips emerged as one of Elkin’s top rushers by late in the season.

Starmount earned a conference repeat in Mountain Valley 1A/2A football — in the standings and in the top awards bal-

loting.Duplicating last year’s all-conference vot-

ing, quarterback Jake Barr was voted the league’s offensive player of the year. Line-backer M.J. Bryant was picked as the MVAC’s defensive player of the year. Scott Johnson, who piloted a team that went 11-0 during the regular season, earned coach of the year status.

That trio swept the MVAC’s top awards in 2009 as well. Barr and Bryant are both seniors.

Barr finished as the Rams’ third-leading rusher, earning 808 yards on 83 carries (an average of 9.7 yards per carry). He scored 14 touchdowns, part of one of the most prolific rushing attacks in the state this season.

Starmount didn’t need to pass much, usually building insurmountable leads by halftime. But Barr was effective here, too, complet-ing 30 of 55 attempts for 683 yards and eight touchdowns. Barr was picked off four times.

Bryant led the Starmount ground attack with 1,453 yards and 21 scores. But he was the glue that helped hold the Rams’ defense together. Unofficially, Bryant had 82 hits during the reg-ular season, one sack, a punt block, a caused fumble and a fumble recovery.

As for Johnson, despite the Rams’ first-

round exit from the playoffs, this was his best year at the helm of the program in terms of wins and losses.

He took over in 2005.The 2006 team went 1-10 but the Rams have

been among their conference elite since then. Only two other Starmount teams have been undefeated in the regular season in the 40-plus year history of the school.


Starmount Rams

11-1 Overall * 8-0 MVACAug. 20 Mount Airy W (50-23)Aug. 27 at East Surry W (42-8)Sept. 3 North Surry W (52-0)Sept. 10 Forbush* W (44-3)Sept. 17 at East Wilkes* W (53-7)Sept. 24 Ashe County* W (51-13)Oct. 1 at Elkin* W (59-0)Oct. 15 at West Wilkes* W (55-7)Oct. 22 North Wilkes* W (68-6)Oct. 29 Alleghany* W (66-0)Nov. 5 at Wilkes Central* W (35-14)Nov. 12 East Rutherford# L (14-24)

Wilkes CentralEagles

10-4 Overall * 7-1 MVACAug. 20 West Iredell L (13-31)Aug. 27 Hibriten L (0-29)Sept. 3 at Surry Central W (52-20)Sept. 10 at West Wilkes* W (46-14)Sept. 17 North Wilkes* W (62-16)Sept. 24 at Alleghany* W (45-21)Oct. 8 Forbush* W (47-14)Oct. 15 at East Wilkes* W (40-7)Oct. 22 Ashe County* W (29-20)Oct. 29 at Elkin* W (28-6)Nov. 5 Starmount* L (14-35)Nov. 12 West Lincoln# W (35-27)Nov. 19 at Pisgah# W (24-16)Nov. 26 at Shelby# L (3-28)

Elkin Buckin’ Elks

7-6 Overall * 5-3 MVACAug. 20 Surry Central W (23-13)Aug. 27 at North Surry L (21-27)Sept. 10 East Wilkes* W (21-0)Sept. 17 at Ashe County* W (28-7)Sept. 24 at Charlotte Latin L (0-51)Oct. 1 Starmount* L (0-59)Oct. 8 at West Wilkes* L (14-17)Oct. 15 North Wilkes* W (58-6)Oct. 22 at Alleghany* W (45-20)Oct. 29 Wilkes Central* L (6-28)Nov. 5 at Forbush* W (17-14)Nov. 12 Cherokee# W (59-19)Nov. 19 at Robbinsville# L (7-42)

Ashe Huskies

4-8 Overall * 4-4 MVACAug. 20 at Watauga L (0-35)Sept. 3 Mount Airy L (3-38)Sept. 10 at North Surry (E) L (21-55)Sept. 17 Elkin* L (7-28)Sept. 24 at Starmount* L (13-51)Oct. 1 West Wilkes* W (31-21)Oct. 8 at North Wilkes* W (40-22)Oct. 15 Alleghany* W (27-6)Oct. 22 at Wilkes Central* L (20-29)Oct. 29 Forbush* L (14-27)Nov. 5 at East Wilkes* W (28-27)Nov. 12 at Pisgah# L (14-48)

West Wilkes Blackhawks

6-7 Overall * 5-3 MVACAug. 20 at West Lincoln L (7-21)Aug. 27 at Avery County L (16-48)Sept. 10 Wilkes Central* L (14-46)Sept. 17 at Forbush* W (23-0)Sept. 24 East Wilkes* W (14-9)Oct. 1 at Ashe County* L (21-31)Oct. 8 Elkin* W (17-14)Oct. 15 Starmount* L (7-55)Oct. 22 West Iredell L (14-42)Oct. 29 at North Wilkes* W (47-14)Nov. 5 at Alleghany* W (42-18)Nov. 12 East Wilkes# W (21-7)Nov. 19 Mitchell# L (29-35)

East WilkesCardinals

5-7 Overall * 3-5 MVACAug. 20 at West Davidson L (24-28)Aug. 27 Surry Central W (29-22, OT)Sept. 3 at North Stokes W (25-0)Sept. 10 at Elkin* L (0-21)Sept. 17 Starmount* L (7-53)Sept. 24 at West Wilkes* L (9-14)Oct. 1 North Wilkes* W (54-7)Oct. 8 at Alleghany* W (63-12)Oct. 15 Wilkes Central* L (7-40)Oct. 22 at Forbush* W (30-13)Nov. 5 Ashe County* L (27-28)Nov. 12 at West Wilkes# L (7-21)

Forbush Falcons

3-7 Overall * 3-5 MVACAug. 20 at North Surry L (12-38)Aug. 27 West Stokes L (5-38)Sept. 10 at Starmount* L (3-44)Sept. 17 West Wilkes* L (0-23)Sept. 24 at North Wilkes* W (55-14)Oct. 1 Alleghany* W (48-14)Oct. 8 at Wilkes Central* L (14-47)Oct. 22 East Wilkes* L (13-30)Oct. 29 at Ashe County* W (27-14)Nov. 5 Elkin* L (14-17)

North Wilkes Vikings

1-10 Overall * 1-7 MVACAug. 20 at West Caldwell L (0-26)Aug. 27 West Lincoln L (8-47)Sept. 3 Patton L (0-40)Sept. 10 Alleghany* W (24-16)Sept. 17 at Wilkes Central* L (16-62)Sept. 24 Forbush* L (14-55)Oct. 1 at East Wilkes* L (7-54)Oct. 8 Ashe County* L (22-40)Oct. 15 at Elkin* L (6-58)Oct. 22 at Starmount* L (6-68)Oct. 29 West Wilkes* L (14-47)

AlleghanyTrojans

0-11 Overall * 0-8 MVACAug. 20 North Stokes (E) L (0-30)Aug. 27 at Grayson County (Va.) L (14-36)Sept. 3 at Galax (Va.) L (0-35)Sept. 10 at North Wilkes* L (16-24)Sept. 24 Wilkes Central* L (21-45) Oct. 1 at Forbush* L (14-48)Oct. 8 East Wilkes* L (12-63)Oct. 15 at Ashe County* L (6-27)Oct. 22 Elkin* L (20-45)Oct. 29 at Starmount* L (0-66)Nov. 5 West Wilkes* L (18-42)

* denotes Mountain Valley 1A/2A game# denotes state playoff game

MVAC - Final Records and ResultsStarmount sweeps MVAC’s top awards

Photo by Eric LuskScott Johnson directed the Starmount to an 11-0 overall record in the regular season, 8-0 in the conference. Johnson repeated as Mountain Valley 1A/2A coach of the year.

ALL-CONFERENCE TEAMS

\

OFFENSEOffensive BacksTrae Alexander (Wilkes Central)Jake Barr (Starmount)MJ Bryant (Starmount)Austin McConnell (Wilkes Central)Tyler Morgan (Forbush)Israel Murphy (Starmount)Landon Walker (East Wilkes)Joe Weaver (Ashe County)Tyler Woods (West Wilkes)

Offensive LinemenTyler Billings (Elkin)Dillon Bray (Starmount)Grayson Fulp (Forbush)Ben Pierce (West Wilkes)Alex Ratley (Elkin)Rex Reynolds (Wilkes Central)Cody Riddle (East Wilkes)Aaron Sparks (Wilkes Central)Drew Vestal (Starmount)

ReceiversAndrew Adams (West Wilkes)Dalton Johnson (Wilkes Central)Matthew Sexton (Ashe County)McKinley White (East Wilkes)

PunterSteven Gregory (East Wilkes)

Honorable Mention OffenseJ. B. Absher (North Wilkes)Andrew Adams (West Wilkes)Zach Alderman (Forbush)Rusty Bell (North Wilkes)Chris Bynum (Wilkes Central)

DEFENSELinebackersMJ Bryant (Starmount)Chasey Caul (Wilkes Central)Garrett Miller (East Wilkes)Israel Murphy (Starmount)Adam Parker (Wilkes Central)Andrew Russell (Ashe County)Chris Watt (Wilkes Central)Jesse White (East Wilkes)

Defensive LineDillon Bray (Starmount)Chris Coles (Wilkes Central)Eric Garrett (Wilkes Central)Chris Greene (East Wilkes)Zach Hudler (Ashe County)Pat Kennedy (Elkin)

Brandon Oliver (Starmount)Tommy Pruitt (West Wilkes)Kasain Tillman (Wilkes Central)

Defensive BacksJake Barr (Starmount)Eugene Billups (Starmount)Jordan Carlton (Wilkes Central)Tanner Vestal (Starmount)Chase Vogt (West Wilkes)Dustin Triplett (Wilkes Central)Jimmy Wagoner (Elkin)

PlacekickerSteven Gregory (East Wilkes)

DefenseBrittan Baity (Forbush)Ethan Byrd (North Wilkes)Jordan Coe (Elkin)Casey Evans (Forbush)Grayson Fulp (Forbush)Ethan Creed (Elkin)Stephen Ervin (West Wilkes)Dustin Foster (Wilkes Central)Sam Gammons (Ashe County)Evan Handy (North Wilkes)Trendon Harris (East Wilkes)Kyle Hoffman (Alleghany)

Corey Huffman (North Wilkes)Andrew Marley (West Wilkes)Fondae McDaniel (Starmount)Adam Parker (Wilkes Central)Ethan Parker (East Wilkes)Brandon Parsons (Wilkes Central)Caleb Shoupe (EastWilkes)Zach Shumate (North Wilkes)Bobby Trivette (Starmount)Taylor Trivette (Ashe County)Joe Weaver (Ashe County)Jesse White (East Wilkes)Matt Williams (Wilkes Central)

Honorable Mention DefenseAdam Gambill (Alleghany)Clint Garris (East Wilkes)Steven Guillian (Starmount)Cody Greene (West Wilkes)Luke Hampton (Alleghany)Dalton Johnson (Wilkes Central)Blake Johnston (North Wilkes)Ben Kramm (Elkin)Andrew Lopp (Ashe County)Jac McCracken (Starmount)Ben O’Donnell (Starmount)Drew Vestal (Starmount)Kyle Weatherman (Starmount)Josh Wineberg (Ashe County)

Mountain Valley 1A/2A All-Conference Team

2010 TEAM SCHEDULES & RESULTS


Northwest 1A/2A Conference

Photo by Eric LuskQuarterback Ben Hinson helped direct Mount Airy to another conference title, the program’s fourth in a row.

CONFERENCE RECAPS

Photo by Eric LuskDemarion Jones (right) and Lucas Elliott played key roles in West Stokes’ runner-up finish in the Northwest 1A/2A. The Wildcats finished in a three-way tie for second place.

Granite Bears continue reignBy Eric Lusk

Foothills Football Editor

M ount Airy came into the 2010 season with plenty of question marks.

Yes, the Granite Bears had played in two straight state

championship games, but the program also had lost a lot of talent from those two squads.

Who would step up? Who would run the ball? Could the Bears hold off other challengers to keep a conference winning streak going that had started at the end of the 2006 season?

The concerns only seemed to multiply after the season opener when the Bears absorbed a 50-23 loss at Starmount. Those were the kinds of final scores Mount Airy fans had been used to seeing in favor of their team.

But all the question marks began turning into exclama-tion points after that week one humbling. And by No-vember, Mount Airy was back in the same place it had been in 2007, 2008 and 2009 — enjoying an undefeated conference championship. Now, the conference streak sits at 30 games after the Bears dispatched of all seven challengers this fall.

Many of the names had changed but the results proved familiar.

“It’s been a great run,” coach Kelly Holder said shortly after his Bears were knocked out of the state playoffs in round two by eventual 1AA champion Albemarle.

“After games one and two, you didn’t know how good we were going to be. But we turned out to be pretty doggone good.”

The Bears’ MO changed a bit from the 2008 and 2009 squads. This group didn’t have the sheer explosive-ness of the previous years’ teams, where games were well in hand by halftime and the starters rested for most of the third and fourth quarters.

This year’s team relied on its strength up front and a stingy defense to keep teams at bay. In the 11 games between the Starmount loss and the Albemarle playoff defeat, the Bears defense surrendered an average of just 11.5 points per game. No one managed more than 21 points, and five teams were held to a touchdown or less.

Mount Airy was one of the few teams that kept eventual offensive player of the year Joston Phipps in check. The North Surry speedster, who finished with more than 3,000 all-purpose yards (more on him in a bit) did return a kickoff for a touchdown late in the game but otherwise finished with only 61 yards on the ground.

“I can’t say enough about what the defense did (against North Surry), Holder said after that game. “That’s a great running back. He really is good. You’ve seen it. If he gets a crease, he is ‘See ya.’

“He got us on a sweep one time but other than that we pretty much locked him up.”

The Mount Airy defense had plenty of heroes during the season. De-fensive back Jokton Moore, a junior, earned 1A all-state status. Moore piled up 114 tackles and picked off six passes. Sophomore defensive back Austin Taylor intercepted seven passes.

Eight different players combined for 17 quarterback sacks. Seniors Garrett Boles (92 tackles) and Jordan Schwartz (85 tackles) seemed to live around the football.

Offensively, the Bears were more of a grind-it-out team. But again, by year’s end, they found their niche. In the North Surry win, Mount Airy backs combined for 330 yards on the ground. Dee Rucker, an all-conference pick, led the way with 135 rushing yards and a 4-yard touch-down run.

Rucker was quick to praise his line — standouts like Nick Ricks, Josh Smith, Max Inman, Chris Mayes, Cameron Cawley and tight end Sam

Regular Season Standings

Team Conf. PF PA Total PF PAMount Airy (1A) 7-0 256 76 9-2 343 201Bishop M. (1A) 5-2 226 175 9-2 314 189North Surry (2A) 5-2 334 180 8-3 354 276West Stokes (2A) 5-2 244 164 7-4 330 211 Surry Central (2A) 3-4 206 234 4-7 307 357East Surry (1A) 2-5 191 183 5-6 295 253North Stokes (1A) 1-6 112 224 3-8 196 299South Stokes (2A) 0-7 49 282 1-10 159 383

Mount Airy collects fourth straight Northwest championship


Simmons — after the contests. “They opened up big ol’ holes all night,” the senior said. “I just followed my linemen.”

The O-line helped pave the way for Rucker to enjoy 1,031 yards and 15 touchdowns for the season. According to Mount Airy’s stat page on MaxPreps.com, the Bears finished with an even 3,000 rushing yards for the year. Other leaders included Terry Adams (633 yards, 10 TDs), senior quarterback Ben Hinson (422 yards, 5 TDs), junior Ty Simmons (326 yards, 5 TDs) and Schwartz (321 yards, 3 TDs).

Hinson proved a steady quarterback, earn-ing all-conference status by year’s end. He completed 91 of 167 passes for 1,529 yards, 17 touchdowns and only six interceptions.

Despite another stellar year by Bears’ stan-dards, it did feel a bit strange not to have foot-ball in the Granite City on the Friday after Thanksgiving. Mount Airy had played into the third round or beyond the previous four years.

Albemarle, which beat the Bears 38-14, showed up as an earlier-than-expected playoff opponent due mainly to the fact the school had forfeited some games for using an ineligible player.

Otherwise, Mount Airy vs. Albemarle might have been for the 1A West championship in early December.

“They were good. They were better than we were,” Holder said. “That’s why we got beat. Anybody that was here understood that.”

The current Mount Airy senior class never knew what it was like to lose a conference

game. The Bears’ last league loss came late in the 2006 campaign when these seniors were in eighth grade.

“A lot of our seniors won a state champion-ship and lost a state championship,” Holder said. “It’s been a long time since they’ve been knocked out of the state playoffs (this early). But they have a lot to be proud of.”

While Mount Airy essentially clinched the top spot in the Northwest 1A/2A with a couple weeks to play, the race for the No. 2 spot came down to the wire. And ultimately, it was never really settled.

North Surry, West Stokes and Bishop Mc-Guinness all ended up tied for the No. 2 spot with 5-2 records. Each team lost to Mount Airy

and each split with the other two.All three schools, though, likely left the 2010

campaign feeling pretty good about themselves.North Surry turned out to be the comeback

story of the year. The Greyhounds had been 1-10 the year before, and conference coaches picked them to finish sixth in preseason ballot-ing for 2010.

But from week one, North Surry showed it-self to be a much tougher team, mentally and physically. The Greyhounds won a physical battle against Elkin in week two, holding the Buckin’ Elks out of the end zone late in the fourth quarter to preserve the triumph. Despite getting beat handily by Starmount the next week — join the club — the Hounds rebound-ed to win the next four games by impressive margins.

That set the stage for a big meeting with crosstown rival Mount Airy on Oct. 15. Both teams were unbeaten in conference at that point, and the Bears presold tickets for the game be-cause they anticipating a capacity crowd.

Despite dropping that contest 37-7 — play-ing without injured quarterback Tanner Hiatt — North Surry kept chugging and finished with eight wins for the season. They lost in the playoffs to the eventual 2AA champions from Salisbury.

Phipps finished as a 2,000-yard back and had more than 3,000 all-purpose yards. Will Hodges, Corey Cain, Kyle Moser, Ryan Grice, Daniel Pruitt and Colby Haynes did much of the work paving the way for Phipps.

Steven Sawyers proved a force on the defen-sive end, recording six sacks. Jason King got in on 145 tackles at linebacker.

Jonathan Brown proved a reliable target when Hiatt took the air, making 38 catches for 514 yards and six scores.

“I expected us to be more competitive,” North Surry coach Brian Hampton said during the season. “Our guys have bought into what we’re trying to do. And they have become a family.

“Our new defensive coordinator has brought an attitude and intensity to our team. Our offen-sive line has really come together. They know if they give Joston a crease, he’s got a chance to go … Joston is a pretty special player.”

While Phipps, a senior, is the reigning offen-sive player of the year in the Northwest, West Stokes junior quarterback Austin Fleming is the likely preseason favorite to win that prize for 2011.

Fleming had a banner year in King, help-ing the Wildcats to a 7-5 campaign. Two of the losses came against 4A programs, Watauga and Reagan.

West Stokes beat North Surry on the final night of the regular season to forge the three-way tie at the top.

Fleming lit up the stat sheets, rushing for 1,347 yards and 16 touchdowns as well as pass-ing for 1,907 yards and 17 more scores. Flem-ing was intercepted just five times (twice in a 28-14 loss to Mount Airy).

Coach Jimmy Upchurch said Fleming was voted the No. 2 quarterback in the entire region in balloting for the Winston-Salem Journal’s All-Northwest Team.

“Fleming has worked really hard and we will be lucky enough to have him back for one more season,” Upchurch said.

The Wildcats must replace their top defen-sive player going into 2011, however. Senior Jordan Hall was voted the Northwest’s Defen-sive MVP by league coaches. Hall made 105 solo tackles, a pretty astounding number. He was in on 165 hits in all. Hall did make the first-team lineup for the Winston-Salem Jour-nal’s All-Northwest team.

“What people may not realize is that this is all of the teams in our area including the big 4A programs like Mount Tabor, West Forsyth, and

Davie County,” Upchurch said. “For Hall to make the team says a lot for the way he has worked. His leadership and uncanny ability to get to the ball surprised all of us this year.”

Highlights proved plentiful for West Stokes.

Fleming passed for 441 yards in a win against North Stokes. Junior wideout Demarion Jones broke the single-season school record for receiving yards (558).

The Wildcats scored 35 points in the second quarter en route to a victory against area rival East Surry. The ‘Cats rallied from a 27-17 deficit with five minutes left in the third quarter to get past North Surry 30-27.

Taking a page out of the John Elway playbook, Fleming marched West Stokes 85 yards in 11 plays to put the winning points on the board against the Greyhounds with just 24 seconds remaining.

With an undefeated JV program providing support, this coming season looks promising indeed for the purple and white. According to Upchurch, nine offensive start-ers are slated to return, including

five who will be third-year varsity guys.

Though Mount Airy may have something to say about, West Stokes could be the popular pre-season pick to unseat the Bears at the top of the Northwest 1A/2A.

“(Mount Airy) definitely set the bar high in our area,” Upchurch said. “Sometimes people forget how good they really are and the job Coach Kelly Holder does for them. They have one of the most respected teams in the state and that’s where we want to be.”

Bishop has been a program get-ting more and more respect under coach Charlie Jones’ leadership. The Villains were seen as legiti-mate contenders in the Northwest 1A/2A heading into the season and certainly played that way.

Bishop won its first four games and seven of the first eight. The Villains beat West Stokes late in the year, played Mount Airy to within two touchdowns and kept Albemarle within striking dis-tance in the playoffs in a 27-14 loss.

The Villains were built on speed this season. One of their track stars, Jared Pluciniczak rushed for

Photo by Eric LuskDee Rucker was a 1,000-yard back for Mount Airy this past season.

Photo by Eric LuskBishop’s Marty DeFrancesco earned the Northwest’s specialist of the year honor.

Photo by Eric LuskEast Surry senior Devin Slate had an all-conference season on defense.

man and earned all conference honors. If he continues to work hard in the off season, takes care of business in the classroom, and improves as much next year as he did this year he should get several looks to play at the next level.”

Senior Alex Wilmoth evolved into a team leader for the Eagles on both sides of the ball. He started at quarterback and completed 42 passes for 795 yards and five touchdowns. He also served as one of the defensive captains, racking up 75 tackles at linebacker.

“Despite being our full time QB, we also asked Alex to play a large role in our defense,” Southern said. “He was our leading tackler on the season and was forced to play multiple po-sitions due to injuries. In our opening game at Elkin he played every play, including special teams. Without Alex we would have had holes on both sides of the ball.”

The East Surry win likely was Central’s mar-quee victory of the fall campaign. The Eagles trailed 14-9 before scoring the last nine points. The lead changed hands four times that night, including three times during an eight-minute stretch of the third period.

“I’ve always heard that they are our rivals,” Wilmoth told YadkinValleySports.com after the game. “For us to beat them was great for our program. Everybody (on this team) has tremen-dous heart – we don’t ever give up.”

If there was a hard-luck team in the Northeast this season, it was East Surry. The Cardinals, coming off a 10-2 season in 2009, suffered a its share of heartbreakers. After winning three of their first four games, the Cards lost a toughie at Surry Central.

They scored 35 points against West Stokes the following week but gave up 48 (including the 35-point second quarter).

Things got back on track the next two weeks against North Stokes and South Stokes, and the Cardinals seemed poised to pull one of the biggest upsets of the season Oct. 29 when they raced to a 31-7 lead against North Surry. But the Greyhounds engineered one of the most amaz-ing comebacks of the season, rallying for a 39-38 triumph.

North’s Joston Phipps scored three of the Greyhounds’ five touchdowns in the second half. His final touchdown, with 25 seconds left, brought North within a point. Tanner Hiatt then completed the two-point conversion pass to Daniel Draughn for the 39-38 triumph.

“I did a sorry job as a coach and I let our team down,” East Surry coach David Diamont said to the media after the contest. “All I can say is I did a bad job as a coach. I totally accept respon-sibility for this collapse. It never should have gotten to that point. I’m disappointed for our seniors. Very frustrated.”

Still, East Surry won enough games (five) to make the state playoffs. The Cardinals then gave second-seeded Monroe all it could handle before falling 34-27.

Andrew Hunter had an all-conference sea-son at wide receiver, making 29 catches for 602 yards and 11 touchdowns.

Quarterback Ryan Johnson threw for 1,183 yards and 18 scores. One of Johnson’s top performances came in a non-conference win against Bartlett Yancey, when he threw for two touchdowns and rushed for another.

Kyle Shinault caught another 44 passes on the season with a pair of scores.

Lineman Tim Fahrner had an all-conference year, as did standout linebacker Devin Slate.

“We played much better than the stats showed,” East Surry stat-keeper Phil Sutphin said. “We had a good shot at winning (against Monroe), just like several other games this sea-son.”

North Stokes was one of only five Foothills teams to win a state playoff game. The Vikings may have seemed like an unlikely candidate after dropping six games in a row during the middle of the season.

But consider the competition the Vikes had to play in that stretch — North Surry, Mount Airy, West Stokes, East Surry, Surry Central and Bishop McGuinness all in a row — and it becomes more clear how North was ready to go by state playoff time.

The Vikings shut out South Stanly 12-0 in their opener before falling on the road at Lake-wood.

Like East Surry, North Stokes lost some heartbreakers. Andrews overcame a 21-point deficit in the fourth quarter and slipped away 29-28 in week four. Had the Vikes been able to hold on there, they would have been 4-1 head-ing into the murderer’s row portion of their schedule.

North did score 35 points against Surry Cen-tral but couldn’t contain the Eagles that night, giving up 48. The Vikings also earned two shut-outs, beating rival South Stokes 24-0 and top-ping Alleghany 30-0 score on opening night.

Drew Bowman, Alek Ottaway, Dillon Rog-ers, Ethan Smith and Ryan Tucker all earned spots on the Northwest 1A/2A first-team all-

conference list. Ottaway caught a 51-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Wood in the game against Lakewood.

North Stokes extended its winning streak against South Stokes to six years in a row. Rog-ers, a sophomore fullback, rushed for 150 yards and two touchdowns in the victory. Tucker picked off a pass and returned it for a touch-down. Dustin Mabe made 11 tackles. Matt Hop-kins also made an interception in the win.

South Stokes began the year in a bit of tur-moil. The Sauras made a coaching change over the summer, giving the reins to Jonathan Fra-sher, a North Surry graduate who had been an assistant at West Stokes for five years.

While the win-loss column necessarily didn’t reflect it — the Sauras finished 1-10 — South was a much more competitive team than in 2009. Frasher’s team wasn’t that far away from being 2-2 or 3-1 heading into the conference schedule. They rolled past Kestrel Heights 43-0 in a Sept. 10 endowment game. They lost by six points to Bartlett Yancey, 12 to Rockingham County and 16 to McMichael.

The strength of the Northwest 1A/2A ulti-mately proved too much once the calendar got into October and November.

Jack Haymore enjoyed an all-conference sea-son on the offensive line. One long-time Stokes County football observer called Hayworth “probably the best lineman in the conference hands down.”

South Stokes put on an offensive showcase against Kestrel Heights. Jacquan Martin found the end zone four times — on runs of 13, 6, 7 and 4 yards. He finished with 184 rushing yards and averaged 11.5 yards per carry on the night.

Teammate Jaron Withers galloped for 205 yards and two scores, averaging an astounding 15.8 yards per attempt.

Sophomore linebacker/fullback Zack Single-ton joined Haymore on the first-team all-con-ference list.

1,101 yards and 15 touchdowns.Quarterback Nick Sgroi added 895 yards and

13 more scores. Marty DeFrancesco, who was voted the Northwest’s specialist of the year, fin-ished with 606 rushing yards and nine scores.

DeFrancesco, Sgroi and Pluciniczak all re-turned kickoffs for touchdowns. DeFrancesco also brought a punt return back 65 yards for six points.

Jones called Sgroi his team’s MVP. The senior didn’t play in 2009 because of injury but filled a number of roles this past season. He threw for 500 yards, kicked 48 extra points, had six kick-offs sail into the end zone for touchbacks and was the team’s second leading tackler.

Unfortunately for Jones and the Villains, all three of the team’s leading rushers will graduate from the program.

“Well, we had an unusual stat (this past sea-son),” Jones said. “We scored 60 touchdowns, which is great. But 59 graduated. We just have been gutted by graduation.”

Jones tipped his cap to junior offensive line-man Spencer Pasciolla, one of the breakout players of the year for his squad and an unsung hero. “He became a starter on the OL after two games and did a great job stabilizing our OL,” the coach said.

Just like in 2009, Surry Central closed its sea-son on a strong note. The Golden Eagles beat North Stokes 45-38, then topped South Stokes 45-7.

But unlike the ‘09 campaign, Central (4-7 overall, 3-4 Northwest) was not rewarded with a state playoff berth. Still, the stage has been set for what could be an even better 2011.

“We have a really good nucleus of juniors returning who are already working hard in the weight room,” coach Monty Southern said over the holidays. “Joining them will be four sopho-mores who started on the varsity team this sea-son and a group of JV players that had their best season in five years.”

One of the heralded underclassmen could emerge as one of the conference’s best in 2011. Sophomore Wes Brown proved a punishing running back/fullback this past fall, finishing with 1,403 yards and 10 touchdowns.

Brown scored two long-yardage touchdowns against East Surry back in September, helping the Golden Eagles break a drought against their county rival that had lasted 12 years. That 18-14 victory was sealed for good when Brown earned a first down with a 12-yard run late in the game.

Another sophomore, Nick Thomas, became one of Surry Central’s steadiest linemen — no small feat considering the talent on display in the trenches among Northwest teams this sea-son. Thomas started every game at left tackle in 2010.

“Last year as a freshman on the JV team he showed glimpses of great potential but was not consistent,” Southern said. “This year as a sophomore he became our best offensive line-


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Photo by Eric LuskSenior Alex Wilmoth quarterbacked the Surry Central Eagles this season.

Photo by Eric LuskJeremy Goins, Evan Smith and Ryan Tucker served as North Stokes team captains against East Wilkes early in the season. The Vikings lost to the Cardinals but went on to win a state playoff game in November.


North Surry’s turnaround rewardedNorth Surry’s football team wrote a rags-to-riches tale this fall,

improving from 1-10 last season to 8-4 this year. The Grey-hounds’ coach and top rusher were honored as the Northwest

1A/2A Conference’s best. Brian Hampton picked up conference coach of the year status, while senior tailback Joston Phipps was voted the league’s offensive player of the year.

Hampton was in his second season with the ‘Hounds. North Surry finished 5-3 in the Northwest 1A/2A Conference and lost to Salisbury 56-28 in the opening round of the 2AA state playoffs.

Phipps accounted for 3,344 all-purpose yards and 39 total touch-downs. He hit the 2,000-yard mark in rushing toward the end of the regular season, finishing with 2,484 yards on the ground.

His finale against Salisbury in the playoffs was grand despite his team’s loss. Phipps finished with 205 yards and three touchdowns — including two long yardage runs.

Jordan Hall of West Stokes was voted the league’s defensive player of the year. Marty DeFrancesco earned specialist of the year honors.

Hall, a senior, had a nose for the football on the defensive side, fin-ishing the season with 106 solo tackles. He averaged nearly 14 hits per game. There was only one game this fall where he made fewer than 11 hits. Hall also had two sacks and caused one fumble, He broke up three passes.

Regular season conference champion Mount Airy put 10 players on the all-conference list, more than anyone else. The Granite Bears also had two honorable mention picks. West Stokes had eight first-teamers and a pair of honorable mentions.

ALL-CONFERENCE TEAM

\

TOP AWARDSOffensive Player of the Year: Joston Phipps (North Surry)Defensive Player of the Year: Jordan Hall (West Stokes)Specialist of the Year: Marty De-Francesco (Bishop McGuinness)Coach of the Year: Brian Hampton (North Surry)

ALL-CONFERENCEBishop McGuinness: Marty De-Francesco, Dylan Ferri, Jared Plu-ciniczak, Nick Sgori, Mike UrbanEast Surry: Andrew Hunter, Tim Fahrner, Devin SlateMount Airy: Terry Adams, Julius Coram, Ben Hinson, Chau Lor, Jokton Moore, Nick Ricks, Dee Rucker, Jordan Schwartz, Josh Smith, Austin TaylorNorth Stokes: Drew Bowman, Alek Ottaway, Dillon Rogers, Ethan Smith, Ryan TuckerNorth Surry: Jonathan Brown, Jason King, Kyle Moser, Joston Phipps, Steven Sawyers

South Stokes: Jack Haymore, Zack SingletonSurry Central: Wes Brown, Jason Esparza, Nick Thomas, Tyler White, Alex WilmothWest Stokes: Luke Bowen, Elijah Cox, Lucas Elliott, Austin Fleming, Jordan Hall, Noel Helms, Darryl Little, Buck Southern

HONORABLE MENTIONBishop McGuinness: Peter Fields, Mike PetersonEast Surry: Ryan Johnson, Chase MillsMount Airy: Garrett Boles, Max InmanNorth Stokes: Matthew Hopkins, Dustin MabeNorth Surry: Tanner Hiatt, Will HodgesSouth Stokes: Mike Jones, Aaron PentsagulaSurry Central: Preston Cave, Jared DimmetteWest Stokes: DeMarion Jones, Ryan Ward

Northwest 1A/2A All-Conference Teams

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Photo by Eric LuskJoston Phipps of North Surry, the Northwest’s offensive player of the year, rushed for 2,484 yards and accounted for 3,344 all-purpose yards and 39 TDs.

Northwest - Records and Results2010 TEAM SCHEDULES & RESULTS

BishopMcGuinness

9-3 Overall * 5-2 NorthwestAug. 20 High Point Christian W (50-0)Sept. 3 Highland Tech (E) W (49-0)Sept. 10 at South Davidson W (49-22)Sept. 17 at South Stokes* W (48-9)Sept. 24 North Surry* L (21-35)Oct. 1 N. Raleigh Christian W (31-6)Oct. 8 East Surry* W (28-25)Oct. 15 at Surry Central* W (47-29)Oct. 22 Mount Airy* L (19-35)Oct. 29 West Stokes* W (35-28)Nov. 5 at North Stokes* W (28-14)Nov. 12 Albemarle# L (14-27)

East SurryCardinals

5-7 Overall * 2-5 NorthwestAug. 20 St. Stephens (E) W (33-7)Aug. 27 Starmount L (8-42)Sept. 3 at North Lincoln W (32-14)Sept. 17 Barlett Yancey W (31-7)Sept. 24 at Surry Central* L (14-18)Oct. 1 West Stokes* L (35-48)Oct. 8 at Bishop McGuinness* L (25-28)Oct. 15 at South Stokes* W (36-14)Oct. 22 North Stokes* W (30-8)Oct. 29 North Surry* L (38-39)Nov. 5 at Mount Airy* L (13-28)Nov. 12 at Monroe# L (27-34)

Mount AiryGranite Bears

10-3 Overall * 7-0 NorthwestAug. 20 at Starmount L (23-50)Aug. 27 Thomasville L (14-21)Sept. 3 at Ashe County W (38-3)Sept. 10 Parkwood W (42-21)Sept. 24 at West Stokes* W (28-14)Oct. 1 Surry Central* W (37-15)Oct. 8 at North Stokes* W (39-8)Oct. 15 North Surry* W (37-7)Oct. 22 at Bishop McGuinness* W (35-19)Oct. 29 South Stokes* W (52-0)Nov. 5 East Surry* W (28-13)Nov. 12 Central Academy# W (41-6)Nov. 19 Albemarle# L (14-38)

North StokesVikings

4-9 Overall * 1-6 NorthwestAug. 20 at Alleghany W (30-0)Aug. 28 at Patrick Co. (Va.) W (26-21)Sept. 3 East Wilkes L (0-25)Sept. 17 Andrews L (28-29)Sept. 24 at South Stokes* W (24-0)Oct. 1 at North Surry* L (14-41)Oct. 8 Mount Airy* L (8-39)Oct. 15 West Stokes* L (6-41)Oct. 22 at East Surry* L (8-30)Oct. 29 at Surry Central* L (38-45)Nov. 5 Bishop McGuinness* L (14-28)Nov. 12 South Stanly# W (12-0)Nov. 19 at Lakewood# L (8-35)

North SurryGreyhounds

8-4 Overall * 5-2 NorthwestAug. 20 Forbush W (38-12)Aug. 27 Elkin W (27-21)Sept. 3 at Starmount L (0-52)Sept. 10 Ashe County W (55-21)Sept. 24 at Bishop McGuinness* W (35-21)Oct. 1 North Stokes* W (41-14)Oct. 8 South Stokes* W (36-12)Oct. 15 at Mount Airy* L (7-37)Oct. 22 Surry Central* W (49-28)Oct. 29 at East Surry* W (39-38)Nov. 5 at West Stokes* L (27-30)Nov. 12 at Salisbury# L (28-56)

South StokesSauras

1-10 Overall * 0-7 NorthwestAug. 20 at Bartlett Yancey L (18-24)Aug. 27 at McMichael L (21-37)Sept. 3 Rockingham County L (28-40)Sept. 10 Kestrel Heights (E) W (43-0)Sept. 17 Bishop McGuinness* L (9-48)Sept. 24 North Stokes* L (0-24)Oct. 8 at North Surry* L (12-36)Oct. 15 East Surry* L (14-36)Oct. 22 at West Stokes* L (7-41)Oct. 29 at Mount Airy* L (0-52)Nov. 5 Surry Central* L (7-45)

Surry CentralEagles

4-7 Overall * 3-4 NorthwestAug. 20 at Elkin L (13-23)Aug. 27 at East Wilkes L (22-29, OT)Sept. 3 Wilkes Central L (20-53)Sept. 10 at Trinity W (36-19)Sept. 24 East Surry* W (18-14)Oct. 1 at Mount Airy* L (15-37)Oct. 8 West Stokes* L (26-42)Oct. 15 Bishop McGuinness * L (29-47) Oct. 22 at North Surry* L (28-49)Oct. 29 North Stokes* W (45-38)Nov. 5 at South Stokes* W (45-7)

West StokesWildcats

7-5 Overall * 5-2 NorthwestAug. 20 Reagan L (9-14)Aug. 27 at Forbush W (38-5)Sept. 3 Trinity W (30-18)Sept. 10 at Watauga L (9-10)Sept. 24 Mount Airy* L (14-28)Oct. 1 at East Surry* W (48-35)Oct. 8 at Surry Central* W (42-26)Oct. 15 at North Stokes* W (41-6)Oct. 22 South Stokes* W (41-7)Oct. 29 at Bishop McGuinness* L (28-35)Nov. 5 North Surry* W (30-27)Nov. 12 at Berry Academy# L (30-51)

* denotes Mountain Valley 1A/2A game# denotes state playoff game

Photo by Eric LuskGarrett Wood and the North Stokes Vikings won a state playoff game in the 1A bracket.


FOOTHILLS PLAYERS NOW IN COLLEGE

ALUMNI UPDATEElkin’s Terry Adams completes successful career at Liberty University

Liberty University football coaches de-scribed Terry Adams of Elkin as “a force to be reckoned with on the field”

in the team’s 2010 preseason media guide. Ad-ams certainly did his best to prove his coaches right in his senior season with the Flames.

The 6-0, 255-pound defensive lineman earned all-Big South Conference status — one of nine Liberty players to make the league’s elite list. The Flames finished 8-3 and won a share of the Big South trophy.

Adams, who helped Elkin High earn three state championships during his high school days, racked up 11 tackles-for-loss in his fi-nal season in Lynchburg, second-most on the team. He tied for the team lead in sacks, re-cording three — including one 13-yard sack against Gardner-Webb that made an ESPN.com highlight reel back in September.

Adams finished with 37 tackles in all, forced a fumble and recorded six quarterback hurries. He started every game.

Adams graduated from Elkin High in 2006, after helping the Buckin’ Elks to Class 1A ti-tles in 2002, 2003 and 2005. He redshirted his freshman year at Liberty and steadily worked his way up the depth chart.

After spot duty in games against Tusculum, Elon and St. Francis in 2007, Adams appeared in 10 games for Liberty during the 2008 sea-son, recording 13 tackles.

Adams got his first start against Presby-terian in 2009 as a redshirt junior. That year, he earned six tackles in a game against West Virginia and recorded eight hits in a contest against VMI. In the VMI game, Adams also forced a fumble, recovered a fumble and made 2.5 tackles for loss.

Adams hit a ball carrier behind the line of scrimmage in nine of Liberty’s 11 games this past fall. He had 2.5 tackles-for-loss against James Madison, his season’s best.

Here is a look at other Foothills area football alumni who suited up for college programs in 2010:

AlleghanyDaniel Aldaco (Greensboro College):

Started at left guard as a freshman for the Pride, which finished the season 2-8.

Drew Piscopo (Emory & Henry): Ap-peared in four games at quarterback for the Wasps … Completed 7-of-11 passes for 60 yards and one touchdown … Rushed eight times for 36 yards, with a long of 15 yards.

Sebastian Sandoval (Virginia Sports

Academy): Listed as an athlete on the team roster.

Zack Muncus (Virginia Sports Acad-emy): Listed as an athlete on the team roster.

Ashe CountyBuster Phillips (Catawba): Redshirt fresh-

man played on the defensive line, appearing in six games and recording nine tackles … Re-corded one tackle for loss and two quarterback hurries.

Alex Hershner (Catawba): Listed as a freshman defensive lineman on the team ros-ter.

Bishop McGuinness

Thomas Porter (Fer-rum University): Senior running back appeared in seven games, rushing for 72 total yards on five car-ries … Scored one touch-down and had a season’s long run of 34 yards … Caught two passes for 27 yards … Returned one kick for nine yards … Made two tackles in special teams.

Raleigh Sadler (Campbell University): Listed as a freshman defensive lineman on the team roster.

East SurryJoe Denny (Emory & Henry): Listed as a

freshman defensive back on the team roster.Adam Garrell (Emory & Henry): Listed

as a freshman offensive lineman on the team roster.

East WilkesLandon Walker (Clemson): The redshirt

junior started all 12 regular season games

at right tackle for the Tigers, as well as the Meineke Car Care Bowl game in Charlotte against South Florida … Has now appeared in 38 games for Clemson in his career, starting 34 … Played a total of 738 snaps during the regu-lar season, including a season-high 86 against both Auburn and Florida State.

ElkinRussell Stewart

(Washington & Lee): Sophomore quarterback earned his first collegiate letter for the 8-3 Gener-als … Appeared in 10 games, rushing for 133 total yards in 34 carries and scoring one touch-down … Completed 4-of-12 passes for 36 yards and one intercep-tion.

Mount AiryMichael Dobson (East Carolina): The red-

shirt freshman saw action in all 13 of the Pi-rates’ games, including the Military Bowl con-test against Maryland … Rushed for 62 yards on 11 carries for the season, never getting hit for a loss … Returned eight kicks for an aver-age of 13.1 yards per return, with a long of 29 yards … Caught one pass for four yards and recorded 10 tackles on special teams.

Tyler Hull (Guilford College): Freshman placekicker appeared in all 10 games and also punted in the Quakers’ season finale … Made three of his five field goal attempts, including a long of 34 yards on Sept. 18 against Aver-ett University... Made nine of 12 extra points and finished the year with 18 points... Had 37 kickoffs with a 49-yard average... Punted five times, compiling a 34.2-yard average with a long of 42 yards against Emory & Henry Col-lege on Nov. 13.

Photos courtesy Liberty Flames.com

Former Elkin High star Terry Adams developed into an all-conference de-fensive player at Liberty over the past four years.

Russell Stewart

Thomas Porter

COMING THIS SUMMER

COMING THIS FALL

Get ready for the new season with our power-packed yearbook full of information on every team from the Mountain Valley 1A/2A and Northwest 1A/2A conferences.

Once the season starts, download our FREE digitalmagazine each week at YadkinValleySports.comto keep up with your teams.Visit www.YadkinValleySports.com this summer for more details

Foothills Football

2011 Preview

Magazine

Monday

Morning

Quarterback


FOOTHILLS PLAYERS NOW IN COLLEGEMount Airy, Continued

Trey Johnson (Wof-ford): Completed his fourth year of playing for the Terriers, starting at center … Recorded 101 knockdowns, second on the offensive line … Served as a game captain against Appalachian State … Lettered for the fourth year in a row. Wofford finished 10-3, advancing two rounds in the FCS playoffs.

North StokesBryant Lewellyn (Liberty): The redshirt

sophomore defensive lineman appeared in two games, recording one tackle-for-loss.

StarmountRashaun Gaither (Catawba): Played in

eight games for the Indians (6-4 record) … Rushed for 184 yards on 17 carries, for an av-

erage of 10.8 yards per attempt … Scored two touchdowns … Had a season’s long run of 30 yards and never was hit for a loss … Caught five passes for 43 yards and returned two kick-offs for 37 total yards.

Surry CentralJarrod Cave (Catawba College): Listed as

a redshirt freshman offensive lineman on the team roster.

Brett Boyles (Lenoir-Rhyne): Listed as a redshirt freshman QB on the team roster.

West StokesJonathan Adams (Da-

vidson): Listed as a start-ing wide receiver heading into the season, the junior caught 25 passes for 235 yards … Longest recep-tion covered 51 yards … Rushed twice for 12 yards.

Alex Smith (Guilford College): True fresh-

man made his collegiate debut Sept. 4 against Greensboro College... Appeared in four games as a reserve defensive back.

James Hickman (Winston-Salem State University): Appeared in two games at line-backer as a true freshman … Recorded two tackles … Responsible for 1.5 tackles-for-loss and one sack.

West WilkesLogan Hallock (Appalachian State):

Listed as a freshman quarterback on the team roster.

Wilkes CentralVincent Beam (Catawba College): Listed

as a redshirt freshman tight end on the team roster.

Did We Miss Someone?Please send corrections, updates and infor-

mation on any 2011 college signees to editor Eric Lusk, [email protected].

Trey Johnson

Jonathan Adams

NextGen: Jake Barr, Alex Ratley ink with Campbell

Photo by Eric LuskJake Barr of Starmount gets ready to sign his letter of intent to attend Campbell University on Feb. 2. Here, he is flanked by his parents, Darwin and Lisa Barr. Coaches Nick Tomlin, Scott Johnson (head coach) and Scott Carter stand in back. Barr was a four-year starter with the Rams, winning numerous awards.

Photo by Eric LuskElkin lineman Alex Ratley inked his letter of intent to attend Campbell University on Feb. 2. Sitting with Ratley is his sister, Taylor Ratley; dad, Phillip Ratley and mom, Kara Ratley. Standing in back: Elkin principal Mark Byrd, Elkin head coach Scott Wood and Elkin assistant coach/athletics director Tony Duncan.

Documents

Foothills Football - 2010 Season WrapUp