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MOCKSVILLE — Rice University is in Houston, but in a way, Mocksville is home to its own version of Rice High.
First there was J.J. Rice, an astonishing 5-foot-5, 250-pound fireplug, who starred for the Davie County War Eagles a few years back and now plays in the trenches for Davidson College.
The current Rice on the Davie roster is Neil, J.J.’s slightly taller brother, who projects to be one of the top linebackers in the 4A Central Piedmont Conference this fall. In fact, if Neil isn’t the best in the league, it’s because the guy across from him, fellow junior Patrick Lowery, a nationally ranked wrestler, turns out to be even better.
There’s more bad news on the way for those who dislike the steady diet of Rice that Davie has been feeding foes in recent years. That would be eighth-grader D.J., a running back/linebacker who is already making a name for himself as the third Rice from the son.
“D.J.’s gonna be the tall one,” says Neil, who has no idea why he’s saddled with a real name instead of those easy initials. “D.J.’s tall as me already. Wish I could grow some.”
Neil is listed at 5-11, but that’s probably a slight exaggeration. His 133 tackles last season, aren’t hyperbole, however. That total is all too real.
“Neil’s a tremendous player,” says Illing. “He’s already started two years and has already been all-conference.”
“I’m real proud of Neil’s progress,” adds J.J. “I think he’s better than me.”
That would be saying something because J.J. started three games for Davidson last year.
J.J. is also making a name for himself in the classroom at the prestigious academic school.
“It’s a real tough school,” he says. “It took some adjustment, but you learn. You learn to take care of things, about handling the responsibilities that go with school and playing football. My grades are starting to come along.”
Neil shakes his head in awe at J.J.’s academic wizardry.
“He’s set some real high expectations for me,” he says. “I’m just trying to be the best I can be. I know I’ve still got an awful lot to learn.”
Now, there’s scary food for thought for War Eagle opponents: Neil Rice getting better.
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VOLUNTEER:J.J. Rice came by the school to work out Tuesday, but suddenly found himself helping out with practice.
“I just kinda got caught up in it,” he laughed.
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HELPINGHAND:J.J. was the successful host when Davidson was recruiting South Rowan fullback/linebacker Darryl Childers, who will join Rice on the team this season.
“Darryl’s a good guy,” said Rice. “I knew him from playing against him. That’s why they sent him to me.”
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YOUNGLEGEND:Also on hand for Davie’s practice yesterday was last year’s quarterback Drew Ridenhour. Ridenhour was checking out Dan Sullivan (who wears Ridenhour’s old No. 16 and may be this year’s starting QB) as well as his cousin, free safety Ben Allred.
Ridenhour reported that he had just returned from an AAU baseball trip to Lakeland and Winter Haven, Fla., where he and Davie teammate Ross Smith helped their team do very well.
Ridenhour, who will play baseball at Western Carolina, also showed promise as the next Dennis Miller. When he was asked what he was going to major in at Western, Ridenhour looked around suspiciously at a cluster of young jayvee hopefuls.
“Criminal justice, I guess,” said Ridenhour. “Looks like there will be plenty of work around here.”
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THANKGOODNESS:Davie practiced at 9 a.m. Tuesday because it was having an open house that night. Players like DB Felton Mayfield greeted the pleasant morning temperatures enthusiastically.
“Gonna be 100 degrees in the afternoons later on,” Mayfield said. “We’ll be passing out.”
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NUMBERSGAME:Davie did not have a huge turnout Tuesday, but there was a good reason.
At least 70 kids coming over from the middle schools signed up for football, but the Davie coaches haven’t required the rising 9th-graders to practice yet.
There’s a good reason. Davie’s varsity will play two endowment games (at both Statesville and Mooresville) and the jayvees won’t play either of those weeks.
“The jayvees won’t play until Aug. 31,” said assistant Mike Herndon, “so they’re not here. “But when we get everyone out, we’ll have 100-plus kids.”
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SETTINGTHEPACE:One of the leaders in Davie’s practice was senior receiver Rod Tenor, a rangy 6-2 athlete, who also excels in basketball.
Davie ran sprint after sprint yesterday and the gung-ho Tenor led his group by a wide margin each time.
“I’m trying to be a leader,” he said. “We have such a young team this year that we’ve gotta work harder than in the past. I’m setting an example.”
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SHOCK ANDROLL: Head coach Doug Illing is well aware of how young his team is.
“We got a wake-up call on that in our mini-camp last week,” he said. “A lot of little things, fundamentals that we’ve taken for granted, we’ve gotta work on with all these young kids. In some ways, we were spoiled last year.”
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HITTINGTIME: The War Eagles will start hitting for real on Saturday after three days of full pads work — today, Thursday and Friday.
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PERFECTWEAPON:Davie’s terrific placekicker David Wooldridge is getting even better.
Wooldridge kicked 13 of 17 field goals last season, but has set his sights on even loftier goals in 2000.
“The state record is 58 yards,” said Wooldridge. “I kicked one 60 this summer.”
Wooldridge attended camps at N.C. State and Virginia Tech this summer and is attracting lots of recruiting attention, even though he’s still just a junior.
“He’s a weapon,” said Illing. “With him, we start thinking about scoring as soon as we get to mid-field.”
While Wooldridge has mastered place-kicking, he’s also trying to add a new skill: punting. Davie lost a fine punter in Zeke Earle and Wooldridge, who says he needs lot of practice, is the most likely candidate to fill his cleats.
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GOFOURTH:Illing is neither shocked nor surprised that his defending CPCchamps have been picked fourth in the preseason.
“All I can say is that we will compete for the conference championship,” Illing said. “We may not go undefeated this year, but we’ll certainly compete.
“As far as being picked fourth, well, I believe we were picked fourth last year. We’re always going to be picked low, just because we’re Davie County. But that’s fine and dandy with us. It’s just motivation.”
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LOTS OFTIME:The best thing about Davie’s schedule is that, as usual, it won’t start conference play until Oct. 6 (arch-rival West Forsyth).
“That’s great for our new faces,” said Illing. “That’s six weeks that we’ve got to get ready.”
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NEWGUY:While some Rowan schools have experienced a wave of coaching changes, Davie has only one new man on its staff.
That’s Joe Errect, a Pennsylvanian, who will handle quarterbacks and running backs.
“Coaching staff stability is one of the main reasons we’ve been successful,” said Illing. “As long as I can clothe ‘em and feed ‘em, they’re gonna stay here with me.”
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