LANDIS — He wears a red No. 93, but the only number that matters to South Rowan senior kicker Robby Basinger is 35.
“That’s the number of Division I scholarships that go to placekickers in an average year,” says Basinger, who has obviously conducted thorough research on the subject.
Basinger, the all-county booter last season, desperately wants one of those 35. He may get it.
Basinger says his pursuit of a scholarship is the reason he’s passing on soccer this season. He’ll be a full-time football player even though he‘s been a key man for South soccer the past two years.
“I owe it to the football team and I owe it to myself,” says Basinger, whose older brother Jamie got him started as a kicker in middle school.
On Thursday afternoon, Basinger has the entire soccer practice field all to himself — unless you count buddy Bradley Reynolds. Reynolds, now a student at N.C. State, was the Raider kicker a few years back. Reynolds offers occasional advice, but there’s really not much he can tell Basinger. Because Basinger is really good.
He banged through seven field goals and 25 PATs for the Raiders as a junior, including two field goals in the regular-season finale against Mount Tabor.
Basinger, in fact, might be one of the top five kickers in the state, but in one of those strange twists of fate, an even more celebrated kicker, Davie County junior David Wooldridge, plays just 25 miles away — and in the same conference.
Both Basinger and Wooldridge garnered all-state votes last year, but Wooldridge, who kicked 13 field goals, nudged out Basinger for all-conference honors. Basinger has nothing personal against Wooldridge, but he uses his rival’s greater notoriety as motivation.
“I’ve got to stay one step ahead of David,” he says with a grin. “If he gets up at 6, I’m gonna get up at 5. If he practices two hours, I’m gonna practice three. Yeah, tell David he’d better get on the ball.
“Hey, how many camps did he go to this summer?” asks Basinger. Told that Wooldridge attended two, Basinger grins with satisfaction. “I went to three. Rice, Appalachian and Catawba.”
The friendly duel between the Davie and South kickers brought out the best in both last season. Davie beat South 27-17 with Wooldridge kicking a field goal of 44 yards. But Basinger one-upped him with a boot of 45.
“The long ones are fine, but I’m mostly just looking for consistency,” says Basinger. “I want to make nine out of 10 from 40 (yards) and in.”
And making things even more interesting this year, Basinger, like Wooldridge, figures to see double-duty as his team’s new punter.
Stay tuned. If there’s one game in the state this fall that’s decided by someone kicking a 50-yard field goal, it’ll be when Davie visits South in October.
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TWOQBS:South has a proven quarterback returning in senior Tim Cook, but Ricky Childers, a junior, is also getting plenty of reps in the Raider camp.
“Competition is good,” said Vanhoy. “It helps the team and helps both players. They give us different looks, because they have different strengths. Tim’s got the arm; Ricky’s got the legs.”
Vanhoy says both players will get some snaps, although Childers is so critical to South’s defensive secondary that his time on offense will likely be limited.
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BIGNUMBERS: Just two years ago, South had a seven-man senior class.
The class of 2001 is 27 strong and there are a whopping 118 candidates all told in the Raider program.
“Last couple of years we had to go banging the halls, trying to find players,” said Vanhoy. “Now, they’re coming to us. That’s what a little taste of winning will do. There’s definitely some carry-over from the way we finished last season.”
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IT’STHESHOES:South is blessed in the offensive backfield with a tandem that may be as good as any 1-2 punch in the state. Keith Garrett amassed almost 900 yards last year, while Tore’ Girty piled up more than 600.
“Two great kids and the two fastest guys on the team,” said Vanhoy.
Garrett has recently run a 4.41 40-yard dash, while Girty is just a breath behind him at 4.44. Garrett is also nearly 160 pounds now, up 25 from a year ago. Girty has hit a growth spurt that’s even more impressive. He’s up to 190 after a summer working with his dad’s special “strength shoes.”
“I worked out four times a day in them,” said Girty.
Girty is also a good basketball player, but says he’s concentrating all his energies on football. “I’m getting the most letters and offers for football,” said Girty. “So that’s what I’m focusing on.”
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NEWFACES: The arrival of Bob Boswell has gotten most of the attention, but South has a couple of other new coaches.
Mike Landers is over from Corriher-Lipe and is helping with receivers along with newlywed Josh Vinson.
Travis Billings, a former all-county lineman for the Raiders who played ball at Western Carolina, is helping with the offensive line.
Thad Chrismon is assisting Jim Crawley with the QBs.
“It’s good to have two coaches there,” said Vanhoy, “because we’ve got three varsity QBs and three jayvees. That’s a big group.”
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WHYSIX? The Raiders had an odd 6 p.m. practice time Thursday for the benefit of their huge group of ninth-graders.
“We’ll practice at 4 as soon as school starts,” said Vanhoy, “but we’re at 6 now. It’s tough for the freshman to get here at 4 now. There’s 38 of them and none of them are driving yet.”
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NOO-LINEWHINE:Vanhoy was concerned when practice began because South graduated some huge bodies in all-county players Patrick Gaddy and Brian Billings.
“The offensive line was an area with some questions,” said Vanhoy, “but we’ve had some kids really step up there. Let’s just say we’re not on the phone trying to make any trades.”
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MOVINGONUP:Vanhoy is very pleased that four members of last year’s team — linebacker Darryl Childers (Davidson), defensive lineman Joe Finney (Catawba) and Brian Billings and Gaddy (Appalachian) will play college ball.
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NOTME:Vanhoy was a little amazed that Davie has been picked fourth in the conference in the state’s top high school publication, the N.C. Prep Football News.
“When they asked me, I voted Davie first,” said Vanhoy. “Hey, they were undefeated conference champions. Until someone beats them, they’ve gotta be No. 1.”
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HIGHLYRECOMMENDED:Boswell offered words of praise for new A.L. Brown head coach Ron Massey.
“He’s already doing a great job fixing things up and getting them looking good over there and he’s going to do a great job with that football team,” said Boswell.
Boswell seemed most excited about Massey’s impact as athletics director.
“Some things had deteriorated over there to the point where it was sad,” said Boswell. “We used to be 4A, but we had great basketball teams and our track program was second to none. They forfeited six weight classes in wrestling at times last year. A good athletic program is more than just football. I think Ron can do a lot for them.”
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