Forget about the image of the lonely kicker, sitting off by himself on the sidelines with no support from the rest of the team.
The Hornets are making sure nobody messes with their potential placekicker. And by the way, it’s a she who won’t be watching the action by herself.
Junior Amber Wingerson is one of several soccer players auditioning for the placekicking chores on the Salisbury football team. She came to head coach Raymond Daugherty in July and asked to borrow a tee, and after several weeks of workouts, enters practice among those being considered for extra-point conversions and short field goals.
Having soccer players pull double duty for the football team is common these days. But for Wingerson, football would be her only fall sport. Boys soccer coincides with football in the fall. She plays for the girls soccer team in the spring and basketball in the winter.
Daugherty stressed that the Hornets don’t yet have a kicker, only several hopefuls. And it doesn’t matter a bit if his kicker has long blonde hair down to her waist — or if he has a crew cut.
“Right now she’s kicking pretty good, but it’s not a given,” Daugherty said. “If she can convert extra points, it doesn’t matter if she’s male or female. What’s important is kicking the ball through the uprights.”
And staying out of harm’s way. Hornet senior Ken Drye said that if Wingerson gets the job, nobody’ll be able to get to Salisbury’s kicker.
“She might have been a little scared at first, but she looks good now. I think she’ll do OK,” Drye said. “And we’ll protect her.”
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captain, my captain: After the kind of year he had last season, it’s no surprise that Drye will captain the Hornets from his linebacker and backup tailback positions.
To this point, he’s the only Hornet captain. Daugherty said others have yet to be named, and could even serve on a game-to-game basis beside Drye.
“Ken will have to be our leader. I want him to lead by example,” Daugherty said.
“Coach says a lot of the guys look up to me and I want to give them a positive image,” Drye said. “I know that if they see Coach get on me, they won’t do that same thing wrong.”
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please, take it! When the athletic transfer controversy blew full force last year, one of the biggest complaints parents and athletes had was that new kids moved into a school and took playing time away from the kids who had it last season.
That’s not a problem at Salisbury. Drye emerged as a powerful runner last season for the Hornets. This year, Jamel Alexander’s transfer from North — after being at Salisbury as a freshman — means he’ll get a majority of the carries.
Which is just fine by Drye, who basically played every snap of every quarter of every game last year, especially near the end of the season.
“I don’t mind. I know he’ll get the job done,” Drye said. “Twenty-two people starting — no one starting both ways!”
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lots of dirt: The Hornets used to practice behind the gymnasium. But what was once a vast field is now the beginnings of Salisbury High’s new sports complex. Much of the grass is gone, with graded dirt in its place.
The lengthy project, which will build baseball and softball fields, plus parking lots, has forced the football team into a smaller area beside the gym.
“We’re just cramped. It hasn’t bothered us yet,” Daugherty said. “As long as we’re doing individual work, we can do that here. But when we work as teams, there’s not enough room to have two separate teams out there, and I don’t want to use the playing field.”
Daugherty said the school has made arrangements with the city to work with the junior varsity squad at a park behind Hall’s Gym.
Moving from the old field to the new could’ve been a plus for the varsity squad, as a steep hill took them from the gym to the field and often was used for running. But the Hornets weren’t going to get off that easily.
“We just use a different hill now,” Daugherty said with a laugh.
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is it hot out here or what? After a relatively mild July, the temperature soared — just in time for football practice, of course.
Daugherty had his players in full gear for less than 30 minutes Monday, telling his coaches to run drills in as little equipment as possible.
“We have a lot to do, so we have to be on the field,” Daugherty said. “We’re giving them lots of water and doing a lot of the drills without helmets, some of them even without shoulder pads and jerseys.”
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New faces: Only Daugherty and Dan Pike, the defensive coordinator and line coach, remain from last year’s staff.
Receivers coach Ryan Ochier hails from Ohio, while defensive line coach Ryan Crowder joins the team from West Virginia. Running backs coach Doug Faison retired to Salisbury after more than 30 years of coaching in Virginia, then decided to help with the Hornets as well.
Other new faces on the sidelines include offensive line coach Dale Snyder, linebackers coach Jared Eury and defensive backs coach J.D. Davis. Both Eury and Davis played for Catawba College.
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