This is the second installment of the Post’s eight-part series on the football
practices of area teams.Today: South Rowan.
South Rowan senior Darryl Childers rushed for 575
yards in eight games last season.
This year, that impressive yardage total will
drop.
But Childers doesn’t mind one bit.
Because this year, Childers will be able to focus
on what he does best — hammering opposing ballcarriers.
Childers will be a full-time linebacker and leader
and only a part-time running back if things go according to plan this season.
“We’ve got 104 kids out here” said
South coach Rick Vanhoy. “A lot of them can play. We definitely know we can find 22
kids that can play. So we want to two-platoon.”
Vanhoy knows he has one of those 22 players he
needs in Childers, who had 97 tackles and made All-Rowan County last season.
Against A.L. Brown last year, for instance,
Childers seemed to make nearly every tackle for the Raiders.
The problem was that Childers, while strong,
weighs only 190 pounds. That’s why he wore down at the end of last season, and
that’s why injuries finally caught up with him and knocked him out of action by late
October.
“Darryl had to be a 48-minute man for us last
year,” said Vanhoy. “This year, he won’t have to do that. He’ll still
run the ball some, but we’ll be able to rest him while we’re on offense.
“The thing we’re going to be able to do
with two-platoon football is to play kids like Darryl (and linemen Joe Finney and Joel
Reyes) in certain spots because we want to, not because we’re in a situation where we
have to.”
OH, BROTHER: There will be two Childers on this
year’s team.
Darryl’s little brother, Ricky, will be on
the varsity. He figures to start at cornerback and will be one of the backup quarterbacks.
He was the jayvee QB last season.
“He’s going to be good,” said
Darryl of Little Ricky. “He worked hard in the weight room all summer.”
WEIGHTING ROOM: Speaking of the weights, Raider
guard Brian Billings punishes heavy objects as well as any human.
Billings, a 325-pound senior, squats more than 500
pounds. And that’s after practice.
The two-platooning has broken up last year’s
celebrated “hog pack” offensive line, but o-line coach Larry Deal will still
have the beefy Billings, 225-pound tough guy Patrick Gaddy, 215-pound Tripp Isenhour and
260-pound Michael McLemore in harness. But former packers, 285-pound Finney and 200-pound
Reyes, will be used primarily on defense.
“Be smooth, low and potent,” Deal yells
at his burly minions, as they lumber contentedly through their drills.
“This bunch has done a great job in the
weight room this summer,” Deal adds. “They can be really good.”
NEWDEAL: Deal became a proud grandpa on July 29
when daughter, Angie, South’s assistant girls basketball coach, and husband
ThadChrismon, a former UNC baseball player, had their first child.
Deal, for one, is already thinking future
offensive lineman. Because the little fellow — Austin Jordan Chrismon — has a
head start on being a mighty big fella.
“Nine pounds, 10 ounces,” recites Deal
proudly. “And 21 inches long.”
Deal’s son, Andrew, who played tight end and
was an all-county punter for the Raiders a few years back, plans to get married next
September.
The date he’s picked out is September 9.
Why then?
“He picked Sept. 9, because that’s the
date of the last time we beat Kannapolis in football,” Coach Deal explained.
That was in 1994, during Deal’s last season
as head coach before he stepped down to concentrate on his duties as athletic director.
THESHIRT: Confirmation that September 9, 1994, was
indeed the date of South’s 14-6 win over their arch-rivals in Wonderland is quickly
and proudly provided by new volunteer assistant coach Josh Vinson.
Vinson just graduated from UNC Charlotte and
begins his student teaching at North Rowan High today, but there’s no doubt he’s
still a Raider at heart.
His T-shirt proudly displays “South Rowan 14,
Kannapolis 6” and bears the date of the Raiders’ triumph.
Vinson, who devoted four years to the football and
basketball teams at South as a manager during his high school days, and came to every
football game even after he was a student at Charlotte, can give play-by-play of
South’s win.
“We stop them on the goal line and then Kevin
Sides runs out the clock and it’s all over,” offers Vinson, who claims he
hasn’t missed a South football game — home or road — since 1991.
Vinson recalls that he got the third shirt off the
assembly line on that magical night that South whipped the Wonders for the first time in a
dozen years.
“Bobby Atwell (a long-time Raider booster)
printed them up at his shop in China Grove at 11:30 that night,” said Vinson.
“Coach Deal got the first shirt off the line; our principal (Dr. Alan King) got the
second one. I got No. 3.”
And he obviously still has it.
Vinson’s duties at Raider practices are many
and varied.
He keeps track of the timing on the Raiders’
drills and blows whistles and horns to inform the world that it’s time to change
stations.
He also helps in blocking drills, using a huge pad
to ward off blows from running back hopefuls.
Finally, he is placed in command of raising the
tent that will protect trainers and injured or ill players from the elements.
CHANGINGTIMES : For the first time since 1972 and
the days of the old South Piedmont Conference, South will take on Salisbury this season.
The Hornets replace South Stokes on the
Raiders’ schedule.
Frankly, while the Raiders welcome the challenge
of Salisbury because it is 75 minutes closer than South Stokes, is a natural rival and a
much better draw, they will miss beating up on the Sauras, who have dropped out of South
Rowan’s 4A CentralPiedmont Conference.
The Raiders whipped the Sauras five times in six
meetings from 1993-98.
The last two seasons, when South Rowan won only
four games, half of that meager win total came at the expense of South Stokes.
But South Stokes is now playing in the 2A
Mid-State conference, because a new school, West Stokes, has opened its doors,
dramatically cutting South Stokes’ enrollment.
West Stokes will compete in the 3A Tri-County
Conference.
The CPC now consists of only five teams —
South, Davie and the three perennially tough Forsyth County schools. The CPC had seven
teams before it lost North Davidson when it dropped down to a 3A enrollment level two
years ago.
“What a five-team conference means,”
said Vanhoy, “is that every Friday night in the conference is a playoff game.”
NEWOPPONENT : South used to scrimmage Salisbury
every year. This year the Raiders will take part in a three-team Saturday scrimmage at old
CPC foe North Davidson instead.
WORDSOFWISDOM : Vanhoy is not a screamer at
practice, choosing instead to motivate with calm encouragement and common sense.
“You can have one of two kinds of days
today,” he tells his team. “A good one or a bad one. There’s nothing in
between.”
Later he offers, “Your goal today should be
to be a better player at 6 o’clock than you were at 4. Let’s do it. Let’s
get ready to roll!”
BANKS BARKS : Not all of the Raider coaches are as
low-key as Vanhoy.
As he did last year, running backs coach George
Banks offers a louder motivational style for the Raiders. Sort of like Parris Island
without the fatigues.
“You’re a hammer or a nail on the
football field,” Banks bellows at his charges. “Which do you want to be?”
Later when a Raider runner goes down meekly in a
drill, Banks offers: “You get tackled by a linebacker one-on-one in a game like that,
and you’re coming out.”
Banks’ tactics are effective. He allows
himself an occasional smile when his troops aren’t looking, but when they are focused
on him, he keeps his game-face on.
LEADERS : The members of the experienced offensive
line provide much of the vocal leadership for this year’s Raiders.
After one players-only huddle, one of the huge
linemen exclaims, “Go hard or go home, guys!”
BACKHOME : Stopping by to visit his old coaches
and teammates at practice was Andre Neely, one of the stars of South’s 1997 team.
Neely spent last year at Fork Union Military
Academy, and was obviously in the weight room when he wasn’t studying.
He’s put on 20 pounds or so of muscle in his
neck, shoulders and arms and will play football this fall for Central Florida.
Neely will play safety for the school that turned
out celebrated QBDaunte Culpepper last season.
“I’m too big now to play cornerback like
I did at South,” Neely laughs.
“The Knights,” yells defensive backs
coach Linn Williams, referring to Central Florida’s nickname, as soon as he spots
Neely.
Neely doesn’t make much noise, but everyone
on the field noticed his new physique and was suitably impressed.
Neely will need his added muscle. CFU will take on
Purdue, Alabama, Georgia and Georgia Tech in its first four contests.
NEWFACE : Vanhoy is pleased that his coaching
staff from last year has returned intact.
He does, however have a full-time addition to the
staff in Brian Rollins.
Rollins will handle the outside linebackers,
freeing Tony Lellie to concentrate on the inside backers.
Rollins is a young social studies teacher, who
joined the South faculty back in January.
He played at Belmont South Point High in Gaston
County for three years and coached there for two years before coming to South.
He is a graduate of UNC
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