This is the fifth installment of the Post’s eight-part series on football practices
of area high school teams.Today:
Salisbury.
When teams in the National
Football League suffer through losing seasons, they have the comfort of coming back the
next year with an easier schedule.
When college teams go through down
years, they have the luxury of scheduling a patsy or two for a guaranteed win.
When Salisbury High School comes
off its 1-10 1998 season and a stretch of four wins in three years, the Hornets get …
two 4A schools, two playoff-seasoned teams and their biggest league rival the first week
of the Class 2A Central Carolina Conference season.
“The schedule-makers
didn’t do me any favors,” Hornets head coach Raymond Daugherty said with a
laugh. “I know I’m the AD, but this is somebody else’s doing.”
Daugherty might be the athletics
director at Salisbury now, but when former AD Sam Gealy made up the schedule four years
ago, Daugherty was out of teaching and still two years shy of his Salisbury return.
The Hornets open the season Aug.
20 against 3A county rival West Rowan before playing host to Albemarle a week later, which
returns a backfield from its second-round playoff team of a year ago.
Salisbury opens September with a
trip to 1998 3A semifinalist Concord, then battles 4A South Rowan and Davie County on
consecutive weekends.
To top things off,
Salisbury’s first CCC game comes against North Rowan Sept. 24.
“Coming off the year we had
last year, if things don’t go well early it can spell doom,” Daugherty said.
“I don’t think that will happen. We don’t have many seniors, but
‘senior leadership’ is just that — it doesn’t take but one or two
seniors to lead.”
While Daugherty will look to
quarterback Justin Johnson, tailback DeMarcus Davidson and utility man Adam Taylor to lead
the players on the field through the tough early schedule, he has other concerns as well.
“Sometime in those six weeks
I hope I get some sleep,” he said with a laugh.
*
coach-speak: Daugherty might be
able to divvy up some of those sleepless nights among his coaching staff.
The head coach will continue to
work with the offense along with running backs coach Matt Murphy, receivers coach Kenny
Bates and offensive line coach Robert Shipp.
The defensive staff returns from
last season, with Dan Pike coordinating the efforts of Drew Matthews (defensive backs),
Jason Kluttz (linebackers) and Donnie Hooker (defensive line).
*
back in the saddle: Daugherty
assumed the head coaching job from Glen Padgett, now at Northwest Cabarrus, after a
13-year break.
Daugherty’s last head
coaching job was at West Rowan, where he left in 1986. This is his second year coaching at
Salisbury after working with the offensive line a year ago.
“It’s better this time
around. The first time I was a head coach I had to learn to delegate, I was trying to do
everything,” Daugherty said. “Now I’m turning things over to the coaching
staff. I’ve got a young coaching staff, but a fine coaching staff.”
*
now hear this! Bates has already
made an impression on his new charges in his first season coaching out of Catawba.
“Coach Bates has given us a
new attitude,” Davidson said. “He pushes us the most and we know if we do
something wrong, he’ll tell us about it. He’s a role model. We look up to him a
lot.”
Bates graduated from North Rowan
in 1994 and is happy about the chance to stay in Rowan County.
“It’s a chance to work
with a lot of local kids. I played against some of their older brothers,” Bates said.
“It’s good to work with kids from the community that I can relate to some of the
things they’re going through.”
The only bad part about staying in
the community is that this year he’ll be coaching against family — nephew
Dominique Bates suits up for the North Rowan Cavaliers.
*
heads up! From the very first
football practice that used the very first football helmet, a battle between coaches and
players has waged on the football field.
It’s hot out there, and
really hot in that helmet, and the players want to take it off when they’re not doing
anything.
Coaches want the helmets on to get
the players used to being ready at a moment’s notice and to instill discipline.
Enter receivers coach Bates.
“If you take your helmet off
there’s a football flying at your head,” explained a laughing Davidson.
“Coach Bates told us this story about a kid who got hit in the head with a football
and got brain damage.”
*
YANKEE PRIDE: The term
“football weather” will take on new meaning for Matt Murphy, Daugherty’s
new running backs coach.
Murphy, a P.E. teacher, moved to
Salisbury three weeks ago from Rochester, N.Y. He and fiance Liz Wyatt, a science teacher
at East Rowan, decided to make the move to escape the New York winters.
*
eager students: After four
victories in the last three years, the Hornets are hungry for wins. The intensity of that
desire hasn’t gone unnoticed.
“They’re tired of losing
and they’re looking for someone to teach them how to play, they want to learn how to
play,” Bates said. “We don’t have to yell at them much.”
*
memories: One of the best people
to teach the Hornets how to win is Kluttz, the linebackers coach.
Kluttz played linebacker and
fullback on the 1995 Salisbury team that went 12-1, the last time the Hornets sported a
winning record.
“A lot of the kids remember
that, they were sitting up in the stands that year,” Kluttz said. “They know
what winning’s all about. We’ve got to get that tradition back.”
*
Transfer talk: Several Hornets
from the 1998 roster are playing football elsewhere this season, but Daugherty wasn’t
interested in talking about who left.
“I like to talk about the
people who are at Salisbury High School, not the people who aren’t,” he said.
Gromyko Walker was one such name
to mentioned. The junior receiver transferred to Salisbury from North Mecklenburg and
should make an immediate impact for the Hornets.
*
no ‘i’ in hornets: Some
of the Salisbury players have noticed immediate differences on the practice field.
“In years past it was more an
individual thing,” Davidson said. “People were worried about what they were
going to do instead of the team effort. Now everybody’s looking forward to the
season.”
*
numbers game: Opportunities abound
during a 1-10 season to jump ship, and a Salisbury team that started the 1998 season with
66 players ended with 39.
For that reason, Daugherty was
thrilled to see 76 players come out for practice this year, giving his staff a full squad
of both varsity and junior varsity players to work with. After whittling the varsity down
to 30 or so people, Daugherty hopes to have a cohesive JV squad that will form a nucleus
for seasons to come.
“I don’t want to pull
any jayvees up if at all possible,” Daugherty said. “It’s hard for a
ninth-grade young man to help the varsity win ballgames. Those young kids are the future
of Salisbury football.”
*
bear down: Daugherty is thankful
for Friday night high school football. His son, Lee, started at center for Lenoir-Rhyne
last year and is the probable starter at left guard this season.
That means the Salisbury head
coach has plenty of trips to Hickory planned on Saturday afternoon to catch the Bears in
Lee’s seniors season.
Wednesday: Kannapolis.
Big man cooks up attitude
It’s not hard to imagine
people listening to T.J. Johnson.
Big doesn’t begin to describe
the Salisbury offensive and defensive lineman. Massive gets a little closer, but somehow
still falls short.
In a year showing early signs of
promise, the task of rebuilding a football team with four wins in three years must begin
up front.
Johnson knew that.
Johnson said that.
People listened.
“I tried so hard to get other
guys I knew would be an impact on the offensive line in there,” Johnson said of the
Hornets’ informal offseason workout sessions. “For us to have a running game we
have to be able to move the line of scrimmage more than we have in the past.
“Us being stronger, the
passing game will be more effective. The quarterback won’t have to worry about
getting sacked all the time.
“I was saying, ‘Guys, we
gotta do this!’”
*
Clearly, Johnson is not all talk.
Last year, the sophomore measured
in at 6-foot-4 and 245 pounds. Add another inch or so and a bit more bulk and you’ve
got somebody who looks ready to line up at the next level — as a junior.
He benches 335 pounds and squats
more than 500. That’s called leading by example.
“Last year we had one
offensive lineman who benched 250, now they’re all over that,” Hornets head
coach Raymond Daugherty said. Perhaps most impressive to Daugherty is that the summer
workouts came on the heels of a 1-10 season.
“That’s not always the
case, but you can tell by what they’ve done in the offseason,” Daugherty said.
“They’re much stronger in the weight room.”
That strength doesn’t apply
only to muscles, either. One of the biggest changes Johnson can see occurred between the
ears.
“When you’re getting in
the weight room, you have a certain feeling,” Johnson said. “‘I’m
stronger now, I can do more than I could before.’ The attitude has changed a lot. I
don’t think the guys feel as unprepared as before.”
The offseason preparations paid
off for the hardest workers, as Salisbury’s front lines already are selected. Austin
Imes, Preston Jones, Paul Kluttz, Otis Sifford and Terry Bruce join Johnson up front, and
of that group, Bruce is the only senior.
“We’ve got some big ones
back and I’m looking forward to that,” Salisbury quarterback Justin Johnson
said. “Those are my boys! They’re gonna protect me.”
And from that protection, Justin
Johnson can complete that touchdown pass or run for a score, and he’ll be the one
celebrating in the end zone or reading over his stats in the paper.
That’s another lesson T.J.
Johnson has to pass along.
“I know the offensive line
doesn’t get the glory, but when I think about just laying somebody out, that makes me
feel good, that’s all the glory I need,” the lineman said. “When I see that
other person laid out, that gets me hyped — getting pancakes.”
That attitude fits all too well
for someone who idolizes the original Pancake King, Orlando Pace, the Ohio State lineman
drafted No. 1 overall by the St. Louis Rams in 1997.
Look out, Rowan County.
There’s a new chef in town.
Steve Hanf covers sports for the Post.
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