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NEW LONDON -- When this football season began, they were highly touted. Six
short weeks later, the North Stanly High Comets find themselves highly doubted.
The Comets, with their dream backfield of quarterback Wes Herlocker and running mates O.J.
Owens and Kamal Watkins, were supposed to be 4-2 or 5-1 at this point.
Instead, they are 1-5.
No one expected them to beat mighty High Point Central, the state's top-ranked 2A team,
and their game with Albemarle, maybe the best 1A team in the state, was considered a
toss-up.
But the Comets were supposed to beat West Stanly and South Stanly. They didn't.
Then there was the shocking loss to Mt. Pleasant, a team that hadn't won all year until it
lit up the Comets 49-38.
That was the game that left the Comets stunned and their fans disappointed --
even angry.
Someone has scrawled "North Stanly football sucks" on the building facing the
Comets locker room. It's a sobering sight and a harsh reminder of how quickly a bandwagon
can be abandoned as soon as adversity arrives.
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Perhaps the most surprised person in
New London that the Comets are 1-5 is first-year head coach Robert Harris, who was leading
the Knox Middle School Trojans not so long ago.
"I'd never lost five games in one year," Harris says. "Not as a coach, not
as a player. I sure didn't think it would be this year."
It hasn't been an easy time for Harris, but he's still optimistic, still looking ahead
-- not over his shoulder.
"How can I be down?" he asks. "My seniors haven't given up. They've got the
will to turn this thing around. Kamal and O.J. are positive leaders. Yes, a few kids have
dropped by the wayside, but I'm very proud of every kid who's still with me."
His family helps Harris stay sane. Grandma calls and says to hang in there. So does Mom.
So do his two little brothers, both of whom play for North Rowan.
And Harris hasn't forgotten how to smile. He chuckles about reports he's gotten from his
brothers that the Post is "dragging the Comets." They've ribbed him that
even winless Salisbury is looking ahead to its shot at North Stanly and a certain
old middle school coach.
Harris can give you plenty of reasons (not excuses) why his team hasn't been all that the
media cracked it up to be.
Three key players were lost prior to the season.
Harris' team is too young -- with 10 sophomores playing key roles. Most
are on the defensive unit, which has been porous.
"We've had a jayvee team out there," sighs Harris. " Some nights, O.J. (who
doubles as the free safety) has had to make 80 to 90 percent of the tackles."
The Comets aren't deep. If football were 3-on-3, North's backfield trio would be favored
to win it all. But it's 11-on-11. "We haven't found 11 to play a whole game on
defense," says Harris. "And then High Point comes in with four platoons."
Injuries have hurt. Big lineman Jermaine Hammond is only now returning after going down in
a preseason scrimmage.
Then there's Brian Long, who tore up a knee in the opener.
Rowan sports fans know Long as the guy who hits three-run homers for the Stanly
Legion.
But this time of year, he's a huge part of Comets football.
He's the tight end, whose blocks spring Watkins and Owens, and he's a leader as a
middle linebacker. He calls the signals, does the dirty work, takes pressure off Owens.
"When Brian went down it was a blow," says Harris. "It's a lift to get him
back this week. Maybe we're whole now for the very first time.
"Ledford (this Friday) has got to be the game," Harris says. "It's one of
those where you leave it on the field. You don't bring a thing back on the bus."
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Watkins, who's on his way to his third 1,000-yard
rushing season, arrives for practice with his ever-present smile intact.
If he notices the unflattering graffiti across the way, he doesn't flinch an inch.
"There's been some negativity," he admits, "but not from the team or
coaches. Some fans lost faith after Mount Pleasant."
The fans believed the hype.
Did the players?
"I think it hurt us," he says. "It made us a target, and everyone brought
their A-game against us. But we can't feel sorry for ourselves, we've just got to bring
our A-plus game."
Watkins has brought his best every Friday. At times, the 5-foot-7 warrior has put
several tons of North Stanly football players on his undersized shoulders and tried to
carry them to victory.
He scored two of his four TDs against Mount Pleasant in a single minute, but it wasn't
enough.
Yet, like Harris, Watkins feels this season is merely misplaced, not lost. It can be saved
-- but it has to start Friday.
Watkins says some of his younger teammates have to start standing taller, but he points no
fingers. The only finger he's pointing right now is at the tiny town of Wallburg --
the home of Ledford High.
"Coach Harris has done his part," he said. "He prepared us, got us in
condition. We've got half a season to prove something. Not to the fans, but to ourselves.
I just want us to go out and show that North Stanly can play some football." |
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