Annual ritual, high school football, has started

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on August 1, 2016 1:48 PM

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By RUDY COGGINS

rcoggins@newsargus.com

Pardon those shrill whistles that might have awoken you from a peaceful slumber this morning.

But that whistle, as annoying as it might have been, signaled an annual ritual -- the start of the 2016 high school football season.

Six of nine area teams were greeted with overcast skies, a warm breeze and slick grass from a late-evening thunderstorm that drenched Wayne, Johnston and Duplin counties on Sunday evening.

Eastern Wayne, directed by first-year head coach Tavares Oates, donned its gear and hit the practice field at 7:15 this morning. The Warriors look to improve upon last year's four-win campaign and find a replacement for all-everything athlete KK Best -- who played a majority of his senior year with nagging injuries.

Fourth-year Charles B. Aycock head coach Steve Brooks sent out a Twitter message late Sunday to remind his players to bring their running shoes to practice this morning.

The Golden Falcons kick off their first practice with a running test.

Aycock mustered four wins in 2016 and drew an opening-round playoff date at Eastern Alamance. Brooks returns the area's top quarterback-receiver combo -- Jake Flowers and Chandler Matthews. Flowers set numerous single-season and school records. Matthews is approaching the 2,000-yard receiving mark for his career.

Just a few minutes down Pikeville-Princeton Highway with slight turns onto Nor-Am Road and a crossover of Highway 70, the Rosewood Eagles took the field at 8:45 a.m. Just about the entire defensive line returns. The question is who will replace speedster Marquail Al-montaser and bruising running back Mike Woodard?

Princeton, with second-year head coach Travis Gaster, launched its season at 8:30 a.m. at Harvey Brooks Field.

Southern Wayne started at 9 a.m.

The Bulldogs and Saints each have some holes to fill in their respective coaching staffs due to unexpected late-season moves.

Goldsboro and Spring Creek, which will join forces in a new conference next season, each kicked off its respective season at 5 p.m.

The Cougars are led by a 17-member senior class that is eager to improve upon last year's five-win effort. They hope to snap Goldsboro's three-year absence from the postseason.

Down in Calypso, North Duplin gets started at 7 p.m.