A Conversation with OurNDSports.com

As I happily noted earlier in the week, I'm headed back to Welcome this week to cover the North Davidson/Reagan game.  This time, I hit up our friends over at www.ourndsports.com for some insight into what makes Black Knight football such a special experience.  Thanks to those guys for their thoughtful answers and their wonderful hospitality!

Q:  I treated my first visit to North Davidson (last week) like I have all the other schools I’ve visited: as a fact-finding mission.  It was less about the game than it was the atmosphere and other characteristics that make up the Friday night experience.  Now that I get to come back, let’s talk about the football.  Can you recall a ND team in recent history generating this much excitement?  You have an undefeated football team!

 A: The excitement over ND football has been growing ever since Coach Holcomb came back to coaching in 2008 after 2 years of Administrative duties at ND. The summer workout programs have gotten more intense and the realization of the importance of starting the kids young and getting them excited about getting to the high school and playing. Taking football seriously has been key. As far as expectations from the team, the last 2 years have been huge. In 2010, the team had ~30 seniors much like this year’s team and had a huge head of steam going into the playoffs after dismantling a Davie team 52-28 in the final game of the regular season. The next week, North lost to Davie in the first round of the playoffs and Davie went on a run to the state title game. Last year, expectations were once again high with the return of Karsten Miller (now QB at UNCC) and several key players. Miller suffered a season ending injury in the season opener against Thomasville so North was left scrambling for a QB. The team pulled together and won 8 of its next 10 games before falling to a strong Ragsdale team in the first round of the playoffs. Because of the adversity that last year’s team overcame, I would venture to say that the excitement surrounding this program has not been matched in over a decade.

Q: How much does it mean to this season to finally have the Mount Tabor monkey off of the Black Knights’ collective backs?

A: It wasn’t so much just Mount Tabor, it was every Forsyth county/CPC School. If you talk to coach Holcomb, one thing he has always stressed is that we HAVE to win against the Forsyth county schools. North has gained a reputation for having an easy early season schedule. This hasn’t been so much true in the past couple years but generally there were a lot of Davidson county schools (mostly 2A) on the schedule so North would usually start out 4-0 or 5-0. Getting the win over Tabor was very special but I think it represents bigger things to come in terms of the goals for ND Football in the future

Q: The one thing that stood out to me last week was the speed and aggressiveness of the defense.  Is that the difference between this year and years past, or is it more of an amalgamation of things?

A: North has always had a reputation for stout defense but it mostly came from just hard-nosed, tough guys who made plays based off effort and hustle. Recently it has changed because you have playmakers, stars like Andrew Mayton and Shy and Tevin Tuttle who have immense talent to go along with the toughness and drive that the coaching staff does so well at instilling. It is the talent of the players on the field that allows the playcalling to be more aggressive. The change to a 3-4 defense has definitely helped because along with the talented 3 down linemen (Mayton, Beaver and Tuttle), North has a couple guys that fit into the Bandit category (Bandit is a hybrid position of Defensive End and Linebacker) like Hunter Gooding, Cameron Martin and Devaris Byrd. These types of players allow the defense to create mismatches. But ultimately it all starts up front with who wins the battle at the line of scrimmage and our guys have done a fantastic job of that so far this year.

Q: Give me and my readers a few things to watch this week…the Tuttle brothers don’t count!  They’re a given.

Here’s a quick synopsis from our Reagan Preview:

·       Could See Tevin Tuttle taking more snaps at QB because Reagan struggles containing mobile QBs

·       The North secondary could be tested this week, Reagan has Ja’Shawn Joyner behind center and Caleb Anthony at wideout and both of these kids are playmakers. Q Cunningham (#5) of North will most likely be covering Anthony, so this matchup could be interesting to watch. Ultimately the pass rush of North might dictate how the game is played, if Joyner is hurried by the ND frontline, it could be a long night for Reagan.

·       Containing Joyner’s scrambling could be an issue for North. Expect to see a Spy Assignment (Basically one defensive player assigned man to man coverage on the QB) on Joyner from the North defense, most likely coming from one of the more mobile linebackers, possibly Cameron Martin or Ryan Dobey.

Ed. Note: Check out the full opponent preview article here:

Q: Finally, I have to know…what exactly is “IT” that makes North Davidson football night different than everyone else around here?  I was absolutely shocked at how much it felt like an SEC experience.

A: The “IT” factor is the feeling of family coming together. This community is extremely tight knit and it seems football is becoming more and more popular in the community. It has been noted that our following travels with the best in the state.  Even last year at Statesville and Asheboro, the visitors’ stands were packed with our followers. It comes down to the passion for the school and the surrounding communities.

You have to remember that this is still a small town. We may be 4A but this is still a place where everybody still knows everybody and I think that’s where you get the feeling of passion and excitement about the school.  The athletic programs are definitely an extension of that, specifically when you are winning, which football is right now in dramatic fashion, I might add.