FAVORITES OUT OF WEST

ObserveAndReport

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Aug 17, 2009
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Mountain Island Charter is the biggest question mark (and possible sleeper) I see. When Southlake Christian basically disbanded their private school state champ team, a few big time players went over to Mountain Island. That kind of talent infusion at a normal 1A school would make a team an early favorite, but Mountain Island played mostly a JV schedule last year with one varsity game (Pine Lake) which they lost by 60...can a few standout transfers and a year of experience turn that team into a contender? Pine Lake and some of the other charters in their conference rapidly improved from their first year to their second, even without adding D1 talent, so it will be interesting to see what Mountain Island can do this year.

For someone more in the know in the Charlotte area, is Robert Washington (Syracuse commit) playing at Mountain Island? The preseason all-state team listed him as playing for them, but I've also seen other news outlets saying he is playing for East Gaston this year.
 
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May 31, 2001
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He is at Mtn Island Charter. He doesn't live in Gaston County to attend East Gaston. His residence is in Mecklenburg, but can attend a charter school.
 

ObserveAndReport

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Gotcha, thanks. Gaston Gazette said he was at East Gaston practice on day one but was waiting to get cleared to play at East Gaston, so it got me confused.
 
Jul 29, 2001
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He is at Mtn Island Charter. He doesn't live in Gaston County to attend East Gaston. His residence is in Mecklenburg, but can attend a charter school.

Deana, I have apparently been out of the loop in terms of Mt. Island Charter, so where is the school located, and will they be a member of the Southern Piedmont Conference?

It will be interesting to see the impact of those all-state players, and Washington who just became one of the more dynamic players in the 1A class, this year....

Have to agree with Observer about his comments about Walkertown who was very talented last year, and appeared to be poised for a big season this year before all the coaching unrest....What is the latest from Walkertown for those in the know?

As for favorites out west, You have to start with Swain and West Montgomery IMO with all the returning players that both teams will benefit from this year.....Mount Airy, Starmount and East Surry will always field competitive teams, and one of the 3 will likely make a run in the playoffs?

My sleeper picks in the 1AA West are Mitchell,Avery County and Walkertown....

Will be interesting to see if Whiteville will be needed again for the Western 1AA playoffs this year with the addition of both Mt. Island Charter and Winston-Salem Prep who will be making their Western 1A debut this year?

As for the 1A west, hard to say at the moment, but Robbinsville is the top dog until somebody knocks them off the throne....Murphy returns a veteran QB and very capable backup along with a talented RB, but will have to replace several talented players from last year who graduated.....Rosman returns a lot of players and experience on offense, while Albemarle can never be discounted, especially when you consider that this year's Seniors didn't get the opportunity to go to the playoffs last year, so you know that they got to be hungry even with a new coach?

Was Alleghany's run to the Western 1A title game just a 1 year wonder, or do the Trojans have the horses to make some more noise this year in the Mountain Valley Conf and playoffs?....What about East Wilkes, or Elkin?

And as mentioned at the top, Mt. Island immediately becomes a player if they are small enough to be 1A instead of 1AA?....Hard to ignore 2 Preseason All-State players along with Washington who has already committed to Syracuse....Don't know if I remember a new 1A school in their first year having this much talent right out of the gate....Guess we'll see how that talent impacts the Southern Piedmont Conference, this year......Community School of Davidson had a very good Jr. RB last year, is he still at CSOD?

Looking forward to the season!

Roar Tigers Roar!
 

KW2346

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Feb 9, 2011
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Tigertown to answer your question about mvac. Elkin is a team nobody will have to worry about, they seriously will be lucky to win a game this year, they graduated there best players and their jv team stunk it up last year. My alleghany trojans wont have the horses to make a deep run this year in my opinion, they will be somewhere in the middle of the mvac. They have a very talented freshman class who was undefeated in 8th grade last year so in another year or 2 i could see them definately making a deep run, but not this year unless coach brings up the freshman and they play like veterans, which i doubt. I think east wilkes should be much improved, however they r always supposed to be much improved but never are. I say mvac finishes 1.starmount 2. Wilkes central 3. East wilkes tied for 3rd alleghany and west wilkes. 6th north wilkes due to their stud rb. 7th ashe county big 2a school which will have a bunch of kids goin both ways due to lack of talent graduated their offense. 8 elkin.
 

KW2346

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Feb 9, 2011
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Robert washington is at east gaston, he was at their practice a few days ago
 

egfan

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Jul 22, 2003
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Robert Washington is not at Mtn Island, but they will still be a contender in 1A . Robert Washington is enrolled at East Gaston, but has not been cleared to start practice yet.
 

ObserveAndReport

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Aug 17, 2009
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A lot of the new schools are charter schools, and those tend to be smaller. Until 2011, state law capped the number of charter schools that could exist in NC at 100 (elementary/middle/high all together). Now that the cap is lifted, I would imagine you'll see this trend continue.