Watching the NFL playoffs this weekend....,

[DinwiddieProud]

sure makes me pine for real football. Slightly less than nine months before we can see some teams in action. I'll continue to attend my weekly NHSF, (No High School Football), meetings. Continue taking my medications and seeing my therapist. Maybe I can pull through.

 

[mikesalem]

sure makes me pine for real football. Slightly less than nine months before we can see some teams in action. I'll continue to attend my weekly NHSF, (No High School Football), meetings. Continue taking my medications and seeing my therapist. Maybe I can pull through.

What impact players will Dinwiddie lose to graduation and what will they return? We can look way ahead and have fun guessing how they'll do. The '14 Salem team graduated 18 starters and no one saw a state title this year. We can speculate anyway.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Well Mike, my favorite player will be graduating. All 135 lbs of ear to ear smile, Reggie Williams. Coach Mills kind of smiled himself four years ago and said, "sure you can work out this summer". Thinking all along that he would quickly get weary of being pounded on an move along to some other sport. Coach Mills gets a lot of things right, but he happily admits he underestimated Reggie. He got on the field as a freshman and nobody could beat him out of his position after that. He will be missed tremendously as a player, and as a terrific young man.

In all, I believe we are losing 19 seniors. Several defensive impact players, but we are fairly deep on that side of the ball. We were undersized on defence this year, but the future looks BIGGER. Cecil Parham and Brian Jefferson provided strong leadership and a lot of vicious hits.

Offensively, we say goodby to elusive Dakarai Wilson at RB and PR, and RB James Lyons, and a few others. But, by and large we were a young team and are well stocked with juniors and sophomores, and more than a couple of freshmen that hold a lot of promise. My hope is we can rise up like Salem did this year, and these young players can get their sea legs quickly.

It's looking like you might get hammered with snow this weekend. Put a big pot of soup on and hunker down. And dream of the start of football.

 

[mikesalem]

Well Mike, my favorite player will be graduating. All 135 lbs of ear to ear smile, Reggie Williams. Coach Mills kind of smiled himself four years ago and said, "sure you can work out this summer". Thinking all along that he would quickly get weary of being pounded on an move along to some other sport. Coach Mills gets a lot of things right, but he happily admits he underestimated Reggie. He got on the field as a freshman and nobody could beat him out of his position after that. He will be missed tremendously as a player, and as a terrific young man.

In all, I believe we are losing 19 seniors. Several defensive impact players, but we are fairly deep on that side of the ball. We were undersized on defence this year, but the future looks BIGGER. Cecil Parham and Brian Jefferson provided strong leadership and a lot of vicious hits.

Offensively, we say goodby to elusive Dakarai Wilson at RB and PR, and RB James Lyons, and a few others. But, by and large we were a young team and are well stocked with juniors and sophomores, and more than a couple of freshmen that hold a lot of promise. My hope is we can rise up like Salem did this year, and these young players can get their sea legs quickly.

It's looking like you might get hammered with snow this weekend. Put a big pot of soup on and hunker down. And dream of the start of football.

Salem graduates 20 seniors that occupied 12 starting spots. 2 other Seniors were starters, but had season ending injuries earlier in the year, I didn't include them as starters lost because they had to be replaced during the season. Biggest losses will be on the lines- offense & defense, the backfield, a linebacker, and 2 in the secondary. Offense loses 5 starters and defense 7.

 

[DinwiddieProud]

Salem graduates 20 seniors that occupied 12 starting spots. 2 other Seniors were starters, but had season ending injuries earlier in the year, I didn't include them as starters lost because they had to be replaced during the season. Biggest losses will be on the lines- offense & defense, the backfield, a linebacker, and 2 in the secondary. Offense loses 5 starters and defense 7.

I'm reminded of a similar situation last year when Salem said they would struggle because of graduation. They struggled all the way to a state championship. But seriously, the loss of affective linemen is always and especially worrisome.

I'm seeing Salem back in Lynchburg this year. And we may have our best shot since 2013 to get there. A lot of teams and territory to cover for before then, though.

 

[mikesalem]

I'm reminded of a similar situation last year when Salem said they would struggle because of graduation. They struggled all the way to a state championship. But seriously, the loss of affective linemen is always and especially worrisome.

I'm seeing Salem back in Lynchburg this year. And we may have our best shot since 2013 to get there. A lot of teams and territory to cover for before then, though.

Looking at skill positions they look to make another deep run, but the bulk of the losses are going to be on the lines. It all starts up front. I think the next man up philosophy will have them playing late in the season again.