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On Friday, the Northwood Chargers hosted Jordan-Matthews, Trinity Christian, Apex, Carrboro, Overhills, Green Hope and Ragsdale at the annual Jack Shaner Jamboree for a series of pre-season scrimmages.
In several 30-minute, half-field scrimmages, the Jamboree gave Northwood head coach Chris Kenan the first opportunity to see his Northwood Chargers in a live, 11-man setting.
With the dynamic duo of senior Will Smith and junior Carson Fortunes at quarterback, the star power of sophomore Gus Ritchey and an athletic wide receiver squad, Northwood showcased its newly diversified offensive arsenal on Friday. The Chargers spread the ball effectively to keep opponents on their toes throughout their three scrimmages.
“Our guys are just willing to compete until the end,” Kenan said. “Regardless if something good happened or something bad happened our guys just kept playing. I was really proud to see our kids not looking for excuses but looking for solutions.”
One of the solutions that the Chargers need to identify is how to iron out the fundamentals of its linemen.
Blocking and tackling basics were discussed heavily by the Northwood coaches in their post-jamboree huddle, with an emphasis placed on some missed tackles and faulty positioning on the defensive end. Coach Bryce Smith, the Chargers’ offensive line coach, told his players they needed to be the “hammer, not the nail.”
Although Kenan said it was “a positive to see that we still made some open field tackles later on in the games,” he agreed that the team has to sharpen up its fundamentals in regards to blocking and tackling. He said both will be areas of focus as Northwood prepares for the beginning of the season this week.
“I think we gotta do a better job on finishing blocks,” Kenan said. “We got to finish blocks. We had some good initial contact in some places but we got to find a way to finish blocks and play to the whistle. And then tackling, I felt like we missed some here and there, some that we should’ve had.”
On Friday, many Chargers were forced to play both ways due to a large number of players absent due to COVID-19, concussion or injury protocol. Kenan estimated that 15 or 16 players were unable to play on Friday, dropping his roster size from the 50s to the 30s.
Smith emphasized the importance of the mental game at the Jamboree, especially with the lack of depth in the Northwood roster.
“It’s important that we play with a lot of intensity,” Smith said. “Because a lot of intensity can make a team, an opponent crumble easily if you’re playing really intense. If you’re constantly coming at them it makes it easier for us to dominate or control the game and the tempo. It also lets us rest a little bit because the other team isn’t coming as hard.”
The Chargers will look to take this intensity and revitalized fundamental approach to the Lee County Yellow Jackets in Northwood’s first game of the season on Friday.
As for Jordan-Matthews, Friday’s jamboree provided an opportunity for a young Jets team to — as head coach Ryan Johnson put it — “grow up quick”.
Coming off of a 1-9 season, the Jets are returning an especially underclassmen-heavy team. Johnson estimates that almost a third or fourth of the team are freshmen.
“We’re young but we need to grow up fast,” Johnson said.
The Jets had a rocky start in the team’s first game against Trinity Christian, dropping the scrimmage, 14-0. In the Jets’ second game against Carrboro, Jordan-Matthews looked much more solid across its position groups, improving upon the mistakes of the first game.
Still, several plays exposed a lack of discipline for the young team, such as a lazy pass that Carrboro converted into a Pick 6. Later in the scrimmage, missed tackles became a common occurrence for the Jets’ defense.
Despite this, Johnson was impressed by the resilience his squad displayed on Friday.
“Things didn’t go our way every single time but we came back and fought. I like to see that. So a lot of times, the aggression of a young team that we have, sometimes you have a tendency to quit. We kept grinding and grinding and grinding and I like to see that.”