BEAR CREEK — Torn-up turf. Mud-soaked cleats. Bundled-up coaches. Stiff-handed quarterbacks.
These are the signs of February football in North Carolina — more specifically, the signs of February football at Chatham Central.
“It’s been hard,” said Sherman Howze, Chatham Central’s head coach, prior to practice on Saturday morning. “We tore up the practice soccer field and that’s where we’re going today. We tried to be over here (at the football practice field), but our backup quarterback hyperextended his knee over there. You’ve just got to deal with it. We didn’t ask for it, but we’ve got it. At least they’re playing.”
The Bears spent Saturday morning running through offensive plays on a practice field with very little support with temperatures in the low 30s.
The ground was saturated from recent winter weather, causing players to lose their footing, receivers to stumble on routes and the risk of injury to grow with each taken step.
For Howze and his Bears, poor field conditions are one of the many challenges staring them right in the face, all of which he’s prepared to take on.
Just as with other programs, Chatham Central has been hit hard by a wave of academic ineligibility this season, with 14 players being deemed ineligible because of poor grades, dropping the team’s roster numbers from the low-40s to the mid-20s.
Eight of those 14 players were starters last season.
“We stressed to them last March that everything in the first semester when we come back to school is going to count, regardless of if it’s remote or not,” said Howze. “And those 14, believe me, they’re working now, because they know they’re supposed to be out here. Are we going to take a hit from it? Yeah, but I trust what I’ve got.”
In addition to eligibility causing their numbers to dwindle, so is the Bears’ success in basketball.
Chatham Central (9-1) took second place in the Yadkin Valley conference in basketball, automatically earning them a spot in the playoffs that started on Tuesday.
The Bears have multiple players — including senior all-conference quarterback Michael Moore — who play on the basketball team, meaning that the farther they advance in the playoffs, the longer Howze will be without some of his most important players. There’s a chance they could miss the football team’s season-opener on Friday against Albemarle.
“If they play Tuesday, and they win, they play Thursday, then they win, they play Saturday, so I might not even have them. Now we go back to who’s going to play quarterback. We’ll just have to revert to the wildcat (formation),” Howze said with a laugh.
To put it lightly, the Bears struggled in 2019.
Chatham Central ended the season with a 1-10 record that included a two-game span where they lost by a combined score of 146-3 to North Stanly and North Rowan.
Howze chalks some of the team’s shortcomings up to injuries, including a couple of torn ACLs and six concussions, which he said were the most concussions suffered by a team of his since he got to Bear Creek.
This year, Howze is excited about some of his four-year starters, but none more than his star quarterback Moore, a three-time all-conference selection and a starter from day one in the program.
“He’s a three-sport athlete, that’s one good thing about him. He’s always busy,” said Howze. “He’s smart with his progressions and can read a defense.”
Moore has had multiple Division I schools scout him as a quarterback, according to Howze, including Appalachian State, Wake Forest and Coastal Carolina, the latter of which he’s had deep discussions with.
He even spent time working out with former Duke quarterback Anthony Boone and UNC quarterback Sam Howell, a testament to the quality of training he received in the offseason.
Howze also has his eyes on senior wide receivers Tyler Oldham and Brady Cunnup to make a splash, along with senior receiver Parker Crowley, who Howze said he’s been trying to recruit to play football for his entire high school career.
On defense, Howze expects the unit’s strength to rely on senior defensive end Wesley Buie, junior safety Luke Oldham and junior cornerback Collin Lagenor.
“I’ve got a lot of new faces, but defensively, we’re going to be strong. We’re a lot faster defensively,” said Howze.
Chatham Central’s veteran leadership — which begins with Moore — is one of Howze’s keys to improving upon last year’s single-win campaign. He said he thinks the Bears could “steal” four or five conference wins in this year’s seven-game season.
With about a half-hour remaining in Saturday’s practice, the field was so decimiated that the Bears’ coaching staff made the decision to move practice to the school’s tennis courts.
As Howze walked from the tennis courts to the fieldhouse, where players were changing out of their cleats and into their tennis shoes, Howze yelled back to the coaches waiting around on the courts: “This is a new era!”
He was referring not only to the strange feel of football in February, but to the future of the Bears’ program, one he continues to focus on building.
“I’m happy that we’re able to play,” Howze said. “I don’t know what the outcome’s going to be game after game after game, but just to give these kids an opportunity to play is the most important. Yes, the pandemic has put a damper on a lot of stuff, but you’ve got to continue to believe and trust that everything’s going to be all right.”
Reporter Victor Hensley can be reached at vhensley@chathamnr.com or on Twitter at @Frezeal33.