ROCKINGHAM – The crunch of shoulder pads and the thwack of bodies colliding on the football field is back. Which only means one thing — Richmond Raider football is quickly approaching.
The Richmond Senior High School varsity, junior varsity and ninth grade football teams wrapped up their first of two six-day weeks of practice Saturday. After the North Carolina High School Association officially opened its season last Monday, the Raiders had two days of practice with just helmets, three more by adding pads, and Saturday was the first day of full contact practice.
In front of a sizable crowd, all three teams opened the morning at 8 a.m. with a variety of tackling and contact drills. Saturday’s practice concluded with the varsity team’s offense and defense scrimmaging against one another.
“There was a lot of buy in from our guys,” second-year head coach Bryan Till said of the first full week of official practice. “I really like how our mental focus has been every day. The kids are working their butts off, and I can’t be happier as far as all those things go. The leadership of our kids, and their ownership and accountability, has been a big point of pride.
“I’m always cautious during this time of the year about optimism because we’re facing one another (in practice),” he continued. “If you’re really good in one spot, does that mean you’re bad on the other side? I’m just constantly evaluating where we are on all parts of the game.”
The 30-minute long scrimmage was just a small sample size of what the Raiders will be expected to do this season, but Till walked away from Saturday’s practice feeling confident. He explained that he never wants to leave practice 100 percent happy, because he knows there is always something the team “can be better” at doing.
Rising sophomore quarterback Caleb Hood and rising junior quarterback Noah Altman split snaps from rising senior center Jake Ransom during the varsity scrimmage. Both quarterbacks made several completions, while also making use of rising junior running back Jaheim Covington. During the summer scrimmages, mostly the handful of 7-on-7 scrimmages, Covington and the rest of the running backs weren’t used to their full potential.
Caleb Hood attempts a pass during Saturday’s scrimmage.
Since rising senior Malik Stanback’s season-ending ACL injury last month, Till and offensive coordinator Brad Denson have been looking to fill the void left by the All-Sandhills Athletic Conference selection from a year ago.
And through the first week of practice, it’s been rising sophomore Jakolbe Baldwin, along with rising seniors Bobby Terry and Preston Coker who are stepping up to the plate. All three made some big time catches against a scrappy Raider defense Saturday.
“I’m really happy with Jakolbe’s progress this week — Preston was already there, as well,” Till said. “He’s (Baldwin) really made us work at defensive back, and he’s a great route runner. We can’t really replace a kid like Malik, but these guys have been working hard to be the next guy in.”
Defensively, the Raiders looked on top of things during their first full contact practice of the year, as Till has discussed in the past his defense’s speed and movement to the ball as being two of its best qualities.
“There are a lot of guys (on defense) making great plays,” Till noted. “But Rasheed Patrick (defensive lineman), John Jones (linebacker) and Dereck Barringer (safety) are three guys who have had a really, really good week. And it’s great for us to have one guy at each level to do that. We want the defense to be strong up the middle — and they’ve been big for us.”
An officiating crew was on hand Saturday to make the scrimmage as legitimate as possible, as head referee Jason Graham and his team also used it as a practice run for the upcoming season. Following the scrimmage, Graham explained a couple of rule changes this season to the players and coaches.
Only two major changes apply to the players directly, the first of which regarding equipment and uniform violations. Graham explained that several infractions would result in a player being “taken out of the game” for a minimum of one play, which include untucked jersey tails and exposed knee pads, among other things. It is no longer a yardage penalty.
The other rule change put into effect this year is to help protect quarterbacks, saying they can’t be hit after they’ve released the ball. If a quarterback is in the act of running, throwing or pitching the ball, he is still eligible to be hit.
Richmond is back to work Monday morning, as it prepares for a scrimmage against Anson, Marlboro County and Mooresville high schools on Wednesday. Junior varsity will begin at 5 p.m., with varsity playing all three teams at 6 p.m.
This Friday, a week from the start of the season, the Raiders will head to Wake Forest University to play East Forsyth High School for another preseason scrimmage. Kickoff is at 6:30 p.m.
