The State Port Pilot
SPORTS
George
Cox
Sports editor
Brett’s hot Trojans
‘turn it up a notch’
As West Brunswick’s Trojans journey to Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill
this Saturday in a second attempt to win the state 2A football title, let’s
hope Brunswick County well-wishers, especially those whose loyalties tie
directly to the Shallotte high school, appreciate what’s happening.
West Brunswick football now can be legitimately counted among the
state’s best programs in the 2A ranks after successive years in the state
championship game. Last year in Chapel Hill, the Trojans lost to Thomas
ville en route to a 13-2 record under former coach Marshall Seay, an out
spoken and sometimes controversial mentor who earned the distinction of
taking the program to where it is today.
Seay produced five straight winning seasons, including one title in what
many consider the state’s best 2A football league. When Seay took the job,
he rebuilt his staff while the community improved the facilities.
But his biggest job was to recruit ball players. As former West Bruns
wick girls basketball coach Ronnie Jenkins, now an assistant principal at
North Brunswick, said, "Marshall literally went out to the players’ houses,
talked with them and their parents and sold them on going out for foot
ball." Seay’s grassroots effort was the foundation for future success.
Even though there were those who didn’t like Seay’s methods — long
practices, long coaching meetings — he got the job done and made it pos
sible when he left for West Brunswick to attract one of North Carolina’s
top prep football minds in former Tarboro coach Jim Brett.
Brett moves program to another level
With a completely new offensive system — a three-back set in primarily a
Wing-T formation — Brett, along with Seay’s remaining staff, has carried
the Trojans’ program up yet another notch. Taking over a program is dif
ficult even under the most favorable circumstances, and it took Brett over
half a season to get his ball club playing football with his trademark of
hiding the pigskin from the defenders with deft faking and fine execution.
And with 22 players returning next season, Trojan football should con
tinue to improve - if that is possible. West Brunswick football is indeed in
the upper echelon of the 2A ranks and the program is beginning to build a
tradition much like Whitevillc.
Trojan football is also similar to the West Brunswick basketball program
of the 1970s under the late Gary Taylor, who created a 3A dynasty while
leading the Trojans to a state runner-up spot in 1974 and the stale
championship the next season. Ironically, Trojan football can now dupli
cate the basketball team’s success if it can bring home the bacon Saturday
against unbeaten Maiden.
Winning begets winning — even past the conference level. Look at
Duke’s basketball program. Two straight national titles, six Final Fours in
seven seasons. West Brunswick’s winning football program is building an
expectation in the minds of its players before they even play a varsity
game.
And in the process, the Trojans are proving the worth of the post-season
playoff format. Remember, for the second successive season West Bruns
wick (4-2, 10-3) failed to win the conference title. But during the past two
seasons the Trojans began peaking at just the right time - starting with
post-season play.
Brett: ‘The best staff I’ve worked with’
Just as the strength of any major sports program lies in the strength and •
leadership of the head coach, a head coach’s success lies in the quality and
dedication of his staff of assistants. Brett underscored the importance of his
See Cox column, next page
Cougars split
with Wildcats
South Brunswick’s Lady Cougars kept their early season momentum
going Tuesday night with a 42-32 win over 4A Wilmington New Hanover,
but the Wildcats sent the Cougar boys to their first loss of the season in
convincing fashion, 78-46.
South Brunswick’s Josh White, who entered the contest scoring at a
38.5-point clip, was held to two points.
In the girls contest, South Brunswick (3-0) stretched a 12-10 first quarter
lead into a 29-19 halftime advantage and coasted to the win. Erika Bryant
led the Lady Cougars with 14 points and was followed closely by Jenny
, Fullwood with 13.
The boys game started bad for the Cougars and went downhill from
there. New Hanover outscored the visitors in every quarter, holding leads
of 16-9 after one period, 43-21 at halftime and 64-38 after three quarters.
Tyrell Hewett led South Brunswick with 15 points.
"We didn’t play defense, we didn’t hustle," said coach Gene Doane. "We
didn’t make the extra pass.”
New Hanover won the junior varsity game, 71-62. Charles Blue led
South Brunswick with 17 points and was joined in double figures by Paul
Pelham (13) and Jeremy Baker (12).
South Brunswick had been scheduled to host Wilmington Laney on Fri
, day night but the game was postponed until January 6 because of exams.
: s The Cougars’ next action is December 18 at home against New Hanover.
i Friday games are postponed
TITLE CHASE
Steve Holmes scored three times in Friday’s 39-14 West Brunswick
win that sends the Trojans to the state 2A finals for the second straight
year. Holmes, a junior, and senior running mate Aaron Butler - both
1,500-yard rushers -- will try to offset the effort of Maiden’s Antoine
Ikard, the all-time leading rusher among North Carolina prep players.
Blast St. Pauls, 39-14
Trojans reach 2A finals
By George Cox
Sports Editor
The game was close for three
quarters, but in the end West Bruns
wick became the first Waccamaw
2A Conference team to defeat a
tough, unbeaten St. Pauls Bulldog
team this season in the eastern 2A
high school football finals, 39-14.
At Rourk Stadium in Shallotte,
coach Jim Brett’s club (10-3) won
its fourth consecutive playoff game
and fifth game in succession since
being upset by East Bladen in regu
lar season play.
And in the end, it was depth and
conditioning which ultimately
spelled the difference as the Trojans
outscored the ’Dogs 24-0 in the sec
ond half to win going away. St.
Pauls, which took an early 7-0 lead,
just ran out of gas and was begin
ning to suck air at halftime with
Statistics
' West'
Btaa&aidi st. Paub
It First downs 14
48-365 Rushes/yards 42-142
IS Yards passing 107 >
2-6-2 Passes 6-14-2
2-45 Punts 5-38
04) Fumbles 6-3
4-40 Penalties 5-27
West Brunswick 7 8 6 IS - 39
St-Paub 7 7 0 0 -14
West Brunswick leading, 15-14.
The Trojans travel to Chapel Hill
on Saturday to meet another un
beaten team — Maiden (14-0) — in
the slate championship game at
noon at Kenan Stadium on the Uni
versity of North Carolina campus.
West Brunswick junior running
back Steve Holmes dazzled the
home crowd with three scores on
runs of 50, 19 and three yards. He
totaled 135 yards rushing behind
senior fullback Aaron Butler’s 182.
West Brunswick rushed 48 times
for 365 yards compared to St. Pauls’
142 yards on 42 carries. The visitors
did hit for 107 yards through the air
ways while Brett’s team could
muster but 18. However, the Wing
T offense continued to do just what
it was designed by Brett to do: Eat
up the clock while scoring points
and keeping the pigskin away from
a dangerous St. Pauls offense which
was capable of scoring quickly
through the air.
Butler scored twice on runs of 57
and 27 yards while Michael Lance
scored on a 50-yard fumble recovery
- a touchdown which put the game
away. Kwabcna Green’s strip of the
ball allowed Lance lo pick up the
loose pigskin and scamper to
paydirt.
Brett said his players’ previous ex
perience in big games helped them
prepare for the contest. His team
won the eastern 2A finals last fall
over league foe Whitevil 1c.
"(Being in last year’s title game)
helped us tonight,” Brett noted. "It
certainly helps (everyone) to have
been in a game like litis. (At
halftime) we made no major
changes. I just told them we had 24
minutes to play before going to
Chapel Hill."
A West Brunswick decision to go
for a first down at midfield in the
first quarter backfired as St. Pauls
took over on downs and scored first.
"That kind of worried ntc (St.
Pauls getting up 7-0)," he said.
"Dumb me. But it worked out all
right."
Maiden features all-time top rusher
The Maiden Blue Devils, who face West Brunswick in Saturday's
state 2A championship game, arc no strangers to the title contest
Coach Tom Brown’s team, unbeaten at 14-0 and led by North
Carolina’s all-time leading prep rusher, senior Antoine ikard,
stands 2-0 in stale championship action.
In 1978, Maiden defeated coach Jack Holley's Tabor City Red
Devils, 36-14, for the North Carolina crown - its second state title.
In 1971, when the North Carolina High School Athletic Associa
tion crowned only the eastern and western champions in each
classification, the Blue Devils won the western title with a victory
over Mt Pleasant.
Brown has been at Maiden (near Hickory) since the mid-1970s
and the Blue Devils have made the state playoffs 13 times since
1971. Maiden went 10-2 last season and has a record of 41-7*1
during the past four seasons.
The Blue Devils snapped an 18-game TbomasviUe winning
streak last week with a 21-0 victory over the defending state 2A
champions, who defeated West Brunswick in the championship
game last season.
The key to beating Maiden is stopping ikard, who has rushed for
1,952 yards this season and6,690during his illustrious prep career.
Can Trojans win the big one?
By George Cox
Sports Editor
As coach Jim Brett’s 1992 eastern
North Carolina 2A football
champion West Brunswick prepares
to embark to Chapel Hill to play un
beaten Maiden (14-0) Saturday in
Kenan Stadium at high noon for the
state title, a couple of questions
remain.
Can the Trojans continue their im
pressive run that started when the
post-season playoffs began four
weeks ago, and can they defeat their
third consecutive unbeaten op
ponent? For the past two weeks,
Brett’s team has scored second-half
shutouts and ultimate victories over
unbeaten Farmville Central and St.
Pauls, 41-14 and 39-14, respective
ly.
The Trojans beat South Columbus,
47-0, to begin playoff competition
four weeks ago and then beat
Clinton, 14-6, the next w,eek. That’s
141 playoff points (35 per game)
versus just 34 (six per game) for op
ponents.
Radio station WDZD will carry
the game live with Dwight Flanagan
doing the play-by-play and Johnny
Craig offering the color. Air time
Saturday is 11:45 a.m.
For the season, West Brunswick
has yielded just 97 points - fifth
best in the state. And its offense has
gone into overdrive with a ground
attack which has two runners -
Steve Holmes and fullback Aaron
Butler - each near the 1,500-yard
mark for the campaign and a third
back now functioning at nearly the
same level.
Saturday's state championship
participation will be the second time
for both Brett and the Trojans. As
head coach at Tarboro High for 18
years, Brett led that eastern North
Carolina school to the state title in
his only championship game ap
pearance in 1984.
The Trojans reached the state 2A
title game last fall in Chapel Hill
against Thomasville, losing to the
western champions, 20-6.
"We’re going to approach going to
Chapel Hill in a business-like man
ner," Brett said in his coaching of
fice after Friday night’s stunning 39
14 win over Yogi Hickman’s St.
Pauls outfit.
”1 hope we’re not going up there
just for the chance to play in the
state championship game. I hope
we’re going up there with the
anticipation of winning it. We want
to have fun, too, but we want to
win."
In order to win, the Trojans must
continue playing flawlessly on of
fense. The success of West Bruns
wick has been its ability to attack of
fensively - even when it has the
See Trojans, page 14
7 hope we’re not
going up there just
for the chance to
play in the state
championship
game. I hope we’re
going up there with
the anticipation of
winning it. We want
to have fun, too, hut
we want to win.’
Jim Brett
Trojans head coach