HighSchool OT

High School Sports

Cap-7 coaches, players believe conference is toughest in area

By Nick Stevens

Aug 20, 2008

When 90 coaches and players arrived at WRAL-TV studios on Tuesday for the HighSchoolOT.com launch party, there was a common theme amongst the members of the Cap Seven: The difficulty of the conference.

"We play as well as anybody, anywhere," Leesville Road head coach David Green said of Wake County football .

"Our conference as a whole has just gotten so much better, there's no easy game on the schedule in the conference," Clarence Inscore, Millbrook head football coach, added. "Top to bottom, the Cap Seven is one of the best conferences in the state."

"Our conference is extremely tough, so every play counts," Chris Martin, the Broughton head coach said with an emphasis on extremely.

Veteran North Carolina high school football coach Earl Smith added some of his insight. "In our conference and our area, we've always talk about, we get to the playoffs, and no one makes it past the first or second round. Well, Millbrook proved them wrong last year."

With such a tough conference, teams that deserve to get to the playoffs, won't. That means the conference battle will be more fierce than ever, so are the teams ready?

Coaches and players all seemed to acknowledge that they have had some issues in the preseason, but said they were issues that could be fixed.

Broughton head coach Martin is looking for consistency from his players, especially on defense. Martin said in a conference like the Cap Seven, a team has to be consistent night-in and night-out.

For Leesville Road, Coach Green believes the same. Green said his team had times where they looked good at the Pigskin Kick-Off last week, but acknowledged that there were a number of times they didn't look so good.

One of the issues this summer for the Pride was the quarterback slot. After losing Thomas Wilson to graduation, Leesville Road must replace one of the most valuable assets on their team. There were three possible quarterbacks at the start of practice, but Green believes he has it narrowed down to two, and has a good idea of who will start Friday night.

Green added that an explosive offense like the one they had last season isn't something a team comes by year-after-year, but thought his offense would be capable of scoring enough to win games.

Sanderson is ready to become a conference contender. The Spartans finished 2-4 last season, a record that was good enough to tie for fourth place behind the likes of Wake Forest-Rolesville, Leesville Road, and Millbrook.

This season, coach Jason Tindal thinks his Spartan team is ready to make the next step, and senior Perry Simmons, a Duke commit, agrees. This season, Sanderson has one of the more veteran teams they have had in a number of years, and that experience may give them enough to slip into one of the top spots.

Millbrook coach Clarence Inscore told his team after their last second loss to New Bern last year that the 2007 Wildcat squad was a special team. His players are confident that this year will be another special year.

Acknowledging the loss of star Jamal Williams, running back Kuwon Eldridge, quarterback Brian Kass, and wide receiver Nick Murad all were confident that they would be able to put enough points up on the board.

Eldridge is on the brink of breaking school records, but he won't go as far to say that he will be the star on offense this season, saying players like Kass are just as important.

Wake Forest-Rolesville has received a lot of preseason attention as a possible state championship contender, and head coach Earl Smith said he would like to think his program is to that point.

"You never know. There's so many factors that go into winning a state championship. A lot of my friends have won them, and we talk about it."

Smith said he expects his offense to score more, and added that he likes his defense so far. When asked if the Wake Forest-Rolesville defense would be as good as last season, he answered with a simple word: "Absolutely!"

Wakefield has had six coaching changes in the last six years. This year, J.D. Dinwiddie, the only coach on the staff that has been at Wakefield since the school opened, will be the head man.

On Tuesday, Dinwiddie talked about the importance of establishing consistency and continuity in the program.

Dinwiddie said he expects his Wolverines to be improved from last season. HighSchoolOT.com asked Dinwiddie what Wakefield's goals were, and he said, "If you don't have the goal to win the big one, what are you there for?"

Point taken.

Come back to HighSchoolOT.com throughout the week for more interviews and previews from other area conferences.