By Mike London
mike.london@salisburypost.com

CHINA GROVE — Carson’s overall football numbers are fine — 88 guys practicing daily, plus 14 more bodies that head coach Joe Pinyan expects to have on hand soon.

But the breakdown is scary if you’re a Cougar fan. The freshman class is absolutely huge, while the senior class is absolutely tiny. The junior class isn’t big, either.

“The 88 kids that we’ve got right now, it breaks down to 58 jayvees and only 30 varsity players,” Pinyan said. “It’s great to have all these freshmen, and those kids are really getting after it, but I’ve been at this a long time, and  I’ve seen very few freshmen who were ready to play on Fridays. We’ve got small junior and senior classes. We knew this year was coming.”

How small is Carson’s senior class?

Pinyan counts nine seniors, and that includes all-county basketball stars Jamarius Hairston, a towering target as a 6-foot-4 wideout, and Jailen Williams, a cornerback. Both are returning to football after a hiatus. Pinyan recalls Hairston coming out briefly as a freshman. Williams took last year off from football. Carson basketball coach Brian Perry will keep his fingers crossed for the next few months.

And so will Pinyan, who has been coaching for 30 years now.

Pinyan served a long apprenticeship as a Mooresville assistant before he took the head-coaching reins at Salisbury and directed the Hornets to lots of 70-yard TDs and 100 wins in 10 seasons. He’s added 22 hard-earned victories at Carson the last four seasons, including last year’s 4-8 mark. Those 122 wins put Pinyan No. 5 on the all-time Rowan list. He’s three behind Larry Thomason, who coached a pair of North Rowan powerhouses in the 1980s to undefeated regular seasons. Catching up with  Thomason this year isn’t a sure-thing when you factor in a murderous non-conference schedule that includes A.L. Brown and Davie.

“I’m not sure that we need to be playing schools like A.L. Brown and Davie when we’ve got 30 kids,” Pinyan said. “I guess we’re hoping for big gates with those two. I hope we can survive the non-conference stuff.”

Non-conference for the Cougars also includes contests with North Rowan, Central Cabarrus and Salisbury. Realistically, Carson can claim the underdog role in those three.

As far as league games, Carson is now positioned in the six-team North Piedmont Conference with West Rowan, South Iredell, Statesville, East Rowan and North Iredell. Most believe West Rowan and South Iredell are the favorites. No one believes Carson is.

“I’ve been friends with (South Iredell coach) Scott Miller a long time — we were on the staff  at Mooresville together,” Pinyan said. “Scott will have another very good team. And Statesville is one of those athletic teams that always gets better as the year goes on. Your best chance is to play them early. We’re playing them late.”

Limited numbers have forced Pinyan to adjust his core principles such as two-platoon football.

“When you’ve got 30 guys, everyone learns two positions, both sides of the ball, there’s no choice,” Pinyan said. “I’ve never had to do that, so this is all new to me. We’ve had to change a lot of things. We’ve had to change the way we practice. We used to have the defensive guys go watch film, while the offense ran plays. Now if the defensive guys go watch film, well that’s everybody. There’s no one left.”

Carson has a handful of returning starters, plus another half-dozen guys who got Friday-night experience as key backups.

Cole Sifford, last year’s standout running back, will be the quarterback and will spark the offense. He might be the only Cougar not asked to play both ways. Owen White, the QB most of the 2016 season, is committed to South Carolina and figures to be a high draft pick in baseball next spring. Understandably, he isn’t playing football this year.

Carson has quality linemen such as Josh Malloy, Teolyn Woodruff, Nick Klein, Kenny Clarke and Justin Thomason, but they’ll be challenged playing both ways, especially in the heat of August and September.

“Basically, we’ve got four offensive linemen,” Pinyan said. “That means someone from the defense has to come over and help on every series.”

The Cougars got lucky with the weather twice and were able to get in two rep-filled scrimmages —last Wednesday against East Wilkes, East Davidson and Forbush and Saturday at Wingate against Piedmont and Forest Hills.

“It rained on the way down to Wingate, but then we got our scrimmage in before more rain came in,” Pinyan said. “It was 8 a.m. when we started and maybe we hadn’t woke up yet, but Piedmont smashed us pretty good. But then against Forest Hills, we did  better. We looked pretty good. It was a chance for us to see how well our varsity guys could hold up playing both ways.”

Pinyan’s coaching staff is missing defensive coordinator David Johnson, who moved on to Lake Norman. Moving up to to the DC role is Jason Stanley, who starred at South Rowan.

Pinyan has experienced coaches advising Stanley on the defensive side of the ball, including former West Davidson head coach Barry Mitchem and former South Rowan coach Jason Rollins. Rollins’ son, Andrew, is a freshman linebacker for the Cougars.

There have been a number internal coaching tweaks, with Mike Singleton moving from running backs to the defensive line and Josh Trexler shifting from quarterbacks to running backs. Chris Sherrill, a defensive coach last season, is tutoring the wide receivers.

Zach Overcash, one of the many former South Rowan Raiders on Pinyan’s staff, returns to coach the offensive line. Anthony McCurry, a star just a few years ago for the Cougars, will help with the linebackers.

William Craft, the quarterback for the 1997 A.L. Brown team that won the 3A state championship — Craft had monumental games against Concord and Asheville that season — is back at Carson after a year away and will be the QBs coach. Steve London, who played for Pinyan during his time at Mooresville, is coaching the fullbacks.

“It’s a staff as good as any I’ve ever had, and I’ve had really good ones,” Pinyan said. “I’m happy with all of them — but, of course, we haven’t played a game yet.”

That first one will be at Carson on Friday against South Rowan.