By Mike London

mike.london@salisburypost.com

Seventh in a series of reports on high school football teams …

GRANITE QUARRY — There’s been quite a bit of buzz about East Rowan football in recent weeks, all of it positive.

Community support for the Mustangs is passionate, and WSAT radio had no trouble selling ads for East’s exciting run last spring to the 3A baseball state championship.

WSAT announced this week that it will broadcast East football games on the first three Fridays this season, home games vs. North Rowan, North Stanly and Salisbury. Normally, WSAT sticks with either Salisbury or West Rowan, so that’s something new.

Can the Mustangs provide excitement for a listening audience as well as the fans in the bleachers?

On paper, there’s no reason to think so, but emotion and effort often trump talent at the high school level.

New head coach Brian Flynn, who replaced John Fitz, won frequently as a Catawba College receiver before he led North Davidson teams to regional and state championship games. He didn’t come to East Rowan to lose.

“There are a lot of things we’ve got to fix at East, but we’ll fix them,” Flynn said. “The whole preseason I kept thinking we were way behind where my teams normally are, but the coaches who have been here for a while keep telling me, ‘No, you’ve got no idea. We’re way ahead of where we’ve ever been.'”

Flynn’s first task was to increase the number of players in the program. His hire was announced in late January, and he’s been at East since then, recruiting the halls, beating the bushes for athletes.

Having more players can fix some problems. Injuries crushed some potentially decent East teams. Depth is pivotal in high school football. Quarterbacks get banged up. Running backs get hurt. Those big linemen get gassed in September. You’ve got to have a next man capable of stepping up and stepping in.

“The goal was to get to 80 kids in the program, and we got there,” Flynn said. “And as far as the kids we’ve got, I couldn’t be any happier with them. These are very coachable kids and they are tough kids.”

East started playing football in 1959 and peaked from 1968-70, fueled by a combination of integration, legendary coaches, the stingiest defenses in school history and one of the elite passing combinations in county history. CM Yates and Johnny Yarbrough were 25 years ahead of their time. Yarbrough still holds some county receiving records, including touchdown catches.

East started to slide some in the mid-1970s. Winning in Granite Quarry has been sporadic ever since then, although there were several stout teams in the 1990s, including the 1997 team that shared the South Piedmont Conference title with Concord and 3A state champion A.L. Brown. The Mustangs have made some playoff noise a few times, but 1997 was East’s last champion.

East football does have a clear history of being rejuvenated by coaching change. It happened temporarily with Will Orbin, Brian Hinson, Danny Misenheimer and Kenneth McClamrock, although all of those exciting coaching tenures were relatively short. It could happen with the upbeat Flynn, who has plenty of gusto and macho.

Flynn has adjusted the energy level and expectations for the East team in a short time. Whether that translates into more wins is a question that it will take a few months to answer.

East has a ton of catching up to do with the competition in the South Piedmont Conference. East has won a total of two games in the last three seasons. The Mustangs bottomed out in 2023 at 0-10, the first winless season since 2003. And it’s not like the Mustangs were getting nipped. They were outscored 419 to 125.

“Watching the film, they’d start games competing hard, but then they’d have offensive possessions where they’d run three plays, take 50 seconds off the clock and punt,” Flynn said. “Their defense would start wearing down. They’d have some adversity. They wouldn’t be able to overcome it. That’s the biggest single thing that hurt them. You’ve got to be able to handle it when things start going wrong. It’s hard. I used to blow a gasket myself. But you’ve got to move on and respond the right way. You’ve got to bounce back and compete.”

In terms of offensive stats, East doesn’t have a lot returning. Receiver AJ Goodman put up the best numbers last season. He was a senior. Goodman was one of only two all-county players.

East had only one All-South Piedmont Conference player. That was offensive lineman Tim Grooms, who is still an East student but won’t won’t be eligible age-wise to play in 2024. Grooms plans to help out as a coach. He’s hopeful of getting an opportunity to play in college.

Flynn will have a quarterback with some experience in Will Klingler. Klingler was one of three QBs that East employed last season.

“He’s our guy,” Flynn said. “Like a lot of these players he hasn’t had a great deal of success yet, but there’s a whole lot of talent there.”

East plans to build an offense around Klingler’s arm and throw. The Mustangs will usually line up with one running back and four receivers.

Flynn is excited about the athletes in the receiving corps. Sam Blackwelder, Jaden Reid, PJ Butler and Kaleb Whiteous are some names to know. Blackwelder, a sophomore, had an encouraging night in the Rowan County Jamboree with three catches for 70 yards.

“We don’t have a whole lot of plays that are runs,” said Flynn, who will be calling the shots. “We’ll use a committee at running back. We’re sill sorting that out.”

East will employ a tight end some. Hunter Goodman has the frame to excel at the position.

East will be young on the offensive line. Caleb Shugart, who had two strong scrimmages, will be a leader up front, along with Trenton Cavin, but the Mustangs are going to be counting on four sophomores.

“Those big boys are like gold, and we know we need more of them,”Flynn said. “But we’ve got some good young guys. They’re coming along.”

Byron Garcia and freshman Donovan Carter, two soccer players, are expected to handle kicking duties.

“Kicker was the least of my worries at North Davidson,” Flynn said. “A bunch of them are kicking for Division I colleges now. At East, I’ve had to recruit kickers a little bit.”

Flynn brought an assistant with him from his days at North Davidson. That’s Alex Tesh, a veteran coach who will coordinate the Mustangs’ defense. He arrived in March.

East’s base defense will be a 4-2-5.

Reid, who is also one of the key receivers, is expected to be a standout in the defensive backfield. He made an interception in the Rowan County Jamboree.

“He’s going to be a leader on the back end for us,” Flynn said.

Krys Hernandez has been a surprise. A good baseball player for East, he hasn’t played football for a while, but he showed up and impressed everyone. He’s expected to start at strong safety.

“He’s been popping some pads,” Flynn said.

Ashur Tesh will be a sophomore linebacker to keep an eye on.

Bryson Ware, who goes about 6-foot-5, 275 pounds, is a potential anchor for the defensive line and was outstanding in the Rowan County Jamboree.

“He definitely passes the eye test,” Flynn said. “Lots of potential there.”

Shugart also will play a big role on the defensive line.

The coaching staff will have new faces besides Flynn and Tesh. New receivers coach Seth Wyrick was a Shrine Bowl pass-catcher for the Mustangs. The staff also will include returners such as Chase Burris, Rob Darconte, Mark Lambert and Buck Lambert. Those are guys who have been invested in East for a while.

East has lost 141 more football games than it’s won over the years. The last time East won more than it lost was a dozen years ago, and recent years have been really tough to swallow. So the Mustangs will have to prove themselves to a skeptical audience around the county and the conference. Flynn has confidence they’ll be competitive.

“You can talk about doing it all you want to, but then you’ve got to go out there and do it,” Flynn said. “We’re excited about the chance. We’ve got hungry kids who are eager to prove themselves.”

East hosts North Rowan on Friday.