This is the first of eight stories on area football practices.
Today: A.L. Brown
Tuesday: Davie County
By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
KANNAPOLIS ó A.L. Brown’s Ron Massey has coached in the high school ranks for decades, and he’s convinced the position hardest to fill adequately is tight end.
Legitimate tight ends are in such short supply some teams line up an undersized, natural wideout at the position and pray he can catch a few passes.
Other teams put a sixth offensive lineman out there and call him a tight end, but everyone understands he’s strictly on the field to block for the running game.
And, of course, many schools now use the spread offense all the time, with four or five wideouts, and have relegated the tight end to a place in the history books next to the single-wing offense and leather helmet.
A.L. Brown will swim against the tide this season because it is as blessed at tight end as it’s been in many years.
Brown doesn’t have John Mackey or Mike Ditka, but it often will employ a double-tight end set because seniors Zach Massey (6-foot-1, 210 pounds) and Jacob Newman (6-3, 210), a pair of classic, prototype tight ends, are two of the team’s best 11 offensive players.
Exactly how much Brown will throw this season with new quarterback Jamill Lott under center is still up in the air, so to speak, but both Massey, the son of the head coach, and Newman can blow up linebackers in the run game, as well as get open downfield.
Massey accounted for five TD catches in 2007, including one against Concord, while Newman found the end zone twice.
Both are good athletes. Newman, who appears healthy after encountering shoulder issues last season, starts on the basketball team while Massey was in the rotation as a junior.
“We feel blessed because we’ve got two real versatile kids at tight end,” Ron Massey said. “Two kids who can block. Two kids with exceptional hands. Two intelligent kids.”
Newman is so smart, tight ends coach Jeremy Ryan gets on him for “killing the curve” in all his classes. Newman’s GPA ranks second in the senior class.
Massey ranks in the school’s top 10 academically and is considering playing at Davidson. His father sighs and jokes he’ll have to coach another 50 years if Zach picks Davidson, which doesn’t give football scholarships and is mighty expensive.
Massey also serves as the team’s long snapper and may have a shot at playing that role in a big-time program. As a tight end, he’s drawing interest from schools in the Southern Conference and Big South.
While Newman still favors a shaggy surfer look, Massey has opted for a close-cropped head combined with a neat beard.
Ryan tells him he looks like the “lead singer for a boy band,” but Massey catches the ball over the middle better than any of the Backstreet Boys.
While the tight end has gone the way of the dinosaur most places, Ryan is in charge of five guys and could start a hoops squad. He also coaches Spencer Falls, who pulled in several touchdowns for last year’s jayvee team, veteran Stephon Jenkins and Ryan Hartsell.
Ryan pointed at a corner of the end zone to explain his theory on the depth at tight end.
“Since Jay Hosack made that catch to beat T.C. Roberson (in overtime in the second overtime of the 2005 playoffs) everyone wants to be a tight end,” he quipped. “We’ve got five more tight ends on the jayvee team.”
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SCARY SCHEDULING: The Wonders, 11-2 last season, are preparing for their last school year in the South Piedmont Conference. SPC membership has meant playing five Union County schools ó Marvin Ridge, Porter Ridge, Sun Valley, Piedmont and Parkwood ó as well as Anson County.
“As a football coach, I’ve enjoyed the SPC,” Ron Massey said. “As a football team, it’s fun to get on a bus on Friday and travel somewhere, and it’s been a more competitive league than we thought it might be. There’s Concord, obviously. There’s Anson and those athletes they have, and (coach) Scott Stein has done a tremendous job at Sun Valley.
“But looking at things as the AD, the new league we’re going into has its advantages.”
Beginning with the 2009-10 school year, the Wonders will compete in a Cabarrus County League that should be a dream as far as gates, rivalries and travel, and it will a positive for basketball and baseball teams not to be traveling to Union County on Tuesday nights.
The problem the new league presented for Massey was scheduling non-league games, now that all the Cabarrus teams will be conference foes.
Brown will continue its rivalry with South Rowan that hasn’t been interrupted since South opened, but nothing could be worked out with other Rowan schools. Massey explored the possibility of games against Stanly County opposition, but also came up empty there.
Massey finally ended up with a 2009 slate that features old rivals Statesville and Thomasville, as well as Kings Mountain, the school Massey piloted against the Wonders in memorable playoff struggles in 1997-98.
“It’s going to be a pretty tough schedule,” Massey said. “The AD could end up firing the football coach.”
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COMEBACK: Brown fans gasped when huge junior linebacker Terrance Johnson, the hub of the defensive unit, tore an ACL in the spring.
Surgery was performed quickly, everything went well and Johnson, a 245-pound workout demon who also excels in wrestling and track, is on the way back.
New athletic trainer Grady Hardeman, who has previously served as head trainer at Western Carolina and director of sports medicine at Hampden-Sydney, said Johnson is doing extraordinarily well.
“Rehabbing a knee injury will never be easy, but it’s easier for Terrance,” said Hardeman, an A.L. Brown graduate. “Give him credit. He’s working hard, but he’s so strong, he’s such a great athlete and he’s in such great shape that he’s ahead of a normal person’s schedule.”
Johnson is a terrific individual off the field as well. Massey said he asked each player to give up one Saturday to contribute to an offseason Habitat for Humanity home-building project.
Johnson volunteered four.
The best guess on Johnson is he could actually be on the field by the end of September, but he may not approach full strength until the playoffs.
Brown’s schedule, unfortunately, is loaded toward the front end, with three testing non-conference games, followed by SPC contenders Sun Valley and Anson.
“Before Terrance got hurt, we figured we’d have seven defensive starters back and felt pretty good about that side of the ball,” Massey said. “But you take away Terrance and it changes a lot of things. You’re scrambling a little bit.”
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WATCH OUT: Keep an eye on interior defensive lineman Aaron Davidson, who missed 2007 after he was injured in a scrimmage with Scotland County. He’s wowing coaches with his combination of size and agility.