Friday, August 13, 2010

For North Augusta, the 2009 football season was impressive not just because of the team's eleven wins. It was more because of how easy the Yellow Jackets made it look.

The team won by an average of 24 points per game, a staggering number for any team.

Another big number...31. That's how many seniors North Augusta lost.

With that in mind, you might expect a bit of a let down this year. The Jackets, though, see it as an opportunity.

Head Coach Dan Pippin says, "You find out how good your program is when you lose a lot of kids, and we lost 31 seniors, nine on defense, and the kids we have really need to step up and play. I think that's what we want all the time, replacing seniors with seniors, and I'd say we're getting that."

The opportunity to be great is definitely there for a new crop of Yellow Jackets, but creating and advancing a winning tradition increases the pressure, both on the new players and the returners who made it through the down years.

Senior Ricky Cervantes says, "It does make a difference because we don't want to let the program down. If we let the program down, then next year maybe they'll let the program down. So, we're trying to boost it up every year."

Of course, it doesn't hurt that North Augusta has probably the best quarterback in the region in Loranzo Hammond.

He and Demarcus Rouse should help take the pressure off the inexperienced defense.