Looking at the NEW 6 All-Conference Football Teams

Last Thursday evening the NEW Conference football coaches got together and voted on the all conference team. The offense was voted on by five linemen, four backs and two wide receivers. The defense four linemen, four linebackers and three defensive backs.

The Offense:

Offensive Player of the Year: Rashard Parker ,Fike.... Good choice lead the lead in rushing with over 1,700 yards, 26 touchdowns. He had that 80-yard run just before the half against the Gryphons.
Linemen: "Pork Chop" Torey Lee, Whit Barnes,Greg Williams, Brandon Dennis. Four of our five linemen make first team all conference. They are joined by SouthWest Edgecombe's Marquis Hines.

Wide Receivers: There is only room for two receivers so tight ends are in the mix with the speedy guys. Record setting Keith Strickland is joined by Nash Central's Danny Allen as the ball catchers.

Backs: Quarterbacks, fullbacks and halfbacks are all thrown in and four are voted All-Conference. The four are Marquavis Alston and Nick Hahula of the Gryphons, Greg Horne of SouthWest Edgecombe, Rashard Parker of Fike and Marc McCadden of Northern Nash. There was a tie in the voting, so a fifth player is on the first team and one less player on the second team.

The Defense:

Defensive Player of the Year: Chris Pittman, Rocky Mount. When you are the leader of the best defense in recent Gryphon history as Chris was, there is no doubt who the Player of the Year should be.

Linemen: Nick Harrison and Jermaine Fields of the Gryphons. T.J. Batcehlor of Southern Nash and Keith Thomas of Northern Nash.

Linebackers: Chris Pittman and Josh Boulware of Rocky Mount, Titus Best of Fike along with Stacey Howard of Southern Nash and Justin Dupree of SouthWest. Once again, there was a tie and there is an extra spot.

Backs: Brian Goodwin of Rocky Mount, Rafeal Norwood of SouthWest, Ismel Moses of Southern Nash and Devin Jackson of Fike. There was also a tie in the backs voting.

Special Teams:

Place Kicker/Punter: Nick Hahula, Rocky Mount

Kick Returner: Brian Goodwin, Rocky Mount

The Gryphons grabbed seven offensive spots, five defensive and both of the specialty spots. Fourteen of the 24 players on the first team are Gryphons.

Those that could have been first team:

Jordan Ford..... Led the team in rushing with an 12 yards per carry average and doesn't make first team?
Collins Cuthrell......Led league in passing
Jarron Battle.... four linemen teammates made it, but he doesn't
Josh Thigpen.....The Gryphons had the best offensive line in the league. They also had the best defensive line why only the ends made the defense.
Hiawatha Bunn... He was a shutdown corner.
Dedrick Silver.... He was a speed linebacker which made it hard to run outside on us.
Spencer Bell... Could have made it for blocking or his catches at tight end
Carter Varnell.... Could hold his own against the run or go one=on-one against your wide receiver not bad for a linebacker.

The good news is this group made second-team All-Conference. Which means the Gryphons had 22 of the 46 spots on first- and second-team All-Conference.

L'Var Silver is the lone Gryphon to make to make honorable mentions.

B.W. Holt is Coach of the Year for the third time in four years in the NEW 6. It is his fourth COTY award in his six years at Rocky Mount

I realize that when you get 14 of the 24 positions you have dominated the voting. Sure does seem like we could gotten one or two more.