Eagles already working in year 2 of eight-player football

Even with their first season playing eight-player football under its belt, the Sallie B. Howard Eagles aren’t wasting time in year 2 of the program.

With another year remaining as an independent team, Sallie B. Howard has already begun preparations for it, starting practice July 15 in preparation for the Aug. 16 season opener at defending NCISAA 1-A eight-player champion Rocky Mount Academy.

There has been a notable difference from last summer when Marquis Spell and Glenn Reaves, the respective elementary school and high school principals at Sallie B. Howard, started the program from the ground up. The Eagles won their first game, 26-22 at Community Christian, on their way to a 3-4 mark but there was a steep learning curve the entire way with an abundance of young players, some of whom had never played football.

“Night and Day,” said Reaves. “Kids are so much further along than we were a year ago, which makes sense. We only lost about two or three kids who were seniors. We had very few. So we probably have 20 to 25 kids who are returning, and a lot of them are still young kids, but, I mean, they’re returners. They played a year. They understand what it’s about.

“You always drill fundamentals — that never changes. I don’t care how experienced your team is — but we’re not having to spend as much time going over the very basic things that you have to teach kids who were just starting out.”

Spell said that there have been as many as 33 players at the preseason workouts, which are proceeding through the July heat and thunderstorms. He plans to give prospective students until Aug. 2 to show up.

Reaves said that the overall maturity level of the group has gone up, which has been evident in not only their offseason workouts but their focus in practice so far.

“The kids have been much more focused and they’re excited,” Reaves said. “They look around and they see it’s different. They know where to go, you know what to do, you know what to expect and it’s given them, I think, a level of confidence that, again, we didn’t have a year ago, because none of them knew what to expect.”

Now the young Eagles are hitting the weight room and the results are noticeable, Spell said.

“A couple of the guys started putting in work, going to the weight room starting about two or three times a week,” he said. “Some guys are there faithfully, so we’re expecting big things out of them.”

Spell pointed to newcomer on the line, Jason Lucas, as one of the stronger kids on the team.

Returners Isaiah Allen and Jaylen Holmes highlight the offensive backfield, along with dynamic receiver/defensive back Darwin Kirby.

While there is much familiarity this time around, Spell said it’s still an ongoing challenge to determine where each player should be posted to maximize their effectiveness on the field.

“Trying to figure out who to play where, because we do have a few more guys and we don’t know, really, until we get past that first game,” Spell said.

That first game is coming quick — three weeks to be exact — against a Rocky Mount Academy team that demolished the Eagles 63-0 last season. The Eagles, who will scrimmage Berean Baptist in Fayetteville on Aug. 9, will play at Community Christian on Sept. 20.

Sallie B. Howard will also host its first “home” game Aug. 30 when Jones Senior, an NCHSAA 1-A school that plays independent eight-player football, will be the guest at Barton College’s Truist Stadium.

Next year, Sallie B. Howard will join the NCHSAA and, if it switches to 11-player football, will find out how much it learned these first two years of the independent eight-player game.

“We’re trying to see where we are, because we’re going to play some of the stronger teams that we played last year, being Rocky Mount Academy and Halifax,” Spell said. “Rocky Mount won the eight-man championship that they have. So they’re a pretty established program, so how we stack up against them is going to be similar with how we’re going to go into the high school athletic association.

“Going against those stronger programs kind of gives us a sense of what we’re going into. So we won’t go in fearing anybody — that won’t be a problem — just making sure we take care of ourselves. That’s the main thing for us. Keep moving forward, keep growing is what we want to do.”

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