Young Guns

Ron Counts
Published: August 1, 2008

Culpeper — It’s 9 a.m. on a rainy summer Thursday morning.

Most high school students were busy basking in the slumber that only summer can bring. However, 93 athletes were content to strap on their chin straps and cleats for the Culpeper County High School football team’s first practice of the season at Broman Field.

“We have a lot of new faces, a lot of young faces,” CCHS head coach Greg Martz said as veteran players were busy over his shoulder instructing younger ones how to buckle their helmets. “That’s probably the most unique thing about this year. We have a bunch of first-year seniors and up-and-coming freshman that we haven’t met yet. It’s exciting.”

Quarterback Kyle Majors and kicker Carter Mills both graduated, and running back Stevie Strother is now an Eastern View Cyclone, leaving the Blue Devils with plenty of holes that will be filled by many of the new faces Martz alluded to.

The Blue Devils are anchored by senior guard John Hawkins — whose has garnered attention from U.Va., Old Dominion University and James Madison University.
Starting linebackers Matt Bennett and Charles Nicholson are back as well, as are Nolan Jenkins and Cortez Rollins, who will be competing with Steven Dodson for the vacant spot at quarterback.

“It feels really good to be back on the field,” the 6-7 297-pound Hawkins said. “With so many young players we just have to play with one mind. We just have to be ready to roll and hit harder than we’ve ever hit.”

After all the players were fitted with helmets, mouthpieces and practice jerseys, they formed two single file lines at Broman Field’s main gate before marching hand-in-hand to the inconspicuous practice field behind the baseball diamond.

“Can you hear me?” Martz yelled to get the attention of his team before the march.

“Coach me coach,” the players replied in unison.

“Are you listening?” barked Martz.

“Coach me coach,” the team responded once again.

Thursday’s practice was a bit of an evaluation period, according to Martz. All the players tried out for an offensive and a defensive position.

Even though Thursday’s practice was the Blue Devils first official get together, Martz said the team’s dedication during summer workout sessions impressed him immensely. This year’s conditioning program — which averaged about 85 players in the weight room each week — was the best attended off-season workout regiment CCHS has had in a decade.

A young roster, the opening of a brand new high school, and the fact that the Blue Devils are coming off back-to-back 2-8 seasons, have the potential to make this a pretty stressful season for Martz — who’s entering his fourth year as head coach.

“This is kind of a strange situation for me,” Martz said. “We’re not going to be looking across the field at opponents, we’re going to be looking at players that have played together and coaches that coached together. It’s kind of a tough sentimental spot for me.”

The Blue Devils have a little more than a month to get their young roster acquainted with Martz’s spread offense before opening the regular season against formidable Orange County High School in Orange on Sept. 5.

“Just like you would in any other sport, we really have to work on our technique,” Hawkins said. “As far as Orange is concerned, it’s just a matter of figuring out how bad we really want to win.”
This season will be the Blue Devils last as a member of the tough Cedar Run District, but Martz said his team still plans to be as competitive as ever.

“We have to be more disciplined and better conditioned than any team in our league,” Martz said. “People are going to talk about how small we are, and how we have less kids because of the new school. That’s great for them, but you just never know what’s going to happen on the field.”