Wayne County teams picked to finish at bottom of 3-A / 4-A Eastern Carolina Conference
3 min read
By Laieke Abebe
WJG Sports Contributor
GREENVILLE — At the 3-A/4-A Eastern Carolina Conference media day on Monday, the coaches voted on who they thought would win the conference and J.H. Rose was the winner while C.B. Aycock, Eastern Wayne and Southern Wayne were picked to finish fifth, sixth and seventh respectively.
The Rampants finished with 33 points and four first place votes. They were followed by South Central (30 points, three first place votes), and Conley (29 points). New Bern came in fourth with 20 points and the Bears are hoping for a quick turnaround under new head coach Torrey Nowell. C.B. Aycock finished fifth (15) while Eastern Wayne (14) and Southern Wayne (7) were sixth and seventh.
Representing the Golden Falcons was assistant coach Bryan Wallen, as Scott Brooks did his duties for media day at the Marine Federal Credit Union Football Jamboree. C.B. Aycock is coming off a 5-7 season and a fifth place conference finish while losing in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs.
“We can make a run at it,” Wallen said. “If we don’t panic and we play our game, we can win football games. We overachieved a little bit last season, so hopefully the team can follow it up with a better season. The kids know we left a few games out there and we had some bad luck last year. We’re going to come in and work hard everyday so we can be in a position to be successful.”
Eastern Wayne finished 5-6 and also lost in the first round of the 3-A state playoffs last season. They did finish with a 3-3 conference record good enough for fourth place. The Warriors will be looking for their second winning season in three years. Fourth year head coach Leander Oates said the poll will motivate the team.
“We had a lot of kids show up for spring and summer workouts.” Oates said about his team. “We did pick up some transfers to fill in some holes. It’s motivation for us to be picked where we were picked, so we just have to play it one game at a time. We’re looking forward to a big season and our seniors are going to play a big role for us.”
Southern Wayne failed to make the playoffs after going 1-10 in 2018. However, the Saints, under third year head coach Ronnie McClary, are thinking that 2019 could be a much improved season. The Saints haven’t seen a winning season since 2011, but McClary feels that his team will be really competitive against a tough schedule.
“Our record last year motivates us to be better this year,” McClary said of his teams expectations. “We were competitive in a lot of games last year, but they didn’t go our way. Knowing that we can be better in all three phases of the game is a big motivating factor. My team was competitive during the offseason whether it was on the field or in the weight room. They had a lot of fun and got better, so we want that to be the reason why we prove a lot of people wrong in 2019.”
