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New-look Raiders prepare for opener with key players hurt
New quarterback, new coach, new stars; it seems like everything’s changed for Stonewall Jackson this season after its disappointing 4-6 2007 season.That is, except for the injury bug.
Like last year, star running backs Ryan Williams, who has since graduated and signed on to play for Virginia Tech, and Damien Thigpen missed time due to foot and leg ailments.
Thigpen is hurt again this time and is not expected to start opening day against Hylton on Sept. 5. The University of Tennessee-bound senior is listed as week-to-week with a torn tendon in his left ankle, while fellow senior running back Josh James is out six weeks with a broken scapula. He still attended practice on Tuesday, but was on the sidelines with his arm in a sling.
“Damien’s a natural leader, and the kids follow him,” said first-year Stonewall coach Mike Dougherty, formerly head coach of Dominion High School in Loudoun County.
He noted that even though another player is out with a broken finger and yet another is sidelined after knee surgery, none of them had practiced yet, so the team has not had to adjust to their absence in the pre-season.
The coach placed an emphasis on conditioning during the spring, and those who worked hard are earning more playing time.
Juniors Sean Blackman and Brandon Simmons and seniors Aaron Dial and Derek Lett can expect to be on both sides of the ball and perhaps even special teams throughout the fall because of the shape they’re in, according to Dougherty.
“It started in the spring and the summer when we were lifting and running and doing things like that. They were regulars at all our conditioning,” he said. “And that’s really when it happens; you can’t expect to come out here and get in shape in three weeks in August. It has to be something that you’ve been doing for months and months, and those guys are definitely four that have been doing that.”
Leading the group will be first-time full-time starting quarterback Jordan Baird. The senior played backup to Breon Shelton last year and ran patterns as a slot receiver, so he has varsity experience.
The question now is how he will use that knowledge to his advantage.
If the team’s losing scrimmage a couple of weeks ago at Annandale is any indicator, Baird should provide a reassuring presence in the Raider backfield.
“It’s a calming effect when your quarterback’s a leader, and you know he’s in charge and you know he’s running stuff,” Dougherty said. “And I think the kids see that in him.”
Against Annandale, “He completed a couple of big passes for us, and it was like, no big deal,” the coach added. “He had done it before.”
Simmons will back Baird up, though as long as the senior QB stays healthy, Simmons should make for a reliable target as a receiver.
“Brandon is athletic,” noted Dougherty. “And defensively, he covers a lot of ground. We feel like at the free safety position, he’s going to be able to come up and hit people. He brings it. For a kid that weighs 175 pounds, you know, he hits like he’s two [hundred]-plus.”
Stonewall football veterans are well aware that they should take nothing for granted going into Friday night’s game against Hylton.
The Raiders stunned the Bulldogs with a 13-2 win on opening day in 2007, and won the next two games after that. But Battlefield came into town and came back to win 24-21 with a fourth-quarter field goal, triggering a six-game losing streak that killed any chance for SJ to make the playoffs.
Dougherty, however, is just trying to keep his players’ heads level by setting a modest goal: win a playoff game.
“We’re going to hopefully bring an exciting brand of football,” said the coach. “We’re putting four and five receivers out in the pattern. We should be throwing the ball 20 to 25 times a game. We’re going to throw to set up the run, whereas teams I’ve had in the past, we’ve run to set up the throw. We feel like we’re pretty athletic on the outside, and we want to take advantage of it.”
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