Coming off three consecutive Division I state championship game appearances, Sussex Central’s Golden Knights of the gridiron a season ago were eying more success.
Fate had other plans for Central, however, as injuries piled up and the squad struggled to a 6-4 record and missed out on the playoffs.
Every cloud has a silver lining though, and for the Knights it meant many of the backups who were forced into action last year now figure to start in 2010 and as such, they will do so with plenty of experience.
“You hate to see [injuries] happen, but we can benefit from the ones we suffered last year this season,” head coach John Wells said. “It gave us a chance to get guys who normally would have been backups in for a lot for a lot of snaps.”
Plus, the Knights have plenty of players who started week one a year ago returning to the team.
On offense, Central has both its tackles and guards returning, its possible quarterback junior Jesse Long behind center and its entire backfield – seniors Kevin Guthrie and Malcolm Bowden and junior DeShawn Sheppard – at its disposal.
“I’ve got my split end [Matt] Cleary, my quarterback who platooned last year, most of my line and my backfield back, so we’ve had little trouble running our base offense so far,” Wells said. “I think right now our offense is ahead of the defense.”
The offense is ready to get a chance at turning around last season’s performance as well.
Because most of the line is retuning, the Knights expect big things from their giants up front and those linemen have high hopes as well.
“We’re definitely ready to get out there and show what we can do,” senior Joey Spicer said. “Most of us are back, so we know what’s expected out of us.”
“It helps that we have a great backfield behind us,” senior Case Ergenzinger added. “They take some of the pressure off us.
“Plus, we love opening big holes for them to run through.”
Defensively, Wells said he thinks Central will get better as the season progresses.
That, however, is not to say the coach thinks the unit will struggle much early in the season.
“We lost some key players in the secondary with Sean Hopkins and Randy Brittingham,” Wells explained. “They were both great athletes.
“But, we got a several guys back up front.”
It will not take long for Central to see where it stands with the state’s elite, as the Knights open 2010 with a pair of road games against perennial powerhouses.
First up for the squad its September 10 opener at Caravel and then eight days later the club has to travel to Wilmington to battle with St. Mark’s.
“Our schedule’s no cakewalk, but we’ll be OK,” Wells said. “We’ll find out right away where we stack up with teams and what we need work on.”
