By CHRIS HOBBS
HobbsDailyReport.com
ICARD – There are challenges ahead – every Friday night — but new East Burke High head football coach Mark Buffamoyer says he’s already seeing some things from the Cavs he likes.
THE CAVS AT A GLANCE
Head football coaches at East Burke High — where Mark Buffamoyer will be heading into his first season as the boss — since the 1980 season:
Coach Years
Danny Williams 1980-1983
Wayne Fletcher 1984-1994
Curtis Threatt 1995-1996
Mike Helms 1997-1998
Tom Harper 1999-2001
Mike Biggerstaff 2002-2009
Jim Ruark 2010-2013
Tom Brown 2014-2016
SOURCE: HobbsDailyReport.com files
“That’s a good football team, and I wanted to see if we’d be able to adjust to that,” Buffamoyer said Wednesday night after East Burke scrimmaged at Bandys. “I saw some kids make some plays and saw some playing different positions.
“It’s like a glorified practice, but I’m glad we were able to do some things.”
Among them was generate some passing, as sophomore Seth Pruitt threw a long touchdown pass late in the scrimmage. He’s competing for the starting quarterbacking job with senior Grant Fulbright — a converted wide receiver-linebacker – as the Cavs head into a season in which Buffamoyer expects at least six sophomores to start both ways.
Pruitt played the varsity finale last season against Kings Mountain (1-for-7 for six yards, ran twice for 50 yards), and Fulbright had two carries for nine rushing yards and caught three passes for 19 yards last season after getting six starts at wide receiver the year before.
BUFFAMOYER
“We’re going to have to grow up pretty quickly,” Buffamoyer said.
East Burke has a roster of 34 on varsity (33 on junior varsity) for Buffamoyer’s first season guiding the Cavs. He was previously their defensive coordinator and replaces Tom Brown, who retired and who came out to see Wednesday night’s scrimmage.
The Cavs have a scrimmage at 5:30 p.m. on Friday night at Patton – part of the Burke County Jamboree – and then open the season on Aug. 18 at home against West Caldwell, where Buffamoyer was head coach from 2004 through 2007.
The Cavs are at Maiden on Aug. 25, at Freedom on Sept. 1, at home against Newton-Conover on Sept. 8 and close their non-league schedule at home against West Lincoln on Sept. 15. Four of the first five opponents made the state playoffs last year (only Newton-Conover missed).
East Burke’s debut in the new Northwestern Foothills 2A comes Sept. 29 with a homecoming game against West Iredell.
“Everybody that we play will be a challenge,” Buffamoyer said. “West Caldwell, Newton-Conover, Maiden… that’s a lot of tradition. Every week, we’re going to have to be at the top of our game.”
At this point, Buffamoyer said he’d list his team’s top strength as offensive and defensive lines and his No. 1 concern as overall depth.
Two seasons ago — when the Cavs went 8-6 and three rounds deep in the state 2AA playoffs – they stayed pretty healthy overall.
Last season, with many of the same players back in key roles, they were hit hard by injuries, especially late in the season.
For example, Joe Duckworth, a returning starting quarterback, missed the final four games with an injury, finishing with 364 rushing yards and 335 passing in seven games. The year before, he had 315 rushing yards and threw for another 1,661.
“We lost our quarterback, our fullback… we were make-shift,” Buffamoyer said of the closing weeks of the 2016 season. “And we couldn’t do anything about it. Who we had is who we had.”
The Cavs are in a new conference this season, the Northwestern Foothills 2A, with Bunker Hill, Draughn, Fred T. Foard, Hibriten, Patton and West Iredell.
Buffamoyer said he likes the new league, saying there’s a better chance to develop more than one rivalry and, he thinks, the league will generate more excitement in his community because the other schools are closer than many East Burke has been playing in the South Mountain Athletic 2A-3A the past four seasons.
This will be the Cavs’ ninth season as a 2A school – their last 4A season was 2008, prior to Draughn High opening – and they have reached the state playoffs three times (2009, 2012, 2015).
Last season, they were 2-6 in the SMAC 2A-3A and 2-9 overall. Overall, East Burke went 15-32 while in the SMAC 2A-3A and 10-22 in league games that included games against state powers like Shelby and Crest.