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Team Links:
Click here for Mount Vernon’s Homepage on DigitalSports
Click here for Mount Vernon’s 2008 Football Schedule
Click here for the Northern Region (VA) Football Central
Mount Vernon High School Majors — Northern Region, Division 5, Class AAA National District
Head Coach: Tom Glynn, fourth year.
Career Record: N/A 2007 Record: 6-5 overall, 5-1 district. (Northern Region Division 5 Quarterfinalist).
Returning Starters: 7 offense/4 defense.
Key Losses: TE/DE Kai Blanco; C Kenny Hogue; OL/DL Brandon Houston.
Top Returners: OL Chris Crockett, Sr., 6-4, 310; OL Josh Edmonds, Sr., 6-4, 260; QB Brian Green, Sr., 5-11, 170; OL James Greer, Sr., 6-2, 240; C Marcus Jones, Sr., 5-11, 220; OLB Branden O’Clisham, Sr., 6-1, 185; OL Zach Quigley, Sr., 6-6, 325; LB Kyle Ricks, Sr., 6-5, 210.
Fresh Faces: RB Kenny Harris, Soph., 5-9, 160; SE Decardi Nelson, Jr., 5-9, 140; SE Sean Stewart, Jr., 5-11, 150.
Game to Watch: Week 2, Sept. 5 at West Potomac
Alexandria rivals Mount Vernon and West Potomac have alternated wins each of the last seven seasons with the road team winning all seven games. In the last three seasons, the contests have been decided by an average of 30.7 points per game. Last year, the Wolverines traveled to Mount Vernon and defeated the Majors, 45-14.
Stadium: Melvin B. Landes Stadium (Capacity 5,000).
One Taste Was Not Enough
By Angela Watts
Managing Content Editor, DigitalSports.com
Ninth in a series.
Mount Vernon coach Tom Glynn was silent while his team conditioned at the end of the first of two practice sessions on Monday.
He stood in the end zone and simply stared as his players started with 20-yard sprints and then ran — over-and-over-and-over again — until they were sprinting the entire length of the football field.
No words of encouragement needed.
“They’re pushing themselves, running at full speed and racing each other,” Glynn said. “People are getting on each other and pushing themselves harder. Coaches don’t have to say anything. The kids are focused. They want to do something here. They got a little taste of finally being in the playoffs — and they liked it.
“But they also realized that they have to work a little harder. They can’t just show up for the playoffs. You’re not going to be the region champion just because you make the playoffs. And they get that now. They realized that they have to go up against teams like Edison and Stone Bridge … and to do that, to compete with those guys, you’ve got to work harder.”
Last season Mount Vernon won five of its last six regular-season games to make its first playoff appearance since 2001, but was knocked out in the Northern Region Division 5 quarterfinals by Marshall, 35-14.
Still, 11 starters return from that playoff squad with expectations higher than ever.
“I think we’ve made a lot of progress in all areas,” Glynn said. “We’re better across the board. We’re faster — we’re faster because we know what we’re doing a little bit better — and we’re more experienced. What we’ve got to work on is making everything perfect in our execution.
“We know what we’re doing … it’s just the little tiny things that we’ve got to work to get better at. It’s getting all those little things down that will be big for us.”
Getting it All in a Line
Mount Vernon senior Zach Quigley sat out Monday’s two-a-day workouts with a stomach virus. Instead of his Majors’ uniform, he donned flip flops and a red T-shirt that had his name — albeit fading — printed across the back. But the letters were a mere formality. One look around Mount Vernon’s practice field and one thing was evident: Quigley, even amongst a sea of player, was impossible to miss.
Quigley, one of four returning starters to the Majors’ offensive line, checks in at a massive 6-feet-6-inches and 325 pounds. And his counterparts aren’t slouches either. The team’s three other returning starters — Chris Crockett, Josh
Edmonds and James Greer — average 6-feet-4 inches and 270 pounds.
“There’s no missing those guys out there,” Glynn joked. “No hiding them at all.”
And having them back, along with senior returning starter Brian Green at quarterback, has made for some smooth sailing this preseason.
“The four of them, they know what they’re doing and they have a good idea how each other works because they’re right next to each other and in the same positions as last year,” Glynn said. “So the only big challenge offensively is getting our new center squared away.”
Quotable
“I don’t think we’ll surprise people. If we surprise somebody, then they haven’t been paying much attention over the last few years. I wouldn’t be so brazen as to say we’ll be at the top of the region, but if you’ve been paying attention to us then you know that we’ve gotten better every year. And this year we’ll be better than we were last year. We’re on the right path and continuing to grow.”
— Mount Vernon Coach Tom Glynn
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Note: The first 20 Northern Region teams to be previewed were selected
at random. Only the Top 10 teams have been ranked and will be unveiled
in order in the coming days.
Email: awatts@digitalsports.com
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