First-year Washington football coach Jon Blank and his staff have a lot of goals they’ve been working toward. It started last winter when Blank was appointed to the position. He tasked himself, the coaches, and players with building the Pam Pack program back to its prominence it enjoyed not too long ago.

Blank and the Pam Pack have been working toward this for months. There’s been an emphasis placed on performance in the weight room. Players are developing a competitive attitude that coaches believe will pay off in the fourth quarter of close games come the fall.

The first season of this new chapter at Washington begins at East Carteret on Aug. 18, but there’s so much the Pam Pack wants to accomplish in the coming years. Blank believes continuity is the cornerstone of a successful year-to-year program. To develop that stability within, Blank and his staff have been coaching both the varsity and junior varsity squads.

“We want continuity in the program,” Blank said. “We’re trying to actually build from the Washington Youth Football League, P.S. Jones, to the JV program to the varsity program. It’s to get us all on the same page. To me, I felt like we needed to make all of our coaches to coach both teams simply because we want that continuity.

“We want them to understand our terminology. We want them to understand kind of how we coach so they don’t get a shock to their system when they come up their junior year. We want them to get the best coaching on the team because we don’t want to sacrifice our future.”

It will be at least a year or two before the effects of this change will manifest themselves. Even so, Washington has seen a few glimpses of what the future holds. After a strong 7-on-7 showing at Edenton by senior quarterback Frederick Holscher and the Pam Pack offense, they struggled to move the ball while competing against South Central.

Spotty execution saw offensive coordinator oust the varsity offense from the field. On the next play, JV signal caller Tripp Pippin heaved a bomb downfield for a touchdown.

“You’re already seeing the rewards from that,” Blank said. “When we went to South Central a few weeks ago, our JVs performed really well against South Central’s varsity squad. We’re already seeing progress that sometimes it took three or four games to get in the JV program in years past. The rewards are already coming from us working with both squads.”

There are going to be plenty of returns that fans won’t see first hand. The coaches are hoping that curbing any adjustments players would make in moving from JV to varsity will make their jobs easier, too.

“They’re going to understand the importance of a drill and how we want it done,” Blank said. “They’re going to hear the same words. They’re going to go through the same drills. Right now, they’re even practicing against our varsity kids. They’re learning the speed of varsity football as JV players.”

Another peek at the development of the JV players should come when they open the season. Blank hopes the work they’ve put in with the coaches and their varsity counterparts will pay off well come game time.

It’s been another block in what Washington is trying to build. Some results will begin to show in about a month. Others will take years to become apparent.