BAYBORO — Pamlico County hosted this year’s 1-A Coastal Plains Conference media day on Thursday. Most of the league’s teams converged in Bayboro to speak with members of the media about how the preseason has progressed and what they expect this year.

Southside finished last season as the conference runners up and trudged its way to the eastern regional championship. The Seahawks are without some key players from that team, but will be looking to contend with league powerhouses like East Carteret.

Northside, on the other hand, finished at the bottom of the conference standings. The Panthers are fortunate to return much of that squad and, with the addition of some size up front, should be able to make some waves.

Here’s what the other coaches in the conference had to say about how their respective teams are shaping up.

 

East Carteret (11-3, 5-0 CPC in 2015)

Coach Caleb King:

On what the team returns on defense and how it helps continuity from last year’s 11-3 season:

“We have a lot of weapons on offense and, on defense, we return a lot of people. Most guys understand the system a little better now. They’re much, much more comfortable.”

On what kind of offensive changes can be expected:

“Defense is usually ahead of the offense a bit, but our offense has been really explosive. We’re looking for that consistency. I’ve been really pleased with the three 1,000-yard receivers back. It’s always a positive. The addition of (tailback) Jacobie Simmons is going to be a positive thing for us.”

On evening out last year’s pass-heavy offense:

“That’s one thing we’re focused on — doing both run and pass. We passed a lot last year and we’re still going to do that a lot. We’re trying to get some runs in there, as well.”

 

Pamlico County (5-6, 3-2 CPC in 2015)

Coach Torrey Nowell:

On this being a transition year for the Hurricanes:

“We’re not rebuilding. It’s a transitional period. There’s a difference. We lost 11 seniors last year and those 11 were starting and playing for a couple of years. When we say transitional, it’s pretty much handing over the reins to (the upperclassmen) and letting them take on what we had last year.”

On the impact of last year’s experience on the younger players:

“The work ethic is so much better. The guys work really hard now. They’re a little closer with each other. After practice (Wednesday), they all went swimming and then went to Buffalo Wild Wings. That’s stuff we didn’t have last year. I think that’s stuff that’s going to keep us together.

“I think, as the season goes on, you’ll see guys start playing harder for each other because it means so much more to them to not let a teammate down.”

 

Jones Senior (6-7, 2-3 CPC in 2015)

Coach John Davis Sr.

On changes to be expected this season:

“We’re young. We’ve got a handful of seniors. From the seniors to the juniors, there’s a little bit of a drop off. Everything they’re doing wrong is correctable, but the more you do it, the better you get at it. I’m a big believer in getting reps.

“We’re switching up some things offensively. We’re a little bit of this and a little bit of that, but not what we were last year. We’re spreading a little bit. We’ve got some guys that can catch the ball and two decent quarterbacks. We’re going to play to our strengths. The more that we do those things, the better we get. We’ll keep sharpening our skills.”

On molding schemes around the team’s personnel:

“We’re modifying. We’re just taking what we’ve been doing and tailoring it to the players we have. We’ve got some guys that can catch the ball and some guys that run pretty hard. We’re going to tailor our offense to them because we’re never going to be stuck in ‘this is what we’re going to run and that’s it.’ We’re not going to try and put a square peg in a round hole.”

 

Lejeune (1-9, 1-4 CPC in 2015)

Coach Simon Dorsey:

On his experiences as a first-year coach so far:

“It’s been good so far. I think that we’ve established our program in terms of changing the culture and getting everything we can get out of these guys. We’ve been coming together as a team and putting in max effort in what we do.”

On what he’s looking for in preseason scrimmages:

“We just want to see how the guys show up — see what they’ve got in the live action.”