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By Jay Spivey

For the Clemmons Courier

CLEMMONS — Last year’s West Forsyth football team was highlighted by two things – the first year of Coach Kevin Wallace and the offensive explosion Caman Chaplin had.  

This season, Wallace is firmly in charge in his second season, but Chaplin, who was the 2023 Central Piedmont 4-A Offensive Player of the Year and is now about to start his freshman season playing at Fayetteville State, has since graduated. Chaplin piled up 2,225 rushing yards on 249 carries and 31 touchdowns, and as a receiver, Chaplin added another 341 yards on 27 receptions with two touchdowns.  

“Now that we’ve gotten upperclassmen that understand most of our expectations so that they can start holding other kids accountable where last year it’s really teaching everybody, but I think our kids understand that now what little things we expect and the standards how we expect practice, how we expect the locker room to be, how we expect them to handle themselves,” Wallace said. “You know, simple things like how they even walk into a coach’s office and greet somebody.” 

The other thing is how the veteran players have adjusted to Wallace and his coaching staff after the team finished 8-4 overall last season and 5-2 in the Central Piedmont 4-A. West Forsyth also reached the NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs and lost in the second round at Matthews Butler.  

“I think they understand expectations of a program, our expectations of their development,” Wallace said. “And they’re starting to understand, you know, everybody has good days and bad days, and they understand some little things and stuff like that. But I think everyone’s been good. I think they all understand what we ultimately want from them and what we’re trying to do to help them.” 

Since Wallace was hired in December 2022 after previously being at Northwest Guilford, the difference between last season and this season is night and day.  

“I think we’re in a good spot,” he said. “I told (Athletic Director Mike) Pennington maybe about February or March we’re at, right now, that was just a full year in, I said, ‘We’re about where I was at Northwest about year three or four,’ I felt like program-wise just with everything.” 

According to Wallace, the Titans lost around 26 players to graduation from last year’s team.  

“We kind of divided the first six games and then the last six games (from last season),” Wallace said. “The one thing is when (offensive lineman) Desmond (Jackson) and when (wide receiver) Jordan Stephens went down we were able to pull up younger kids (from JV) that got five more games under their belts there. You know, they had a half a season, which helps us now this year. So, it’s not a full turnover on those spots, which is nice.” 

Losing any senior is difficult, but a handful of seniors from last season stuck out.  

“You lose Caman, you lose Caleb David and Davion (Eldridge) inside. The linebacking corps hurts us. We lose some secondary guys, but I think our secondary is pretty strong,” Wallace said. “Our D-line, we had seniors on there – Torian Johnson and (Kourtni) DuBose and stuff like that, but we were relatively young there. So, we return a lot of guys with a lot of playing time.” 

Replacing Chaplin at running back won’t be an easy task, but Wallace thinks he’s found a reason facsimile. 

“CJ Blevins (junior) is a kid that transferred to us (from Southwest Guilford). He’s in the backfield.” Wallace said. “He’s been here since third quarter (of this past school year), so he’s back there. Semaj Gary transferred in from Carver. He’ll help us a little bit, I think. You know, you can’t really replace Caman, but you kind of replace his stats by committee.” 

Quarterback Bert Rice also graduated, so the battle for the starting job this year is between two transfers – Riley Horton from Parkland and Jerrell Crawford from Glenn.  

“Both of them, no matter what they were, whoever it was, they’ve got different talents,” Wallace said. “So, we’ve got to adapt to what they can do. Once you have your guys and you understand what he can do you can really evolve from there, and that’s where we’re at now…We need to take that step and evolve the guy who’s going to be QB 1, essentially.” 

Junior Josh Cauthen will be playing tight end, junior Darell Paige is the slot receiver, and junior Hunter Cruise and sophomore Jalen Moore will be playing receiver. Senior Arrington Kee, who transferred from Fayetteville Cape Fear, will also play receiver.  

On the offensive line, seniors Jalen Morris, Nathan Yakos, juniors PJ Dean, junior AJ McCloud and Keith Foster, Amonte Peters, and sophomore JD Miller will see time.  

“We’ve got size and I think our O-line is starting to gel during mini-camp and summer,” Wallace said. “They’re now starting to understand the nuances. We don’t many run plays, but just the little subtleties they have to know. That’s getting handled, and the pass-protection stuff and all.” 

On defense, the Titans will be playing predominantly a 3-4, but will occasionally use a four-man front. On the defensive line, senior Kale Vest, juniors Daviel Eldridge, Kanari Shoulars, Keenan Cuthrell, and James Epps play. The linebackers are seniors Chancellor McMillian, Benjamin Furbee, juniors Keith Taylor and Nicholas Goodrum will play, but more players will rotate.  

The defensive backs will be seniors Justin Ferguson, DaViare Eldridge, Vanderlei Baldwin and Brody White. 

“I like where we’re at,” Wallace said. “We return on the line and the secondary, I think are our two strongest areas. I like what we’ve been doing with multiple, very aggressive, you know, not seeing just one set all the time. And I think it’s going to cause some issues and I think it’s going to cause some confusion from (some) teams, I think…I think our defense is ahead of our offense.” 

West Forsyth scrimmaged Northern Guilford and Greensboro Page. It opens the regular season on Aug. 23 at Asheville Reynolds in a nonconference game, followed by nonconference games at home against Oak Grove and Weddington.  

After the Weddington game, West Forsyth is idle before opening conference play on Sept. 20 and finishes the regular season on Nov. 1 at East Forsyth. 

“We’re not scared of playing anybody,” Wallace said. “It just better. We see where we fit.” 

As for conference play, East Forsyth and Mount Tabor should be very strong. However, West Forsyth should also challenge.  

“I think our starters are really good,” Wallace said. “We’re trying to create some depth.” 

Schedule:

8/23 – @ A.C. Reynolds, 7:30 p.m.

8/30 – Oak Grove, 7 p.m.

9/6 – Weddington, 7 p.m.

9/20 – @ Mount Tabor, 7 p.m.

9/27 – Parkland, 7 p.m.

10/4 – @ Glenn, 7 p.m.

10/11 – @ Reagan, 7 p.m.

10/18 – Davie, 7 p.m.

10/25 – R.J. Reynolds, 7 p.m.

11/1 – @ East Forsyth, 7:30 p.m.