Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Jay Spivey 

For the Clemmons Courier

Although West Forsyth’s football season ended two weeks ago, and Thanksgiving has just passed, it’s never too early to take a look back at this past season and what’s ahead for next season.  

West Forsyth finished its season with a record of 8-4 overall, the same record this season as last season under second second-year Coach Kevin Wallace. West Forsyth did reach the NCHSAA Class 4-A playoffs and defeated Waxhaw Cuthbertson 10-3 in the first round in Clemmons, but it fell to East Forsyth 56-19 in the second round the week before Thanksgiving in Kernersville.  

“I think we just, our process of offseason, weight room, how we practice, our skill-development sessions, we get another year into the offense and defense, another year of what we’re expected, hopefully retaining the staff. That’s a big thing,” Wallace said. “Not having a lot of turnover on staff. We’re in the evaluation process of everything right now – our players, our coaches, our seniors, our program – thing like that.” 

In addition to the loss at East Forsyth, it was the second time No. 14-seeded West Forsyth lost in three weeks at No. 3 East Forsyth, after losing 48-42 in the season finale, which meant that East Forsyth, which is now 13-0 after defeating Mooresville 35-30 the day after Thanksgiving in the third round of the playoffs and will play at No. 2 Weddington on Friday in the quarterfinals.  

“We know we don’t have to wholeheartedly sell stuff, but there’s always something you’ve got to change and can change,” Wallace said. “So, that’s where we’re really deep-diving and we will for about the next, probably three weeks, probably up through Christmas break and evaluating things we do and how we can make them better.” 

Although Wallace feels the program has taken some strides since he began his tenure at West Forsyth, the team did finish with the same record and the same result in the playoffs, just against a different team. West Forsyth lost at Matthews Butler in the second round last year.  

“We’ll meet as a staff and we do an evaluation of the program and what we think cost us the games,” Wallace said. “And then we do what we can work on, which every year you can’t fix everything, but if we can nail down the three to five things this season, we can do better on.” 

The hope is to improve the record, win conference championships, go further in the playoffs, and possibly compete for a state championship. 

“It’s a good process thing for the overall of our program because then we can each year get things better and better and better,” Wallace said. “So, you know, going into this this will really be our second time. So, it’ll be about things two years that we really are fixing. It only benefits the program more in the long run with it.” 

It’s a whole different feel after this season compared to last year because last year was Wallace’s first season as head coach with the Titans.  

“This year, I think we’re a bigger team. We’re a stronger team. We’re more physical,” he said. “I think we understand what has to get done, and now some of these kids – you know, we have a handful of kids that were up for both playoff runs and all that.  

“You know, they’re going to know what has to be done. They’ve played against good teams from Charlotte and up to here and, you know, what we have to do to close that gap, and what needs to be demanded and held accountable to close that gap, which is a huge thing.” 

Not only was the record the same for West Forsyth, the regular-season schedule, both nonconference and conference was the same this season, just at opposite sites. It lost to Weddington both seasons in the nonconference slate of games.  

However, it also defeated Asheville Reynolds and Oak Grove. Last season in conference, it defeated Mount Tabor but lost against Reagan and East Forsyth. This season, in conference, it lost at Mount Tabor but beat Reagan and lost at East Forsyth. 

“I like the tough schedule,” Wallace said. “I think it gets us ready. We’re going to have changes in the conference and all that (upcoming NCHSAA realignment), so we’re just waiting to see where we’re at with that. I always like playing one really, really hard team that will be a top contender in the state in a nonconference situation. You know, I like to travel for a game.” 

No matter which teams against which West Forsyth lost the past two seasons, some of the same things cropped up during each loss.

“Coming off the Weddington thing, the Weddington game, you know, we dropped five interceptions that game defensively. And I’m not justifying anything we did offensively. But we can’t win against good teams missing opportunities. And that’s what we’ve got to do.” 

Despite some shortcomings in some games this past season, West Forsyth had a five-game winning streak heading into the regular-season finale at East Forsyth, which amounted to a conference-championship game, because had West Forsyth won there would’ve been a three-way tie between East Forsyth, West Forsyth and Mount Tabor. But, for the second season in a row, West Forsyth led late and lost.  

“It was disappointing because it’s back-to-back years where we’ve had a lead and blown it,” Wallace said. “And this one was just a little bit, you know, we blew it a little later. So, that’s just hard – making strides and being better and then just not being able to finish it. That one hurt.” 

But like almost every team in the state the week before the playoffs, West Forsyth was off the week between the regular-season game at East Forsyth and the home playoff game against Cuthbertson because the NCHSAA added an extra week to the regular season to allow for the teams in the mountains to make up games because of Hurricane Helene. 

“Having the week off doesn’t help at all,” Wallace said. “You know, getting out of the swing of things, getting out of the routine. But it turns out we probably needed it physicality-wise.” 

The following week, against East Forsyth, Wallace said there were some injuries in the secondary and some missed opportunities on offense. 

“(It) irritated a bunch of coaches, and myself included,” Wallace said of the missed opportunities. “They were not pleased because we had a great week of practice. We had a great lead up to it and just the outcome didn’t go.” 

The West Forsyth coaching staff felt differently after watching the East Forsyth playoff game on film than it did immediately after the game finished. 

“I think we were really tunnel-visioned on one or two people that we were kind of upset about,” Wallace said. “And then when we looked back at it, it was more than that. You know, we’ve got to coach them better, we’ve got to be on top of them, hold them more accountable.” 

The learning experiences are like building blocks. 

“We’ve got to do a lot of things to get a better outcome. And it comes solely on us, myself included and the coaches, and we’ve got to figure that out to be a better team, to, you know, to get it going. I mean, you look back at it, you know, these seniors – two 8-4 seasons, two second rounds in the playoffs. It’s been a while since they’ve done that here at West,” Wallace said. “You know, it’s something to look back on, but it’s, you know, it’s not where our, like that was the standard we had set last year and we expected to be better. So, I think it’s left a bad taste in everybody’s mouth, and hopefully we’ve learned a lot from this season to move forward.” 

Just concluding his second season as head coach, Wallace is in a better position to evaluate the Titans.  

“I think overall we’re ahead of where we started at last year if that makes sense,” he said. “I mean, it’s just simple things – expectations of the program, the accountability, the work ethic. You know, all that stuff. Our speed, our strength, our size, all that stuff, is ahead of where we were going into last year. We’ve got a lot of kids fully buy in, a lot of kids fully buy in. And we really saw a lot of changes in their body and their speed and stuff like that. 

“So, I think we’re way ahead of where we were. But every year is a new team and every year, offseason, you’ve got to start fresh. And that’s what we’re going to be back to. Everybody’s got to be, if you think you can just skip steps and developing a team then it’s going to catch you in the long run.” 

According to Wallace, there are 15 seniors who will be graduating. Nine of 11 offensive starters and five defensive starters are expected to return next season.  

One of those offensive starters who will be graduating is quarterback Riley Horton, who transferred from Parkland.  

“We’ve got two underclassmen (at quarterback) on the roster right now, so that’s what we’re going to concentrate on developing them and getting them better, and moving forward,” Wallace said.  

Another hole on offense that will need to be filled is replacing offensive lineman Jalen Morris, who is 6-foot-3 and 310 pounds. However, running back CJ Blevins and all three starting receivers are expected back.

“That’s going to be a hard void,” Wallace said of Morris. “But, you know, I think we have some kids that can do it. The rest of them just gotta take strides.” 

One defensive lineman is graduating, but Wallace said the depth there is thin. Three linebackers, Chancellor McMillian, Cale Lloyd and Arrington Kee, will graduate. In the secondary, Justin Ferguson, DaViare Eldridge and Vanderlei Baldwin will be graduating. 

“You can’t replace all three in one year, but you just hope to develop them when they’re here,” Wallace said. “If they’re young they’re going to make mistakes, and hopefully we can correct them and get a lot of the mistakes corrected before we get into play.”