With slew returning, Northern Nash football hopes to crash the Big East 3A party

Hanging on wall inside the weight room at Northern Nash High School is a clock that’s counting down the days, hours, minutes and seconds remaining until Aug. 19 at 7 p.m.

This is the year the Knights have been anticipating the most since coach Randy Raper took over the Northern Nash program in 2013.

Raper won more than 200 games in 22 seasons at conference foe Hunt, hoping to build the Knights into a perennial winner like he had the Warriors.

Northern Nash was 3-8 last year but led at halftime in nine contests. Only six players graduated off last year’s team.

“They’re hungry. It’s been a long time since this school has had a good football season. Even though we’ve made strides and been competitive, there’s nothing that takes the place of winning,” Raper said. “Our job as coaches now is to show them they can win, they can compete in this league at a very high level.”

What will be a team strength?

The entire offensive and defensive lines, which come back fully intact from a year ago.

“Some of them are two- and three-year starters,” Raper said.

What are the question marks?

The Knights are breaking in a new quarterback, Tyler Polensky, and there’s an ongoing battle for the new starting running back. DeCarlo Royster has the early lead there.

“We don’t have that typical big tailback, but what we do have is a bunch of little scat-backs who are really, really tough kids,” Raper said.

What should Knights fans expect?

Raper said he feels much better going into this season than he has the other three at Northern Nash.

“I’d be very shocked, disappointed, any other word you want to use,” Raper said, “if we’re not successful this year.”

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 9:36 PM with the headline "With slew returning, Northern Nash football hopes to crash the Big East 3A party."