Peninsula Preview

Always go with the heavyweight champ until he's beaten. With that philosophy we go with the state champion Phoebus Phantoms as our district leader. They are coming off their third state championship in six years. There are concerns. They lose their two star running backs from '06. But the Phantoms always come up with somebody to carry the load. Plus, their defense will be as good as ever and QB Taj Boyd returns to take some of the load off the running attack.
Hampton is Hampton. In other words, no matter what they've lost in talent they'll have the coaching staff and players to make it work. Yes, QB Tyrod Taylor, the biggest star of the region is now at Virginia Tech. Mathew Mitchell, son of longtime assistant Danny Mitchell tries on those big shoes at quarterback. The defense will shine like last year when they tossed 5 shutouts. The Crabbers are hungry for their 18th state championship. They told us they have a bitter taste in their mouths from that playoff loss to Maury. That should lead to an inspired start to the season.
Now what? It's kind of a crapshoot in the rest of the division. The Woodside Wolverines could surprise this year. They graduated 25 seniors and will be a young team. But they do return talent on the line of scrimmage and that's a good place to start. They just missed the playoffs last year.
Warwick has only made the playoffs once in the last 17 years, but they return a ton of talent from last year's young team. They lost their top running back but still have talent at the skill positions and are huge on the offensive line.
What we like about Kecoughtan is running back Isaiah Sheppard who has shown up in numerous hilites for us the last two years. Question is will the Warriors defense step it up a notch.
Bethel is as good a bet as anybody else. They return a 1,000 yard running back in Jontel Evans. They need to improve in the passing game. However, defense wins games and they were pretty stout last year. They do need to replace some talent on the defensive line.
Defense could also carry Heritage High. The Hurricanes are coming off a 4-6 season where they struggled to score points. The biggest problem was too many turnovers.
Denbigh is coming off a strong year but they sent almost 20 seniors packing. That includes the starting quarterback and star running back. The Patriots do return some talent on the defense. Maybe having alum Mike Tomlin coaching in the NFL will prove inspirational. Maybe that's a reach.
Tommy Reamon is in his third year at Gloucester. The Dukes took a step backward when they finished 1-9 last year. But it was a young team. Perhaps with more experience they can think of reaching the .500 mark.
Last year Menchville broke a 27 game Peninsula District losing streak on the way to a 2-9 record. This year they're working installing new offensive and defensive schemes. When in doubt try something different.