WHITE HALL - North Greene Spartans head coach Tony Rhodes is a believer in the notion that success leads to more success.
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“Everybody loses kids. Some lose more than others, but it’s just a matter of everybody picking it up and getting at their positions,” Rhodes said.
Magical runs like the 2014 North Greene season don’t happen every day. Some of the team accomplishments included a 9-3 season and knocking off state runner-up Carrollton.
The Spartans also rebounded from 22 points down and scored 36 unanswered points to take down No. 2-seeded Abingdon Avon to advance to the quarterfinals in the IHSA Class 1A State Football Playoffs.
The Spartans had to suffer a bitter graduation pill with 12 committed seniors, most of them being starters, said goodbye. The Spartans plans on rebuilding, but just may be reloading because if success does lead to more success for the Spartans, they do return a squad that practiced week in and week out with one of the better varsity teams in the state last season.
“The kids are working really hard and ready to get things going,” Rhodes said.
“It won’t be easy for the Spartans or anybody in the WIVC this season once again as Rhodes believes it’s one of the toughest conferences in the state. After all it did have five schools in the IHSA 1A playoffs and three of them made it to the quarterfinals last season, including North Greene.
“It gets you pretty well prepared for the playoffs, that’s for sure,” Rhodes said. Week in and week out you got to be ready to play for four quarters and if you’re not then you’re going to get beat.”
The Spartans return six starters from last year including, junior Dalton McDonald, who was arguably one of the better linebackers in the WIVC. Rhodes says that McDonald will be a workhorse on offense too at the fullback position. Joining McDonald in the backfield will be Nick McEvers and Derek Dawdy.
“McEvers is a good, shifty back that will be tough to pick up out of the backfield. Dawdy is another hard runner,” Rhodes said. Rhodes is confident that trio will do damage. “With those three it’s a pretty good combination. They all bring a different thing to the table,” Rhodes said.
Jonah Hopper will be the Spartans new quarterback and is only a sophomore. The 6-foot-1 lefty was a contributor last year for the basketball team and will be making an immediate impact on the gridiron.
“Just because he’s a sophomore doesn’t mean he’s not ready, “Rhodes said. “He’s had a great summer, he’s working hard, and he’s ready to fill that role.” Expect Hopper to be throwing passes more than the average quarterback in the WIVC, which has been a conference that is known to have schools that prefer to grind it out on the ground.
“We’re one of those teams who like to mix it up and keep the defense on their heels, not to be predictable so to speak,” Rhodes said. “In a conference that likes to run the ball, we’re one of those that do like to throw a little bit too.”
On the defensive side McDonald, even though he was a linebacker last year, will be a defensive linemen. J.J. Whicker, Derek Dawdy, and Taylor Hester will be the linebackers that Rhodes hopes to lead the Spartan resistance.
The season aspiration for North Greene is to win the WIVC South golden trophy that eluded them for the past several seasons.
“We’ve been close, but last year between us and Carrollton, it was a heck of a game and we just it there at the end. That’s what we want to do, get that gold football at North Greene,” Rhodes said.
