Experienced Centreville Football Team Looks to Top 2010 Playoff Run

The honeymoon is over.

The 2011 football team has a lot to live up to based on its 9-3 season a year ago.

First-year head coach Chris Haddock turned around a Wildcats program that had combined for only four wins during the previous two seasons. He used a conservative attack led by running back Manny Smith and defensive end/tight end Ken Ekanem to jump out to an 8-0 record, highlighted by a dramatic double-overtime win over rival Chantilly.

But the team stumbled to the finish line, going just 1-3 to end the season, with the one win being a 24-6 first-round playoff win over Fairfax.  

As the Wildcats walked off the field following a 30-16 home loss to the Chargers in the regional semifinals, the players were greeted by a throng of fans grateful to see some hope return to a team that had been dominant just a decade before (Centreville won a state title 11 years ago to cap a string of deep playoff runs in the late 1990s.). Was this the beginning of a new era of dominance for the football team?

The optimism came from the knowledge that the 2011 squad would be filled with players who had tasted success, but yearned for more.

“Everybody looked at last year as a success,” Haddock said in early August, in just the third day of summer practice. “Getting back into the second round of the playoffs, everybody was able to look at the bigger picture and see that we had a pretty successful season.”

While the Wildcats will need to replace starting quarterback Chance Roman, who had some strong games when he was forced to do more than just hand the ball to workhorse Smith, they have seniors Chase Walter, Connor Coward, Matt Vlissides, Travis Whitney, Bret Fite, Mark Behne, and Zach Sikora back to complement Smith and Ekanem. Mitch Ferrick will likely be the quarterback in the Wing-T offense.

Centreville fattened up on some weaker teams early in 2010 and struggled in late season and Robinson. Haddock said he organized this year’s schedule so that the Wildcats would have some early tests and not be surprised by what has historically been the region’s toughest district, the Concorde.

One of the biggest games on the schedule will be the Sept. 2 opener (7:30 p.m.) at , the defending Northern Region champions, who will be strong even without player of the year Michael Nebrich, who is now contending for the starting quarterback job at the University of Connecticut. Centreville will face , , , and before hitting the heart of the Concorde schedule with , and to conclude the year. Out of the 10 games, eight opponents made the Northern Region playoffs last season in Division 6 or 5. As a result, Haddock and Smith would be OK if the Wildcats were not 8-0 through the first part of the schedule.

“I think we need to play the best opponents that we can so we find out where we are,” Haddock said. “Eight-and-0 this year would be a pretty significant 8-0.”

“We don’t really care about the schedule. We’ll play whoever you want, we’ll get it done,” a confident Smith said. “We know the schedule is harder than last year, but we’re just accepting a challenge.  … You think you can beat us? Just play us, we’ll see what happens.”

Smith, who gained over 1300 rushing yards as a junior, said he is even more prepared for this season. Thanks to an offseason conditioning program led by former Chantilly star and NFL player Bhawoh Jue, Smith said he lost 15 pounds (down from 223) and expects to be more explosive later in games and later in the season.

“I just ran a lot, and cut (the weight) right off,” Smith said, noting that he progressed from being able to run only 7 laps of the Centreville track in 20 minutes to almost 11 by the end of the summer thanks to Jue’s help.

Jue, who has been back in Northern Virginia full time since his last NFL season four years ago, said he expects his workouts to payoff late in games for Centreville.

“I wanted them to have the mentality that they can’t be broken. I want them to be able to stand up in the fourth quarter, and they’re down by two touchdowns, and they’ve got to have this drive. I can’t say for sure we’re going to see it, but that’s where we’re going with it,” he said. “I forced them to do more. I wanted them to realize that regardless of what happens, you just continue to move. My fingers are crossed that I got that across to them.”

Interestingly, Haddock, who is in just his second year at Centreville, is now one of the more senior coaches in the district. Robinson, Westfield and Oakton, all playoff teams, changed coaches in 2011. While Haddock said he doesn’t think the changes will impact the quality of those historically strong programs, the extra year he has had with his own players will make a difference.

“We’ll be able to add a little more meat to both sides of the ball,” he said, admitting that his team may have worn down by November in 2010. “We’re going to be able to do a lot more subtleties in everything we do. We’re going to expand both offensively and defensively.”

Smith said he has noticed a difference in the team’s conditioning, too.

“With the new coaching we didn’t spend enough time in the weight room (last year). We were on the field. Some of us just weren’t as strong as we should have been,” he said. “We’ve got a big athletic offensive line. We’re just bigger, stronger, faster and we have people that work hard.”

Ekanem handles college attention

Ekanem, the 6-3, 240-pound defensive end who had 17 sacks last year, In spite of the attention, he said he is focused first on this season before thinking about his future. He doesn’t expect to announce his college choice until the deadline in early 2012. Among the final nine schools that have offered scholarships: Notre Dame, Oregon, Michigan State, Virginia and Virginia Tech.

Jue said: “Ken is in another hemisphere right now – if there’s anyone in this region that can block him right now, I’d shake his hand.”