North Carolina Football Association (NCFA)

Gastonia:
One of the big questions in the league last year was what happened to Gastonia.  They went from being the 3rd best team in the league to the 3rd worst team in the league and it seemed to happen for no reason.  They opened at Salisbury, then at Burlington and found themselves at 0-2, but that wasn't unexpected.  What wasn't expected was their complete collapse the second half of the season.  Sitting 3-3 at the mid point they would only win one more game. Jaques Black started to feel some pressure about his team, especially his offense after losing 3-2 at home against Charlotte in week 8, but he stuck with his lineup right up to the end of the season.  Over the offseason he has hinted at potential changes in the works, but he still feels the team is as good or better then they were in the 07 season.  

A lot of the blame for the team fell on quarterback Darrell Sparks.  But when you look at his numbers from last season it is hard to see how the blame can fall on his shoulders.  He completed over 58% of his passes, threw for over 2,600yds and had 13 touchdowns to only 5 interceptions.  Second year running back James Carter also seemed to perform well gaining over 500yds with 5TDs and averaging 3.2yds a carry.  Not great numbers but for such a young player on a squad that so emphasizes the pass they are pretty good.  

The real problems seem to fall on the Gastonia defense.  They ranked 11th against the pass and 9th against the run in 07.  When you look at their roster there certainly aren't any players that jump out at you and you realize that this defense is very average.  There are no impact players on this defense and perhaps this give us some clue as to the direction Black will be taking at the draft.  

This makes it likely that Gastonia will be looking at Reginald Oneill, Joe Wirth, or David Balentine the top defensive prospects in the draft.  But it is hard to get a sense of what kind of changes Black is thinking of for Gastonia and he could be thinking of trades and the supplemental draft for fixing the problems he sees, while looking to the rookie draft as a way to build a base for the future.  If that's the case then he may go after a linebacker or an all arounder like Matthew Bates
who could someday star on either side of the ball.  

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