There will be plenty of new faces who will be taking over starting roles with Northside’s football team this fall.

Of the positions that coach Mike Falleur will have to replace from a team which reached the 7A semifinals a season ago, it may be the offensive line that was the most decimated by graduation. Falleur has made that a priority as the Grizzlies finish spring drills this week.

“We lost a really good senior class, and on offense we lost our quarterback and all, but our biggest hit was in the offensive line, and that’s where we’ve got the most work to do I think is up front,” Falleur said.

“We’ve got new guys like Sam Johnson, a junior, Jordian Green, a junior, Isaias Torres who played some last year and will be a senior. Then you’ve got (junior) Xavier Castillo, who’s never played offensive line before, and is working there.”

Even one of the few returning players up front, senior Jacob Arnold, is learning a new position. After having played center last season, Arnold is being shifted to left tackle.

“Just new faces all the way across the board where we had guys that had been there for two or three years, so that’s our biggest challenge right now,” Falleur said.

Another big challenge on offense will be finding a new quarterback to replace University of Central Arkansas signee Deuce Wise. Returning players Matt Hollenbeck, a senior, and Drey Norwood, a junior who has already received an offer from the University of Arkansas, are vying for the position and both got to play several snaps at times last season.

“We’ve got two good guys. ... Both of them have been doing a great job,” Falleur said. “I’m not ready to say who’s going to be what, I’m going to make a number one guy and a number two guy once spring’s over.”

Falleur is also counting on a number of other experienced players to help take the pressure off whomever he tabs as the starting quarterback.

“On offense, the guys coming back like (seniors) Jackson King (running back/receiver), James Clayton (tight end), Jacob Arnold, Preston Baugh (receiver), Colt Ferguson (receiver), J.T. Thorne (receiver), and we’re looking at J.T. in the secondary, too,” Falleur said. “They’ve done a great job and we’ve expected them to, but those young offensive linemen have got to get better.”

There were also heavy graduation losses on defense, from the line to the secondary. But the Grizzlies do return experience at all positions.

“On the line, (seniors) Khaden Washington and Kaleb McDonald, both played a ton last year, and both were starters,” Falleur said. “Both of those guys have done what we expected.

“Then coach (Rusty) Bush’s inside linebackers, Stetson (Van Matre) and Glenn (Brewer) and (Chase) Needham (all seniors); you can tell they’re a year older and they look comfortable.”

The Grizzlies also return two experienced players at outside linebacker in seniors Conley Bone and J.J. Mills.

“In the secondary, we lost three guys who were starters but we’ve got two back that played a bunch in (seniors) Montay (Parks) and Skyler Mingboupha, so those guys have really done a good job,” Falleur said. “We’ve just got to bring those other ones along.”


The Grizzlies will wrap up spring workouts on Friday with a Red-White intrasquad game at Mayo-Thompson Stadium set to start at 5 p.m. Then after finals next week, Northside will go to Greenwood for a team camp to continue preparation for the season opener, which will be Aug. 30 at Rogers Heritage.

“Obviously you can tell there’s some new faces, because it’s been slower than like it was maybe last year,” Falleur said. “But the attitude’s been great, the effort’s been great, we’ve just got to get better; we’ve just got to keep working every day to get better and taking our steps.

“We’re not playing a game right now, we’re playing Aug. 30, so hopefully between now and then, we’ve made strides, lots of strides.”
