Mark Sanford is right — you can’t put a price on what it meant for the William Monroe football program to finally end a losing streak that stretched over three seasons.
“Last year, the 10 trips into the locker room at 10 o’clock at night were just misery,” Sanford said. “But the atmosphere in the locker room Friday night, you couldn’t pay a million bucks to get in the door and be able to enjoy that — the kids just had a blast.”
Why wouldn’t the Dragons cut loose? The last time William Monroe won, the seniors were sophomores and the sophomores were in middle school.
Behind a roster forged largely last season in the fire of an 0-10 season and in Monore’s sparkling new weight room, the Dragons ended 23 games of futility with a 49-12 romp over first-year program East Rockingham.
Monroe also had a newly-restored confidence that the squad drew from the win and the Dragons channeled it into an up-tempo, intense practice Monday. In a defensive team session, several solid hits were laid and were instantly met with excited responses from teammates. Even Sanford got in on the action, bantering with linemen and running backs alike and encouraging his charges during end of practice pursuit drills. It’s not that Monroe is changing the process based on a win — anyone that’s seen Sanford coach knows that isn’t happening. It’s that the Dragons have some confirmation that the process is working, and that’s just giving them an added incentive.
“There’s more confidence — now that we know what we’re doing is going to work,” said senior lineman Zach Cummings. “You realize that the hard work pays off.”
Cummings, a solid wrestler during the winter for the Dragons, didn’t come off the field in the first half as Monroe pounded away at East Rockingham. Cummings has become a rock on both sides of the ball for Monroe after stepping into the leadership void last year as a junior.
“He’s got a pretty high motor and he’s a wrestler, so he understands that mentality of getting everything out of your body that he can,” Sanford said. “He pushes himself to the limit as much as anybody.”
Another senior lineman, Ernie Inzana, started on offense and rotated in defensively — the Dragons, who play archrival Madison Friday night, are still a little undermanned and won’t be platooning any time soon — is well aware of the seismic culture shift going on within the confines of the Monroe program.
“We’ve been really confident all through summer workouts,” Inzana said. “We knew we had a lot of work to do and we put in the work. You can’t just mark us off as a ‘W’ on the schedule anymore.”
What might be more critical than getting the win — East Rockingham itself is just getting its legs under it as a first year program for a brand new school — is how the Dragons did it. Logan Forloines led the scoring charge for the Dragons who piled up 42 points to grab a six-touchdown halftime lead. Forloines took the opening kick back for a touchdown and finished with 119 yards rushing.
Mitchell Morris didn’t pile up statistics, but the senior quarterback graded out at 97 percent for his performance. That review is a product of film study where players are graded on how well they carry out an assignment according to the grader — in this case Sanford. Morris’ only mistake? He didn’t carry out one playfake up to Sanford’s exacting standards. Mind you, he carried it out, just not far enough for his head coach.
It’s that attention to detail that’s helping Sanford’s Monroe squad right the ship and create those priceless moments.
