Football 2026 Football Western Foothills 4A/5A- Preseason Rankings
- Thread starter Flyrod
- Start date
Glass has the numbers. He will prob have zero kids going both ways. Well over 100 kids in the program at hickory. I think Coach Glass gets it done again. Hickory wins it 4th consecutive conference title
1.Hickory
2. East Lincoln
3. Maiden
4. West Iredell
5. Newton
1.Hickory
2. East Lincoln
3. Maiden
4. West Iredell
5. Newton
Hickory will win the conference they have a ton of returning talent at the skill positions. RB Jaheem Jenkins, WR Ronan Nieland, WR Rocket Brice, WR Zay McCathern, even a basketball star is playing football this season. Coach Glass and his staff do an amazing job on top of that.1.) Hickory
2.) East Lincoln
3.) West Iredell
4.) Maiden
5.) Newton-Conover
West Iredell over Maiden don’t sound right. It’s Maiden they are always ok even when they lose a lot of tallent
Newton, dang no love there or no fans on page.
North Lincoln got a vote. If they really have Agee back and enough to make holes for em they may be in on some games and respectable.
Newton, dang no love there or no fans on page.
North Lincoln got a vote. If they really have Agee back and enough to make holes for em they may be in on some games and respectable.
I understand your stance on Maiden, but they were (9-5) last season and (5-3) with talent. I believe they will be decent, but you can easily flip that West Iredell & Maiden prediction, but I believe West will surprise a lot of us and finish 3rd.
I believe Hickory is the program that will always be okay even when losing talent because they produce so much talent, Hickory is the last program in Catawba County to win a state title and did it in an undefeated fashion, (16-0) even in 1996 they went (16-0)
2023 State Champions
they loss 23 seniors from that team came back went (14-1) and (7-0) in the conference, loss in the regional finals to West Charlotte, last season went (12-2) and (8-0) in the conference loss in the regional finals to Crest, it seems they are clearly the program that will be okay.
Hickory has my vote across the board, just common sense. I remember the 96' team pretty good. Probably one of the few teams around WNC that woulda got em' was Crest and maybe a couple teams in general out East that woulda been 4A but that was it.I understand your stance on Maiden, but they were (9-5) last season and (5-3) with talent. I believe they will be decent, but you can easily flip that West Iredell & Maiden prediction, but I believe West will surprise a lot of us and finish 3rd.
I believe Hickory is the program that will always be okay even when losing talent because they produce so much talent, Hickory is the last program in Catawba County to win a state title and did it in an undefeated fashion, (16-0) even in 1996 they went (16-0)
2023 State Champions
I believe West has turned some things around, I watched them beat the brakes off of East Burke last year but of course that wasn't saying much. EB may be decent this year long as they can protect what I believe to be a solid soph QB and use the offense right. New coach too, lost some tallent to what was already struggling but new coach new look, we'll see.
Agee and a North Lincoln tricked up ground and pound offense if they got that smoothed over. Defense will be a big deciding factor for them.
Dont know much bout Newton and Foard and just hearsay with BH that they will struggle for a while as it seemed the tallent pool walked away with graduates.
I'm glad to see another HHS poster on the boards. Welcome and Go Red Tornadoes!
1.) Hickory
2.) East Lincoln
3.) West Iredell
4.) Maiden
5.) Newton-Conover
“Let's Go!!!!! 2x ”
———————————————————-
If titles are counted from the time that Hickory was a member of the WNCHSAA (Western North Carolina High School Activities Association), there would be 2 more championships in 1959 and 1966.
Side Note: From the time the WNCHSAA was founded in 1929 until it merged with the NCHSAA in 1977, Hickory was Co-champs 4 other times (3 times in the early years because of no championship game, and the last shared title due to a tie).
Postscript: Many fans consider WNCHSAA titles to be equivalent to NCHSAA titles, because of the number of former WNCHSAA teams that have gone on to win NCHSAA titles after the two associations merged.
2x ”———————————————————-
If titles are counted from the time that Hickory was a member of the WNCHSAA (Western North Carolina High School Activities Association), there would be 2 more championships in 1959 and 1966.
Side Note: From the time the WNCHSAA was founded in 1929 until it merged with the NCHSAA in 1977, Hickory was Co-champs 4 other times (3 times in the early years because of no championship game, and the last shared title due to a tie).
Postscript: Many fans consider WNCHSAA titles to be equivalent to NCHSAA titles, because of the number of former WNCHSAA teams that have gone on to win NCHSAA titles after the two associations merged.
Very True, I was only counting the NCHSAA titles, but that is a great point pertaining to WNCHSAA & NCHSAA being equivalent to each other.“Let's Go!!!!!
———————————————————-
If titles are counted from the time that Hickory was a member of the WNCHSAA (Western North Carolina High School Activities Association), there would be 2 more championships in 1959 and 1966.
Side Note: From the time the WNCHSAA was founded in 1929 until it merged with the NCHSAA in 1977, Hickory was Co-champs 4 other times (3 times in the early years because of no championship game, and the last shared title due to a tie).
Postscript: Many fans consider WNCHSAA titles to be equivalent to NCHSAA titles, because of the number of former WNCHSAA teams that have gone on to win NCHSAA titles after the two associations merged.
Saw the 1966 Red Tornadoes play four times, two were in playoff games. Can recall their uniforms, white for home and a blood red jersey for away games; kind of like Penn State in being so plain…They were big, fast and knew how to block and tackle. Very well schooled in the fundamentals.
Yes Sir, I was a kid, but I heard they were an amazing group, majority of the games the starters didn't even play the in second half they had one of the most dominant seasons in North Carolina high school football history. In five postseason games that season, Hickory outscored opponents 212-34, a margin that fueled debate about whether it was the best high school football team in North Carolina history and actually won the state championship game 42-0 against Ragsdale
Very impressiveYes Sir, I was a kid, but I heard they were an amazing group, majority of the games the starters didn't even play the in second half they had one of the most dominant seasons in North Carolina high school football history. In five postseason games that season, Hickory outscored opponents 212-34, a margin that fueled debate about whether it was the best high school football team in North Carolina history and actually won the state championship game 42-0 against Ragsdale
Lincolnton was recalling the 12-0 1966 HHS team. The 1996 was a very dominant squad and should be considered one of the top championship teams of all time. Both of these squads had great offensive and defensive teams while playing. Although they played in different eras they both dominated. HHS defeated an excellent Statesville team 41-7 to win the 1966 WNCHSAA Championship before 8,000 fans at College Field on Lenoir Rhyne's campus.Yes Sir, I was a kid, but I heard they were an amazing group, majority of the games the starters didn't even play the in second half they had one of the most dominant seasons in North Carolina high school football history. In five postseason games that season, Hickory outscored opponents 212-34, a margin that fueled debate about whether it was the best high school football team in North Carolina history and actually won the state championship game 42-0 against Ragsdale
Ok, I was wondering if the team MGore was talking about was 1996 or if both them and 1966 squad played Ragsdale in the final and beat them badly. I put that 1996 team as the best/most dominant NC high school team I have personally watched on the field. They rolled into Canton and “knew” how good they were. Blanked us 30-0 and then went to Brevard the next week and I remember it being a big deal that Brevard actually put up 18 points on them.
They were chanting the “Whose house? Red’s house! “ the moment they got off the bus.
That chant is still a staple chant by our teams and fans!
It was definitely an appropriate chant for that team. They owned whatever stadium they stepped into.
Pisgah ran into Hickory several times through out the 90s in several sports but don’t recall us running into each other much since.
Pisgah ran into Hickory several times through out the 90s in several sports but don’t recall us running into each other much since.
Not gonna lie this season really has me worried with the loss of Swett and basically our core offense and defense. QB coming up had a solid JV year but is a completely different QB, McClure is gonna have to carry the load by a mile, would be happy going .500 this year.
I was told the loss to Newton last year was a spark to heat the seat up. Losing to us didn't sit well and Newton also was a step to far
Looking at there schedule you probably have 4-6 wins tops. They definitely have a tough schedule.
Honestly I wouldn’t mind seeing Helms the basketball coach takeover, you see what he did to the basketball program. He was the assistant OC last year to his father and we had the #1 offense in 4A yardage wise. Heard he wants the job too.
Tell me about it, he’s had so much talent come through in his 6 year reign with only 1 playoff win.
Also really eager to see how this year goes considering both Helms aren’t coaching this year even after the success they have had.
Y'all taking a risk this year two guys as Co offensive coordinators with little experience
We stunk the year before so I didn’t keep up with it as much, but heard a lot about your team before we played you last year and the skill guys lived up to the hype.
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