Details concern Cougar coach

The season opener has finally drawn near for Northview.

And not a minute too soon for Wayne White, who makes his head coaching debut tonight when the Cougars hit the road to face R.E. Lee at Montgomery’s Cramton Bowl.

“I am starting to lose some sleep,” said White, speaking in a Tuesday afternoon interview. “I was doing pretty good.”

Those sleep-deprived moments are a result of White’s mind wandering about every aspect of the game.

“I am worrying about the total package, not just the offense and defense, but the special teams,” White said. “My biggest concern is putting it all together in a live situation.”

The Cougars worked in some of their offensive and defensive stuff during a jamboree game last Thursday against Carroll, but there was still plenty of work not done.

Much of that work has been simulated in practice, but White knows it’s not the same as doing it under the lights with the clock running and a thousand people in the stands.

“I would have liked to have done the kicking game live (in a game), so I am a little worried about that,” White said. “We haven’t done it live. We didn’t do it in the spring game, either.”

A year ago, the kicking game proved big in the Cougars’ season-opening 7-6 win against Lee. Dustin Holland hit an extra point to put Northview ahead with 1:08 left then the Cougars blocked a last-second field goal try by Lee. The Generals had their kicker and holder line up too close to the line of scrimmage, helping aid the kick to be blocked.

As a new head coach, White, in the last month or so, has had to deal with a lot of little details — from administrative items to delegation of duties among managers and coaches.

Tonight, most of that is put on the back burner.

“I am not worrying any more about any of that stuff,” White said. “It’s time to get this show on the road. Now we have to focus on what we can do and how we play (against Lee).”

White said he was pleased with the Cougars’ performance in last week’s jamboree against Carroll. The offense scored three times — touchdown runs by Derrick Thomas and Austin Hill and a touchdown pass from B.J. Chitty touchdown pass to Marquez White — no relation to coach White. The defense, meanwhile, held Carroll’s offense in check most of the night.

“We executed well on offense and put up some scores and that was a good sign,” White said. “We scored a little too quickly for my liking, but we will take what we can get, that’s for sure.

“Defensively, after the first drive we played hard and played well. After the first drive, we started making adjustments to what they were doing and made plays.

“Overall, I was pleased with the effort. We made some mistakes and we knew we would — that is why we play jamborees — to find problems and work on them (the next week).”

White indicated there were no real surprises, good or bad. He was pleased with some of the offensive skill players stepping up for plays, including receivers Gaige Garrett and White along with Thomas at running back. Thomas had 44 yards rushing on just five carries, but also had a long touchdown run called back on a penalty.

“We know the offense will have to tote the load for us and not just B.J.,” White said. “We had that the other night. Other players made plays.”

White said he didn’t know a lot about R.E. Lee other than what they did in the past and the reputation of head coach Larry Ware, who is in his second year at the Montgomery school. A year ago, the Generals finished 2-8.

“We are going in blind with no game film on them, so you can’t really break them down and pick up tendencies,” White said.

While it would be nice to know more about Lee, White said his team’s focus is more on itself.

“It is like I told the kids, we can’t control what Lee does. What we can control is ourselves, so we have concentrated on ourselves. If we execute on offense and make the right alignments on defense and we take care of our business then I feel like we have a chance.”