It has been encouraging to see classmates and fellow students supporting each other through voting in the Player of the Week poll. Parents and faculty have been active, as well, which might account for some interesting disparities in the way nominees have been receiving votes.

For example, King’s Fork freshman running back Deshaun Wethington had just three votes on Facebook and three emails, but led all vote getters on the Suffolk News-Herald website, with 136 as of the deadline Wednesday night.

This week’s winner, Ryan McClain, suggested promoting the Facebook poll in particular to encourage support from students, since most of them are active on the social networking site. McClain had only 30 votes on the website but tallied 179 on Facebook, nearly a hundred more than the closest nominee.

He also enjoyed strong email support from Nansemond-Suffolk Aca-demy’s administration and faculty, who may also have voted on the website or Facebook, but accounted for most of his 27 e-mails. McClain won the poll by nearly 30 votes.

It has been exciting to watch the voting develop on each of our polls each week of the season. Thanks to everyone for participating. And remember that you can vote by email at sports@SuffolkNewsHerald.com, by visiting our Facebook page or our website, www.SuffolkNewsHerald.com.

 

 

Suffolk native Morris Lee Jackson Jr., who now attends Atlee High School in Mechanicsville, had an absolutely sensational game Sept. 14. The senior running back rushed for 290 yards and seven touchdowns. The scores were important too, as opposed to simply piling up the score in a shutout victory. Frequently his running touchdowns, some short and some long, came in response to a Patrick Henry touchdown, but Jackson led Atlee to the 57-35 victory.

Atlee experienced its first loss of the season this past Friday night, 49-48, falling to Douglas S. Freeman High School on a last-second touchdown pass, but Jackson still racked up 228 yards and four more touchdowns.

 

 

King’s Fork head football coach Joe Jones, who played college football at Virginia Tech, mentioned an axiom from Hokies coach Frank Beamer on Thursday that he has applied to help focus the Bulldogs mentally.

“I’m a Hokie,” he said. “And Coach Beamer (is) a guy that I have a lot of admiration for in a lot of things he does, and one of the things he likes to say is, ‘Things are never as good as they seem or as bad as they seem.’ You’ve got to keep an even keel, and you got to stay focused at the task at hand. You’ve got to go in each week as a different week.”

The advice worked, as the Bulldogs registered a 39-7 blowout win against Great Bridge. They will need to follow the advice all over again this week, because Western Branch, fresh off a 50-0 win over Lakeland, is up next.