Keith Boyd: I'm glad to see our guys reap the rewards for their hard work Subject:* Northside-Pinetown football coach Keith Boyd spoke with HighSchoolOT about his team's upcoming state championship Show Transcript Hello everybody, welcome to high school O. T. I'm Kyle morton. I'm joined by keith Boyd, head coach of the north side, Pine Town football team, headed to the state championship game on saturday. Coach boy, thank you for taking time to join me. How are you doing today? Doing great. Thanks for having me. Absolutely. Uh it's been a great run for your guys this year. Just to put it in a historical perspective. You guys went to the state championship game in in 2000, I believe, the year after opening in 1999 this is the first time you've made it back. Um What does it mean to you to be a part of bringing football success back to the school? And what does it mean to the guys to be a part of that? Well, it's a little surreal, I mean it's uh you know, I was lucky to be a part of that 2000 team as a as a assistant and uh it's been a long journey back. We had a really good year in 2000 and four when we made it to the Eastern championship. Uh You know, uh south side had a really good team that year and they went on and played in the state championship. And then I've been the head coach for the last 15 years and it's just been up and up and down process and this group of kids we got in uh put a lot of hard work and time into this thing, especially in the weight room and I'm glad to see them reap the reward for it. I think if you look at kind of your results from last year and then this year, I think the theme is, is kind of some payback games, you lost the Pamlico County in the regular season this year, then you beat them in the playoffs in 2019 in the playoffs, you lost in North Hampton County, you beat them this year in the regional final. What does it take into kind of instill that confidence in your kids to know that just because they beat you the first time around, uh they can flip the script and get the win when it counts this year in the playoffs well and in eight years different from 11 year to the next. Uh it's uh last year we we we had a whole bunch of these guys coming back. We were fairly young, we had good leadership last year also. Uh Excuse me? Mhm sorry about that, but you know, it kind of did kind of get going last year a little bit and uh they realized who you know, like this year we had some games where we lost but didn't play as well as we thought we could. And they took that kind of build on it and uh, it's kind of just kind of gotten kind of kind of gotten rolling in this, uh, it's fun right now. Um, you're, you get to be the head coach of a team where your son is the quarterback, you guys throw a little more than most 18 teams. Um, what does it mean to you to be able to see your son kind of grow into this leadership position and uh, be his head coach and what have you seen from him on the field to help lead your offense this year? Well, he distributes the ball. Well, I'm proud, I'm proud of the opportunity to have the, to be around. Not only all the kids, but my son included. Uh, he does a good job leading. Um, and he's being a junior, you know, he's kind of getting his feet with and you know, hopefully we'll move on next year and grab some, some experience from, from this and uh, but it's, it's been, it's been fun, especially even last year my last year's quarterback was my son also and uh, he graduated and it's been really a fun time from myself and my family. Uh, your son is a quarterback, but I think the, the star of the show on offense, you've got, Um, James Gorham, 23 touchdowns this year, 1,473 rushing yards. Uh, as a senior, have you since kind of a motivation from him to, to make sure he makes this year accounts because it seems like in the short season he's putting up full season type numbers. Yeah, I mean he had a good year last year. Um, but this year has just been phenomenal. Um, it's almost like we, we look at each other as coaches sometimes and say, you know, we, we knew he was quick last year, but it almost seems like he's risen to another level, uh, more aggressive with his, with his running game. He just, he sees it and he, and he, and he, and he goes and uh, he has uh, been up, been a real fun kid to coach, great character and I'm so happy. He's getting the opportunity and accolades for this because he, he's a hard worker. You've got a pretty senior heavy defense. Your, your, your three leaders and tackles for losses are all seniors. Um, a lot of your tackle leaders are seniors, you've got a few sophomores. I see. Um, how big has that been just having experienced guys back there to help stop the other team's offense. It's been good. And again it kind of, it kind of starts last year because all these guys had to be starters as juniors, but we have 12 seniors and all of them find somewhere to start. So all 12 starts. So we have them built in the fabric of the team offense, defense, special teams and they've been been great leaders this year and uh, I'm so happy for, for their opportunity. You're getting a shot, a state championship, It's coming against Murphy very far from you guys. Lay out there on the western half of the state. There are football power, a very traditional, traditionally successful football school. How much do you know about their program and how much do you know about their current team? From what you've got to see on film? And what do you guys kind of expecting to do to try to contain them of it? Well, you know, we've, we've always heard of them because of their programs. So good coach gentry does a heck of a job. You know, we're blessed to have the opportunity to play them and need them. Um, but just watching film on them, you know, they do everything right. I mean they build things into their system where it kind of message message reads up, you think you got this figured out and then they'll throw something matches that you kind of got through that piece of paper away and go back to the drawing board, so to speak and your hat's off to them in their program. Um, and it's just gonna be what we've got to do offensively is do what we do, you know, uh, at this point time during the year you've lined up about, I guess about every front that you possibly could see, so seeing what they do there. Um you know, we we've lined up against it now, you know, the person in the uniform might be a little bit different as far as talent wires of what, you know, they got some big kids up front on both sides of the football and it's gonna be a challenge for us. But uh you know, we're gonna go into it, you know, like any any other game and we're just gonna line up, we're gonna play Northside football and and hopefully in the fourth quarter were around around it with a chance to win. You're playing what I think is pretty certainly the best one a football conference. You get, you get a look at Tarboro, you gotta look at pamlico County, you had a close game against South side this year. How much has has that kind of schedule prepared you for this playoff run? Because you've seen so much talent already in the regular season that it kind of feels like there's not once you see Tarboro in the regular season, there's not much above that you could possibly see in the playoffs. How much does that kind of help prepare you? Uh It does uh Coach Cradock and coach bob and their staff are good friends of mine and I and I always tell them and they get a kick out of it, but when you play Tarboro, it's just a different animal. You know this uh you know, you hope you hope to go into that game and and draw some positives, but the one positive is uh you're lining up against players that hopefully down the road are going to make you better. And the same thing with Pamlico and South side, I'm telling you, this conference for the last four years has been, you know, it's been fun, feel great coaches. Um, but it's brutal every friday night because you know, you know, you're gonna have to go out there and it's gonna be a battle every night and uh, you know, hats off to, we've enjoyed being this conference, we're gonna go out next year and and join another one part of this conference will go with us. But I made a lot of friends in this conference and I'm thankful for the opportunity to meet those guys. Uh it's an unbelievable accomplishment to even make the playoffs and and keep your guys healthy and a year like this with all the adversity and the protocols and the uncertainty over whether we're even gonna be able to play um win or lose on saturday. What do you hope your kids kind of take from the experience that they've had this year with them moving forward into their adult hoods? Well, it's kind of a double, a short uh the, the big experience that, that is has good and bad with it is we've actually had the opportunity with this group of seniors in this football team that almost being two seasons together because going back, since we've been practicing football since june, we did take month of august off because there was just so much uncertainty about whether we would actually get an opportunity to play or not, but from there are county, all counties did it differently, but our county was, it did us did us a favor because we were, we were allowed to still see our kids after school and uh to practice football two, sometimes three days a week, throughout the course of the whole year, we even, we even got together over christmas break, then came in january and we, we stepped it up a notch from there and uh, february and, and then this role we've gotten on to even add another month to our season. You look at it and this is the 11th month of, of high school football and I it's been tiring, but it's been very rewarding, very fun. And again, you know, I'm just, yeah, it's kind of feels, feels weird being in this situation after all these years. Uh, Coach Boyd, thank you so much for your time, congratulations on a great year and best of luck on saturday. Hey, I thank you for your time.