THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 TAG: 9607240403
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: BY JEFF ZEIGLER, CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE: AHOSKIE LENGTH: 38 lines
Brian Morings, a defensive coordinator for the Hertford County High School football program in 1995, has been named the team's head coach.
Morings replaces Carl Brock, who took his own life earlier this month.
Morings is a graduate of the former Ahoskie High School and played football for Elizabeth City State University until his graduation in 1982. He is a drug education specialist at the high school.
With practice only a week away, Morings said his first job is to get Hertford County's 23 returning players over the shock of Brock's death.
``I think most of them are sad with what happened, but they are anxious to get started,'' Morings said. ``We've been doing our weight training and encouraging the kids to try to work through this. They were sad and felt a loss, but he (Brock) would have wanted us to keep working.''
When the Bears take the field for practice on Aug. 1, they will be behind a coach who is familiar with the team's winning tradition.
``As a coach I'm being charged with carrying the tradition on,'' he said.
Ahoskie won state championships in 1961, 1966 and 1970, and lost title games in 1965, 1986 and 1988. In 1994 the Bears had one of their strongest squads ever at 9-2, but fell in the first round of the 3A playoffs. In 1995, Hertford County failed to reach one of the Big Eight Conference's three playoff spots. Morings said he will work on one of the team's weaknesses - passing.
``The style will change a little bit. We will be more balanced between the run and the pass,'' Morings said. ``We intend to go at least 50-50 running and passing. This will be something new - we do intend to throw the football and use a lot of multiple sets.''
``A realistic goal for us is to go into each game that we play competitively and at the end of the game have an opportunity to win it,'' he added.
Hertford County opens the season at Northampton East on Aug. 30. by CNB