THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Sunday, August 20, 1995                TAG: 9508170216
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST           PAGE: 19   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: [High School Football section:] Kickoff '95  
SOURCE: BY JEFF ZEIGLER, CORRESPONDENT 
                                             LENGTH: Medium:   58 lines

EDENTON HOLMES WILL HAVE EXPERIENCE BUT LESS POWER 17 ACES' LETTERMEN ARE BACK, BUT THEY ARE SMALL AND NEED NEW LEADERSHIP ON THE PLAYING FIELD.

If experience means anything, the John A. Holmes High School football team should have a successful 1995 season. But the Aces will have to do it without their usual power game.

Head coach Jay Swicegood has 17 lettermen back from last year, including 14 with starting experience. The team, however, will be much smaller than usual and will have to depend on new leaders. Gone are giant Corey Bembry and team leader Carlos Jordan.

``We have six back on offense and eight back on defense,'' Swicegood said. ``But we've lost a lot of good talent and a lot of size.''

Back for the Aces are last year's starting quarterback Clifton Hudson and backup Garfield Gilliam. Other returning starters on offense are David Elliott at tight end, Jamie Forehand at center, William Byrum at guard after offseason knee surgery, Marcus White at tackle and Mitchell Stanley at fullback.

On defense, Gilliam will return at outside corner, Kendrick Armstead at safety, James Walton at guard, David Sutton at defensive end, and Larry Chamblee and Shelton White at linebacker.

Swicegood is hoping his team comes out aggressive.

``We've got to be very quick to the football on defense. With quickness on offense we won't turn the ball over as much,'' he said. ``We will run the option again; it's been good for us. We won't be quite as much of a power football team.''

Edenton has an interesting pre-conference schedule that includes 4A Northeastern (Sept. 15) and two of the better 1A teams in Williamston (Sept. 1) and Roanoke (Sept. 29).

Northeastern Conference coaches have picked Edenton to finish third in the five-team conference. Swicegood feels that Plymouth, which went to the 2A final four last year, is the front-runner in the conference. The Aces lost to Plymouth by five points last year and also had two other tough losses. With those wins, Edenton could have been 9-2.

``We lost 13-12 to Northeastern, and that game set us back a lot. We had a lot of young kids playing, and I don't think they handled that loss as well as they should have,'' Swicegood said. ``We also lost to Williamston 21-16. We beat them everywhere but on the scoreboard.''

Swicegood is depending on other players to take over leadership roles to help get the Aces on the winning end of those close games.

``We've got to get the senior leadership. When the going gets tough, they have to be our leader,'' he said. ``We don't have Carlos Jordan. His leadership will be missed. Larry Chamblee is the closest thing we've got to Carlos Jordan right now.''

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