SportsTalk: Interview with Louisburg High School Head Coach Dontae Lassiter

/by

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th 

As we approach another week of high school football in the Tar-Heel State, two teams, two high schools, two counties side-by-side. Vance County will travel to Louisburg to take on the Warriors who have a respectable winning record so far in 2024.

To start off SportsTalk, Scout Hughes and George Hoyle spoke about the history of teams from Vance County vs. Louisburg High School. These schools have played each other a total of 32 times, based on research from WIZS. That number may seem small compared to some of the other schools that Vance County has played in their existence. George gave a good reason for this, “At least from the mid-70s on, Louisburg was a 1A school up until a few years ago…They were 1A when I was growing up…Vance County never played Louisburg.” It wasn’t common for Vance, a 4A school in the 80s, to play a 1A school like Louisburg. This all-time series starts way back in 1923 when Henderson played Louisburg and won 45-6. Henderson and Louisburg would play again in 1924. After that, a team from Vance County would not play Louisburg until 1993 when the Warriors defeated Southern Vance 34-0. Between Northern and Southern Vance, the Vikings and Raiders played Louisburg a total of 29 times.

The 2024 edition of Vance County vs. Louisburg offers a different set of circumstances. The game has been moved to Thursday as opposed to Friday due to weather conditions that are expected to fall on Friday.

After reminiscing the history between the two squads, Louisburg Head Coach Dontae Lassiter joined SportsTalk to preview the game between the Vipers and the Warriors. Coach Lassiter likes the way his team has performed so far given their winning record. “Our defense has been getting better every game. Offensively we lost a lot last year, lost a lot of our touchdowns to graduating seniors. They’ve improved. I like our youth.”

Going into this week Coach Lassiter has stated that he’s looked at Vance County’s film and has high marks for the Vipers, “They’re extremely athletic. Physical team. Like I said their quarterback is pretty good. He is a tough kid to contain. They’ve got a good running back, he’s a downhill runner. They’ve got a few good receivers that they can toss the ball to. Offensively they’re really good, in all facets. On defense, they’ve got some dudes as well…If we do what we’re supposed to do and play a good game, we may be able to contain them.”

To sum it all up, Coach Lassiter gave us his keys to beating Vance County on Thursday, “We need to play probably I say two halves of football. I don’t think we’ve done that this year. We played only maybe one half of football in every game we played in and that’s kind of evident with some of the scores. Some of the games we lost I think if we could’ve played both halves we would have won those games too. We’ve got to contain their athletes and their explosive plays. On offense, we got to find a way to get the ball in the endzone, and eat a little clock as we do it.”

Louisburg Head Coach Dontae Lassiter has a message to his Warrior fans for Thursday night, “Come out and cheer us on and we’re going to try to get it done.”

Coach, we will see you then!

Vance County travels to Louisburg for Week 6 of the 2024 season on Thursday, September 26th and you can hear all the action on WIZS 1450AM, 100.1FM, and online at wizs.com with pregame starting at 6:50 p.m. and kickoff thereafter at 7:00 p.m. 

CLICK PLAY! 

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Friday Night Football Recap

/by

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th 

Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue review Vance County’s loss to Southern Durham as well as some other action going on in High School Football.

Click Play!

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Travel To Southern Durham Friday

/by

UPDATE – FINAL SCORE 

SOUTHERN DURHAM 26 

VANCE COUNTY 14 

RECAP MONDAY ON SPORTSTALK 

********************** 

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th 

Northern Lakes Conference play starts on Friday as the Vance County Vipers take on the Spartans of Southern Durham. Scout Hughes and George Hoyle had Coach Aaron Elliott join SportsTalk on WIZS to talk all about it.

Vance County defeated Northern Durham last Friday night by a score of 28-0. The game was suspended early in the second quarter. Coach Elliott spoke on how his team improved in last week’s game against the Knights, “We talked all week about being more physical, you know being more aggressive on both sides of the football. Our kids really came out and kind of exposed that and showed it a little bit and we talked about finishing drives on offense which we were able to do. So you know everything looked good.”

Moving onto Southern Durham on Friday, Head Coach Aaron Elliott gives us an insight into what he saw on film from the Spartans. “We watch them on film and kinda try to dissect them the best we could. They’re a good football team. All three years that I’ve been here, playing this game for the most part this has probably been the conference championship game. So our kids know that. Our kids always lock in and they’re more focused this week than they’ve been in any other week because they know what we got to do. They know what it’s going to take. We expect them to come in and we’re playing at their place and they definitely don’t want to lose to us at home. We told our kids all week if we eliminate the explosive plays, they scored on an 84-yard touchdown pass that Wake Forest kind of missed coverage on their part.”

The Vipers are on the road once again for the fourth time in five games this season. This aspect of the 2024 campaign doesn’t seem to phase Vance County. “I think we’re still used to it. Obviously, we were super excited to play at home last week. Before that game even started we had a lot of energy just by being at home. So hopefully, you know, we can get a good crowd at Southern Durham that will help tremendously.”

Coach also mentions that his team is free of injuries which is always a good thing. “Everybody is healthy. We talked about having Camarion Ragland out against Orange and then we let him sit last week just for cautionary reasons. Just to give him another week on his knee and he’s back, fully healthy this week. He had a great week of practice and just having him back is a plus. We are doing pretty good with the injury bug.”

Vance County beat Southern Durham last year 14-12 in Henderson. Southern Durham may have something to prove since the Spartans lost last year. Coach Elliott is fully aware of the situation. “We have a target on our back now. We went 10-0 in the regular season last year. Southern Durham wants us to have a loss this year.”

In order for Vance County to beat Southern Durham, it’s simple to Coach, play Viper Football, “We just got to make less mistakes than Southern Durham does. We got to play our football game offensively and defensively and let him make mistakes and we will come out with the win.”

Coach’s message to fans for Friday night, “Just show up and support us!”

We will Coach! Go Vipers!

Vance County travels to Southern Durham for Week 5 of the 2024 season on Friday, September 20th and you can hear all the action on WIZS 1450AM, 100.1FM, and online at wizs.com with pregame starting at 6:50 p.m. and kickoff thereafter at 7:00 p.m.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vance County Vs. Northern Durham Recap

/by

A look back at Friday night’s game between Vance County and Northern Durham.

(Our coverage for this story is available by clicking play.)

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Ready For Homecoming Against Northern Durham

/by

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th

The Vance County Vipers Football Team will come home for the first time in this 2024 season and it just so happens that it’s homecoming weekend for Vance County. Head Coach Aaron Elliott came on SportsTalk to talk about his team’s performance last Friday against Orange and to preview Northern Durham this Friday.

The Vipers have now won three straight games thanks to the 14-6 win last Friday over Orange. Head Coach Aaron Elliott believes his squad did a good job. “It feels pretty good, You know what we did see against Orange, was some things that we’ve been working on the past couple of weeks. I think we play better as a team as a whole…we need to find our identity on the offensive side of the ball. We’ve been working all week at really finishing drives. We kind of leave the game open at times, especially last week we had two more opportunities to score against Orange and we really left it out there…we are definitely getting better.”

Coach Elliott gave some differences between playing Orange from last year and playing them last Friday night. “This year they had a lot of returners so obviously they were better on both sides of the ball. They got two really good linebackers that put us in situations that we didn’t want to be in so they played well. you know just watching them be able to move and their offensive line you know their lines were good and they all returned. You know they were bigger and stronger.”

According to the research done by those at WIZS, teams from Vance County and Northern Durham High School have played each other 43 times since Northern Durham opened in 1955. The history between the two schools is there. Coach gives us his insight on what he expects from Northern Durham, “I expect them to wanna come out and spoil our homecoming you know things come and play they get a little momentum coming. Especially them right now they are sitting at 0-3. Right now they want to win a football game so they’re going to come in here with nothing to lose you know trying to play good football and that’s what we’ve been telling our kids this week.” In preparation for Northern Durham, Coach Elliott says that this week has been the “four best practices every day that we’ve had so far this year. I’ve been really been impressed with the kids.”

Vance County has been on the road for the first three games of the season, and regardless of this game being homecoming, Coach Elliott is excited for his team to play in front of the home crowd. “Oh man, we’re excited! We got a lot of good things going on. The field is going to look amazing because of some of the things we did with upgrades. In the facilities, we’ve been working for the last few weeks. When you think about that side of it, it’s great and then you think about the kids you know just having family and friends and it being homecoming and just a lot of things going on we’re pretty excited.

With Granville Central canceling their football season for the 2024 campaign, Vance County needed to find a replacement. Well, they have found one. On Saturday, October 5th, Vance County will host the Cavaliers of East Rutherford from Bostic, NC at 2:00pm. Coach expressed how excited he is that the Vipers found a game to complete their schedule. “Oh man, we were super excited! Especially for them to agree to play because they are a really, really, good, respectable 2A team.”

Coach’s message to the fans for Friday night’s homecoming game against Northern Durham: “Just show out. Show up and support and have a good time. Hopefully, we can put on a pretty good show for them.”

Sounds good to us Coach! Go Vipers!

Vance County hosts Northern Durham on Homecoming for Week 4 of the 2024 season on Friday, September 13th and you can hear all the action on WIZS 1450AM, 100.1FM, and online at wizs.com with pregame starting at 6:50 p.m. and kickoff thereafter at 7:00 p.m.

CLICK PLAY!

 

SportsTalk: Vance County vs. Orange Football Game Recap

/by

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th

Doc Ayscue and Scout Hughes recap Vance County’s win this past Friday against Orange.

Click Play!

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Vipers Prepare For Orange

/by

Vance County High School Football Coach Aaron Elliott discusses preparations for this week’s game against Orange.

The Coaches Corner continues with Vance County Football Head Coach Aaron Elliott on SportsTalk with Scout Hughes and George Hoyle on WIZS.

The Vipers pulled out a close one against Rocky Mount last Friday night defeating Rocky Mount on the road, 23-22. Vance County Head Man Aaron Elliott believes that his team did alright. “We were able to squeak out with a win. Wins are hard to come by. You know it’s easy to lose, hard to win. Being able to win and finishing the game was a plus, but overall we still made some mistakes that we have been working on all week as far as basic fundamentals. We are getting those things cleaned up, hopefully, it’ll show on Friday.”

Even early on in the season, Vance County and Coach Elliott knew that Rocky Mount would give Vance County a tougher matchup but that didn’t change the team’s mindset. Coach said that they knew Rocky Mount being a 3A school would make it a tougher game than Warren County was and that Rocky Mount took advantage of Vance and their mistakes early on last Friday night but he’s glad Vance County pulled out the win.

Looking ahead to Orange, Coach says, “We have cleaned some things up.” And even though Vance County beat Orange last year, Coach Elliott says that they are still treating this game just like it’s any other game. Coach also gives an insight as to what Orange might do as far as their offensive scheme, “Going into this game we are expecting them to throw the ball. But based on film, what we’ve been able to see the past two weeks is that they have been really successful running the ball. They have a running back that rushed for almost 140 yards against Chapel Hill last week so we’ve got to be able to have an answer for him…we’ve got to have an answer for whatever they give us.” 

Scout and George also asked for an update about if Vance County had rescheduled a game to take the place of Granville Central, who last month had announced that they were canceling their Varsity and Junior Varsity football seasons for 2024. “We had a conference meeting about it and if we can’t find a team to play then we can use that game as a win by forfeit. But we are still trying to find a team. We are still looking. We’ve reached out to Virginia a little bit. It’s gonna be hard to find another game.” 

As the Vipers move to Friday’s game against Orange, Coach’s message to the fans is clear. “Just make that drive to Hillsborough and support us if they can. I know we’ve been on the road, but we had a good showing at Rocky Mount last Friday, hopefully we can do it again this Friday.” 

Sounds good to us Coach! Go Vipers!

Vance County travels to Orange for Week 3 of the 2024 season Friday, September 6th and you can hear all the action on WIZS 1450AM, 100.1FM, and online at wizs.com with pregame starting at 6:50 p.m. and kickoff thereafter at 7:00 p.m.

CLICK PLAY!

 

Vance County High School

SportsTalk: Friday Night Football Recap

/by

Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue recap Vance County High School’s one point win over Rocky Mount

CLICK PLAY!

 

SportsTalk: Vance County’s Coach Elliott Previews Rocky Mount Game

/by

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th

Scout Hughes and George Hoyle talk with Vance County Head Football Coach Aaron Elliott as they prepare for Rocky Mount on Friday night.

Vance County travels to Rocky Mount for Week 2 of the 2024 season Friday, August 30th and you can hear all the action on WIZS 1450AM, 100.1FM, and online at wizs.com with pregame starting at 6:50 p.m. and kickoff thereafter at 7:00 p.m.

Click Play!

SportsTalk: Vance County vs. Warren County Football Game Recap

/by

SportsTalk on WIZS 12:30 p.m. M-Th

Doc Ayscue and Scout Hughes recap Vance County’s win this past Friday against Warren County.

Click Play!