PINETOWN — On a hot, sticky summer morning, the Northside Panthers were up bright and early for a workout and spent some time on the practice field Tuesday in preparation for the 2019 football season.

New faces filled the practice field with about a dozen freshmen among them. However, the Panthers won’t be short on senior leadership this season.

Carter Boyd will take the snaps at starting quarterback this season for Northside, while seniors Matthew Adams and Jon’malik Freeman will try to keep their quarterback upright and anchor the offensive line this season.

“I’m trying to steamroll some people,” Adams said he’s most looking forward to in his senior campaign. “This has been a relatively young group up until now. We’ve always had a lot of young people, but all the young people got some experience now, so we should be winning a lot of games this year.”

Head coach Keith Boyd was excited about having some consistency and familiarity up front.

“Last year on the offensive line, we were doing a lot of catching instead of striking a lick,” Keith Boyd said. “We’ve tried to rectify that in the weight room this year by getting bigger and stronger.”

According to Keith Boyd, there are some things to fix heading into the season, but it all starts with the fundamentals.

“We’re trying to get in shape, trying to speed the pace of practice up,” Boyd said. “We’re heavy on fundamentals, making sure we’re getting routes run precise, alignments are correct, and if anybody’s cloudy on blocking schemes on a few plays, we’re taking it real slow.”

First-year starting quarterback Carter Boyd will have his hands full this season, but he’s confident in his ability to lead the offense.

“I’m excited for a new year, it’s going to be good. If we get everybody out here and stay healthy we could be in for a pretty magical season,” Carter Boyd said. “I’m ready to win some games and have some fun.”

As the Panthers ran plays with shoulder pads and shorts, not many passed balls hit the turf.

“We got some hands this year,” Keith Boyd exclaimed a couple of times during their practice.

Panthers’ senior Tyler Turner will lead the wide receiver corps. Turner, along with the other senior wide receivers Zakkai Wilson and Samuel Holland, were adamant about putting Northside on the map this year on the gridiron.

“Winning is the main goal,” Turner said about this upcoming season. “We want to bring the winning culture back to Northside. We want to put Northside back on the map.”

The Panthers will have opportunities against quality opponents this year. After two scrimmages on Aug. 14 and Aug. 16, they will open the season at home against Perquimans County on Aug, 23, which the Panthers defeated 36-0 last year in the season opener. Outside of their regular conference opponents, the Panthers have dates with North Duplin (Aug. 30), Camden County (Sept. 6) and Manteo (Sept. 20) on the road, and they’ll play host to Washington on Sept. 13.