The Pam Pack lost some playmakers to graduation last season, but they look to improve on the past two seasons in which the team averaged fifth (2017) and seventh (2018) in points per game in school history.

Pam Pack offensive coordinator Perry Owens credited most of the improvements to the weight room and head coach Jon Blank, but other factors played a part.

The weight room has been a huge part of the rebuild that took over Washington High School. According to Owens, in three major lifts — bench press, squat and power cleans — the Pam Pack raised its max weight a combined 22,000-pounds.

“Coach Blank assembled an offensive staff that worked really well, but we had to learn basics and how to get back to the basics. We had to learn how to throw the football. Our first six months here was all focused on (the players) learning fundamentals,” Owens said. “The season before I got here, they averaged seven points per game. Washington as a whole was in the bottom 10 in the state of North Carolina in points for 2-A.”

Owens said the offense was multiple upon his arrival. They lined up in single-back and shotgun amongst a multiple set of looks, but triple-option was the back-up plan.

“We saw some flashes, our run game started to take off a little bit,” Owens said. “At halftime of the Northside game, we’re down about 11 points in 2017, and I pulled triple-option out of the bag. After that, the light bulb went off and our numbers went through the roof.”

It was after that game the Pam Pack went on to score the fifth-highest points per game total in school history.

In 2017, Washington broke school records for points in a single conference game with 67 points against South Lenoir, and 702 yards of total offense in that game, which was also a school record. Then, they broke the record for rushing yards in a single game with 605 against North Lenoir.

In 2017, the Pam Pack totaled just over 500 yards passing. In 2018, that number jumped to 1,200 yards through the air, according to Owens. Junior quarterback Antwone Godley had 14 passing touchdowns and 329 yards rushing with four touchdowns on the ground last season.

The Pam Pack scored the seventh-highest points per game in school history in 10 games, because their game against Bertie was cancelled due to weather.

“I feel like if we would’ve had that non-conference game against Bertie, we would’ve broke that 28-29 points per game plateau,” Owens said. “But, that also doesn’t override the fact we had 14 penalties last year cost us 14 touchdowns.”

With the loss of a few playmakers last year by way of graduation, the goal for the offense remains the same.

“The improvement has been statistically outstanding,” Owens said. “But, our goal as an offense is to continually get better and involved. So for us this year, you’re going to see us taking less of a step with the deep play, but you’ll see our quarterbacks make the reads and make intelligent decisions with the ball. There are three things we base our offense on: Taking care of the ball, taking care of your brother and good things will happen.”