Walt and Billy

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http://www.news-record.com/content/2009/08/27/article/ragsdale_linebackers_have_a_storied_history

Ragsdale linebackers have a storied history

Thursday, August 27, 2009
By Tom Keller
Staff Writer

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Related Links Article: 2009 high school football schedules and results (Nov. 9) JAMESTOWN — Ragsdale linebackers Walt Sparks and Billy Stone have spent enough time together to qualify for Siamese-twin status.

Their first memory of each other is as opponents at a Mustang baseball game, where the then-8-year-old Sparks tripled off the fence against Stone. (Both remember it, though Stone recalls more vividly how his team still won.)

They've been teammates ever since; not only has Sparks essentially been Stone's personal catcher, they've been playing next to each other as linebackers for almost a decade, including this, their third and final season starting for Ragsdale. They are the unquestioned anchors of a defense that gets its biggest test of the season Friday against Dudley.

"There's not really much that catches us off guard any more," said Sparks, who led the Tigers with seven tackles in last week's 39-7 win over Southern Guilford.

Over the last two seasons, Sparks and Stone have combined for almost 400 tackles, more than 25 percent of Ragsdale's team total.

Stone, a 5-foot-10, 190-pound ball hawk in the middle, and Sparks, a 6-foot-3, 200-pound tactician on the outside, both made the leap to varsity as sophomores, and their heads spun together as they tried to keep up with the faster-paced game. Defensive coordinator Johnny Boykin helped slow it down by turning them into film hounds, showing how the principles they were struggling with in Ragsdale's 4-3 system were being applied in the NFL and even in the video games they had played so mindlessly before.

"I realized we were playing the same game," Sparks said. "Normally, I had just seen a bunch of yellow dots."

Now, their pre-snap ritual is like a poker player trying to smoke out a tell. A receiver in motion, a slight pigeon toe in an offensive lineman's feet — it's all a clue as to where the play is going. They bark what they see to each other, and countless times a game, that means an opposing play gets blown up before it gets off the ground.

"Makes me feel smart," Sparks said.

Stone has led the Tigers in tackles each of the last two seasons, including 127 last year — more than nine a game. But so much of their success depends on each other, their numbers might as well be added together.

"He's the thinker, I'm the reactor," Stone said. "I get to look good, but I know it's because of him. I still like to go on instincts, but now I know how to use my instincts better."

"It's a unique group. They're such good friends," head coach Tommy Norwood said. "They have great chemistry, great leadership, and their teammates respect them because they work so hard."

There isn't much that would mean more to this Ragsdale senior class than to knock off Dudley, the only team to beat it last season. Guilford County's two best teams were both 13-0 when they met in the 3-AA state quarterfinals, with Dudley winning 26-10 on the way to the state championship. Though the Panthers' 26 points were a playoff-low for them, they were the most the Tigers had surrendered all season and more than they had given up in their previous five games combined.

Many of the returning Tigers were in a weight-training class this spring when a coach told them Dudley had been added to the schedule.

"We looked at each other and just started hitting the weights like crazy," Stone said. "We didn't even say a word. We knew what was up."

Contact Tom Keller at 373-7034 or tom.keller@news-record.com