I didn’t ask for the visions. They just came to me.
One minute, I saw the shadows of Mohamed Camara, A.J. Erdely and Jake Wieczorek watching as West Forsyth football took slow steps back to the locker room after a loss to Lambert finished off a 4-6 season.
The next minute, I saw Brett Anderson, Josh Davis and Trevor O’Brien leading the cheers as the Wolverines celebrated another region championship, another dominant regular season, another chance to give Forsyth County the kind of memorable run in the state playoffs it hasn’t had since – well, West, in 2011.
Then the visions came in a rush.
George Walton Academy running back Stanley Williams knifing through Pinecrest Academy’s defense, or Paladins sophomore linebacker Matt Walters helping Pinecrest make stop after stop for an impressive victory against the Bulldogs like last season.
Lambert unable to pull out close victories as it did a year ago, or the Longhorns leaning on their eight returning starters on defense to get back into the playoffs.
On and on they came, visions of how each county high school football team’s season might play out should everything go perfectly right or horribly wrong.
Visions of tipped passes falling into the right hands, penalty-free two-minute drives that find the endzone and untested players maturing from the opening kickoff.
Visions of errant throws becoming interceptions, flags thrown on third-and-2 and unproven newcomers wilting in the pressure of varsity competition.
As we begin our Road to Kickoff countdown to the opening week of high school football, I couldn’t help but wonder what might happen this fall. Little is certain right now. But if we look at the upcoming season through a black and white lens, we can at least start to put together the narrative of Forsyth County football in 2013.
What follows are the best- and worst-case scenarios for the county’s six teams:
Pinecrest Academy
Best: 6-4
Worst: 4-6
Forsyth Central
Best: 7-3
Worst: 1-9
Lambert
Best: 8-2
Worst:2-8
South Forsyth
Best:7-3
Worst: 4-6
North Forsyth
Best: 5-5
Worst:1-9
West Forsyth
Best: 9-1
Worst: 4-6
Brian Paglia is sports editor of the Forsyth County News. He can be reached at 770-205-8982, bpaglia@forsythnews.com or on Twitter at @BrianPaglia.