Kinston participates in scrimmage with Rose, Hunt

Kinston matched up against Wilson Hunt and Greenville Rose Saturday in scrimmages throughout the morning. Photo by William ‘Bud’ Hardy / Neuse News

By Junious Smith III

GREENVILLE — Kinston’s first taste of competition with other teams in 2019 took place Saturday.

The Vikings were part of a scrimmage at Greenville Rose with the Rampants and Wilson Fike, as Opening Night approaches. Kinston travels to Farmville Central on Aug. 23 and defensive coordinator Corey Bryant said the scrimmages helped in gauging where the team is now.

“It was a good measuring stick for us, going up against different teams,” Bryant said. “I thought we had good moments and there were some things that didn’t go our way, but it’s expected when you have that first contact with someone else. We’ll go back to practice and work on some little things — conditioning was one part we needed to improve on and the mindset in competition when it comes to moving to the next play, but overall today was pretty good.”

Kinston’s Jalique Rouse said there’s ability for a strong 2019, but there are some factors in need of a tuneup.

“As a team, we’ve got to get better up front offensively, but we’re still in the learning phase,” Rouse said. “We’re still building and I’m not worried — we’ll have it down.”

Teammate Will London shared similar sentiments during the scrimmages.

“We’ve got a strong group and we need to come together,” London said. “Everyone has to be on the same page.”

Kinston’s A.J. Styles said the team will improve throughout the weekdays in preparation.

“It starts in practice for us,” Styles said. “We have to put the work in there and if we do that, we’ll be alright this season.”