North Johnston hopes experience will lead to bounce-back season By RANDY CAPPS
KENLY — The 2020 season, which was pushed back to this spring because of COVID, was a challenging one for everyone. At the top of that list is North Johnston, which struggled to find a rhythm, dropping all seven of its contests. There’s nowhere to go but up for the Panthers under third-year coach Michael Barnett, who’s looking forward to a more normal football season this time around.
22 | [ JOHNSTON NOW ]
“I’m so excited for it,” he said. “We get to have summer workouts, a 10-game season for the kids. I’m ready.” Another reason for optimism is the fact that the Panthers welcome back 15 starters for the fall campaign. “It helps us from an experience standpoint,” Barnett said, “We were mostly freshmen and sophomores in the spring.” Quarterback Carter Aycock, receiver Isiah Greene and “the Tyler twins” on the offensive line, Tyler Boswell and Tyler Dominquez, will provide
North Johnston quarterback Carter Aycock gets ready to make a throw. Photo courtesy of We Journal Great Sports.
leadership for the offense, while Cooper Gibson, who started at middle linebacker as a freshman, fellow linebackers Anthony Muniz and Steven
Saunders and defensive end Ashton Woodall will headline the defense, Of course, in the 2A ranks, many of those players will
