Robinson wraps up challenging first year as J.F. Webb head coach

Apr. 15—OXFORD — In their first season under new head football coach Lamont Robinson, J.F. Webb experienced a plethora of challenges and ultimately settled for a 1-6 record.

Robinson said that having to put together a program in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic hindered J.F. Webb from establishing cohesion but he also attributed some of the struggles to the overall youth on his team.

"This was a learning experience," Robinson said. "We had some high expectations but we only had six seniors and ended up playing a lot of sophomores and freshmen. A lot of those kids didn't have any meaningful varsity experience but they had the opportunity to get that experience this spring."

Robinson inherited a team that had lost several key contributors to graduation following the 2019 season, which included J.F. Webb's top receiver in Justin Pugh and running back Javontre Shoffner, who totaled 674 yards on the ground during his senior year.

Robinson knew that the younger players were going to get challenged by more battle-tested programs during the shortened campaign but he applauded his team for putting in the necessary effort to get better with every passing week.

"With the limited JV teams in our conference, along with our JV numbers, a lot of these guys were thrown right into the fire," Robinson said. "I think they learned a lot and we had 26 guys that stuck it out. Hopefully our returning players will come back and get a little stronger and faster."

Among the players that Robinson believed positively affected J.F. Webb during the year was junior Logan Bowen, who provided consistency and muscle on both the offensive and defensive line.

Robinson added that juniors Jaheim Heartsfield and Ikeem Hunt along with sophomore Beau Burnette all excelled as skill players on both sides of the ball and anticipates all three of them to show more improvement when they suit up again in the fall.

The leadership that J.F. Webb found inside the locker room initially failed to carry over into Friday nights, as they lost their first six games by an average of 34.5 points. J.F. Webb also failed to tally a single point in three straight losses to Bunn, Roanoke Rapids and South Granville.

J.F. Webb's luck finally turned around in their season finale against Carrboro on April 9. They had to overcome numerous self-inflicted penalties but managed to barely edge Carrboro in overtime by a score of 21-20 for what Robinson considered a cathartic first win for the program.

"We had been preaching about adversity all year," Robinson said. "Unfortunately, we had four touchdowns called back that we definitely could have used. Once we got into overtime, the young men were resilient, stayed the course and we came out with the one point victory."

Robinson could see the confidence his players had after their season-ending win over Carrboro and is confident that the momentum from that night can be carried over into what will be an abbreviated offseason.

"Even before we got off the field after the victory, a lot of the guys came up to me and said they were excited about getting into the weight room so they could be ready for the fall," Robinson said. "We're going to give them a couple of weeks off, then we'll go get started with strength and conditioning."