R.J. Reynolds High School is the oldest institution in the 4A Central Piedmont Region. In fact, the program predates creation of the 4A Central Piedmont conference. In its’ 101-year history, the RJR Demons have been three-time state champions and 4A Central Piedmont Conference (CPC) Champions. The history has been long and turbulent, and the last few years show that more than anything.

The rollercoaster of the 2023-2024 season began in December of 2022 with the loss of eight-year head coach Pat Crowley. Under his tenure, the team maintained a 27% average win rate, with its most successful run being the 2017-2018 season in which they went 6-6, struggling to live up to their championship days of old.

Shortly after the loss of P. Crowley, 26-year-old Joe Davidyock stepped in to fill the vacant role of head coach. A former offensive coordinator for the UNCG Football Club, quarterback coach for Southeast Guilford High School, receivers coach and JV Offensive Coordinator, and Recruiting Coach for Mallard Creek High School, Davidyock had a lengthy resume for someone so young. With him came a lineup of an all-new coaching staff, consisting of Offensive Coordinator Patrick Taylor, Defensive Coordinator Wayne Griffin, Offensive Line Coach Josh Mickey, Defensive Line Coach Luke Mickey, Special Teams and Defensive Back Secondary Coach Antwan Clemmons, and Receivers Coach Corey Council.

The 2023 football staff change generated a new buzz on campus, breathing new life into the program. The work began with spring training – three months of practice and conditioning out on the RJR baseball diamond, not far from the location of the coming M. Douglas Crater Field. Throughout training, the team went through a number of roster shifts, adding variety to a team largely pieced together under P.. Crowley. Davidyock attributed these changes – not just to skill and strengths but also to the struggles of running a small program.

“With this team, it’s really hard to get the best setup possible when you have what you have. We only had twenty-nine legit varsity kids dressing the last four weeks of season. That’s really hard at our level,” Davidyock said. “All of our kids have to play every snap. They don’t get a break, per se. Moving some of the guys around just gave us a better opportunity. It was more of a fit for them.”

RJR Football simply doesn’t have the same kind of recruiting or outreach as the other high schools in its conference. West Forsyth High School has sixty-nine players on their roster, as does Davie County High School. Ronald W. Reagan High School has forty-four and East Forsyth High School, winner of the 4A CPC, has sixty-one.

For the RJR coaching staff it became a game of moneyball, doing what they could with what they had, even it meant putting players in positions they’d never experienced before. For team management, the question of “who goes where” became crucial in every aspect of the game.

Joe Crowley was moved from tight end, an offensive position largely prioritizing offensive blocking (keeping opposing players from moving forward) and receiving (making catches), to middle linebacker, a defensive position designed to seek and destroy quarterbacks before they get the chance to move the ball. Case Wright, a former linebacker, was moved to safety, a defensive backing position designed to run and cover wide receiver routes (the paths receivers run to make catches), a task that requires much greater agility, speed and stamina than breaking through an offensive line.

Two players, Adrian Jones and Christian Frierson, were moved from their respective roles to nickelback, a cornerback position that covers the far edges of an offensive line. Jones, a former safety, had to quickly get used to the up close man-to-man coverage of a defensive line while Frierson, a former defensive lineman, had to pick up skill in tracking the ball through the air, something he wouldn’t have regularly practiced in a defensive attack position.

These position changes all have potential. Larger players normally meant for linebacking are terrifying at safety, such as Kam Chancellor, a former safety in the NFL, who weighed 235 pounds and stood at 6’3”. A former safety would have the agility to break through an offensive line as a cornerback, while a former defensive line has a complex enough understanding of a defensive line to play the same.

The moneyball tactics were harsh and the changes moved quickly, but the RJR football program seemed to finally be responding to stimulus. That summer, for what feels like the first time in decades, the cogs finally began turning again; air flowing through lungs long stationary.

“I loved summer, I thought we had a great time together, kind of building the brotherhood,” Davidyock said. “Joe Crowley scored his first touchdown, Tommy Elrod had his first start and first touchdown, there’s a lot of firsts that happened this year for a lot of kids, and I think that’s just really awesome to see.”

The firsts were carried through August into the start of the season with a major victory against High Point Central, Demons over Bison 41-12. The energy continued on further, with the team scoring the highest points per game since 2021.

For most, however, the true peak of the season came on September 22nd, 2023, when RJR scored a last-minute field goal against rival Mount Tabor High School, boosting the score to 29-28, giving the Demons their first victory over Tabor since their 2009 Conference Championship season.

“That’s probably one of the highlights of my career as a coach,” Davidyock said. “It’ll be able to go down on one of the better wins.”

The teams, both Varsity and JV, played through the season with a fond togetherness and chemistry, with the JV team having their best record in five years. By the end, the teams were still fired up, excited to be playing under new charge. The heightened buzz, greater hope and improved performance pointed to good signs for the program’s recruitment and roster numbers.

“A lot of people wouldn’t know this but we’ve got fifteen starters coming back next year, eight on offense and seven on defense which is great,” Davidyock said. “That points to guys that have a lot of reps under their belt that are gonna pull us through really tough games because they’ve had the experience in those games already. For others, our JV kids who have experienced a little bit of winning, now have a little taste of it and then they’re going to want to continue that when they finally get their opportunity in the varsity level, I’m excited for those things.”

The playtime and hunger for victory has its benefits on and off the field. Players who “earn it” get it, players who get it win games. The team plans to carry their energy far into the future, getting better day by day. The system for improvement, while surefire, is a challenge. Filled with tedious work, there’s a hope in the coaching offices that the kids and faculty can rise to the occasion and that the small adjustments will make up for the areas the team is lacking.

In the same vein as the players getting new experiences in new positions, coaches too are figuring out their new places amongst the school. The new staff, unlike the old coaches, are not solely employed for football. Nearly every coach, in conjunction with football, also teaches a class or coaches another sport. Coach Mickey teaches PE with Coach Davidyock, who also teaches weightlifting. Coach Griffin and Coach Davidyock are both coaches on the wrestling team. Coach Taylor teaches drafting and maintains a homeroom and Coach Council teaches in the OCS program. All of these extra commitments come together to make a coaching staff that keeps their ear to the ground, both close to one another and close to the student body.

“Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and I think we try to put them in their place to be as strong as they can for us,” Davidyock said. “The relationships they’ve all built with their position groups or even their units or just the entire team as a whole, really set the tone for what to expect for the year.”

This idea of becoming better as a unit and keeping the fun of the sport while building things “the right way” is a cornerstone to Davidyock, especially at RJR. The coaches do their best to enact it with each other on the sidelines, in the hopes that it spreads to players on the field.

“When the guys see us get along then the kids see everything’s alright,” Davidyock says. “Days tend to get along a little bit better and then it makes it a lot easier to come to work every day and keep attacking this mission that we have.”

For now, the Demons mission, “Earn it,” stays clear while the team stays hungry. Davidyock’s plans for the future of RJR are by no means small or compromising. He comes from winning and is prepared to do the same here, no matter what.

“The pressure’s just, ‘hey, let’s just build this thing the right way, let’s get it going in the right direction, and then we’ll take care of it as we move forward,’” Davidyock said. For Davidyock, the pressures are not exterior but interior; a pressure to step up to the challenge and potential that lie ahead for the school, and pressure to hit every step that falls along the path to victory.

“To come here and do a complete rebuild, it’s been a struggle in some ways for me mentally because it’s not something I’ve been accustomed to,” Davidyock said. “It’s not a bad thing, it’s just you know you want to win so bad, I think I hate losing more than I like to win. It just eats at me and then you sit there over the weekend and you stare at your computer like, ‘What the heck am I doing wrong? I’m terrible,’ but then you’ve got to keep your perspective.”

RJR Football is something of great intrigue and convolution. The team plays, year after year, against heavy odds and massive rosters. A New York Jets kind of team swimming in a sea of harsh competition, the team fights to live up to the massive legacy of the 101-year-old institution. Players have died for RJR Football, players have devoted their lives to RJR Football and now, new coaches and recruits aim to pick up the torch lit a century prior. There is hope on the campus, there are players on the field and there are fans there to watch it every Friday night. The nails are being pulled out of the coffin, and life is being breathed into a machine long turned astray. The Demons are rising once again, and this time it seems to be for good.