• Head coach: Robby Priest, 10th season.
• Offense: Wing T.
• Defense: 3-4.
• Priest: “We will win if we play great defense and hold on to the football.”
SCHEDULE
Aug. 20 ; Wallace-Rose Hill
Aug. 27 ; South Columbus
Sept. 3 ; at Whiteville
Sept. 10 ; at Laney
Sept. 17 ; West Bladen*
Oct. 1; at Fairmont*
Oct. 8 ; Red Springs*
Oct. 15 ; at St. Pauls*
Oct. 22 ; Midway*
Oct. 29 ; at Clinton*
* Southeastern Athletic Conference games
WHO TO WATCH
• Offense: Donnie Ezzell, Nazire Smith, Javius Brooks.
• Defense: Nazire Smith, Masion Brooks.
• Special teams: Connor Britt.
3 FOR 2021
• Motivation won’t be a problem for the Eagles. Publicly, they say little about playoffs during the season. When the 58-14 win over West Bladen was completed on April 9, East Bladen stood as the only team to play all seven league games in the Three Rivers Conference but was third place and did not qualify for the playoffs — first time ever since the school doors opened in 2001.
• Arguably one of the two toughest nonconference schedules in the league belongs to the Eagles. Clinton has the other, challenging Goldsboro, Wallace-Rose Hill, E.E. Smith and Jacksonville Northside.
• Head coach Robby Priest is a mainstay in the program, having helped lead the school as Cougars when he played, and coached as an assistant several years before succeeding Lenon Fisher. Priest says of the league, “Clinton and St. Pauls are the top teams.”
3 FROM 2020
• East Bladen lost back-to-back home games to St. Pauls and Red Springs at midseason. The Bulldogs were in their first game — eventually going on to the 2-AA state championship — and escaped despite the Eagles owning edges of 67-37 in offensive plays, and 34:44 to 13:16 in time of possession. East Bladen drives ended on downs at the St. Pauls 27- and 31-yard-lines, and with lost fumbles at the St. Pauls 11 and 23. Against the Red Devils, three plays on kickoffs all went against East Bladen and led to touchdowns — a sky kickoff recovered on one hop, a dual possession recovery, and a ricochet to the only red jersey remotely close.
• Playing for the first time with a newly refurbished Victory Bell up for grabs, the annual rivalry with West Bladen went to the Eagles 58-14. They haven’t lost since the first one in 2001 — before anybody playing for either team this year was born.
• Fourteen seniors and 12 juniors are on the 2021 roster; there were 10 seniors that finished last season, including two-time 1,100-yard rusher RaSean McKoy.