ROCKINGHAM — Senior inside linebacker Joerail White celebrated a unique anniversary on Wednesday as he and the Richmond Senior High football team took the side field for its first full-contact practice of the season.
For White, this week marked one year since he underwent knee surgery to fix a microfracture. It was an injury that, he admits, was painful both physically and mentally as it sidelined him for the entire season.
“At some points, there was doubts going through my head, but I knew I had to overcome it, because it was just a minor setback,” he said. “I just overcame it, worked and did what I had to do to get back.”
White added that the hardest part of the ordeal was watching other players perform like he knew he could. With uncertainty and frustration now a figment of the past, the 6-foot, 220-pound defender is happy to be back in a familiar position.
“I got to do it for my boys, the program and get back to where I want to be and try to make it somewhere,” he said.
White moved around the practice field with little to no limitations and made his presence felt on more than one occasion in the 11-on-11 game simulation. He said he felt “great” and had a bunch of harnessed energy stored.
“I was ready to hit somebody —take my anger out,” White added.
His sideline-to-sideline ability, mixed with a propensity to fill gaps against both the run and pass was enough to impress Raiders coach Bryan Till who had a watchful eye on his standout linebacker.
“It’s good to see that he wasn’t hesitant,” Till said of White.
“That’s huge for a kid who hasn’t played in almost 18 months. It speaks volumes to his character and determination to play football again.”
Till says White looked fine physically and will continue to monitor him throughout the week to be sure there are no setbacks that would cause additional time off.
Besides White, the head coach says he noticed some indecisiveness with some of the other defensive players who didn’t adjust as quickly to the speed of the exhibition portion that included state-certified officials.
“Getting back used to how the game really is and playing to the whistle is really big for our guys,” said Till. “So hopefully, we got a little bit of that in our system today.”
Senior cornerback D’Marcus Harrington, on the other hand, had no problems adjusting to the added pads and game-like scenarios.
Midway through the 11-on-11 session, Harrington perfectly read a dump-off pass in the flat and met the receiver with a vicious blow as he caught the ball.
“It was fun because now you get to see who really wants to play football,” said Harrington. “It’s a lot of stuff you can be — skilled, fast, but you got to be physical.”
Having played the pass the entire summer, Harrington did admit that he’ll have to exercise a bit more patience in future practices, especially when it comes to reacting to the run.
He added that overall, the group will need to improve its effort level ahead of Thursday night’s open practice at Raiders Stadium.
“I felt like it wasn’t enough energy today for it to be the first day of hitting,” said Harrington. “We going to be in the stadium tomorrow, so we got to bring energy.”
The evening tune-up is set for 7:00 p.m.
