SNOW HILL — He almost played football at Wilson Beddingfield, but Ronshon Bullock is back for Greene Central a third year.
Bullock will open his senior season Friday against the school he passed up for the Rams.
“I love football,” he said. “I just tried out my eighth grade year and then came on to high school. I started learning from the seniors. I learned from them, started looking at them and working out with them.”
Bullock — a 6-foot, 205-pound senior — will help out on both sides of the ball this season as a running back and a defensive lineman. In middle school, he only played as a lineman and moved to running back his sophomore year.
“I like running back the most because you don’t have to do that much blocking,” said Bullock with a smile.
His dream is to play football for N.C. State. As a young man interested in math, it appears to be a good match.
When he’s not on the gridiron in the fall, Bullock plays baseball as a centerfielder during the spring. But as the Rams prepare to open their football season, Bullock is focused on winning in his senior year.
“We’ve got to do better than what we did last year,” he said of the team that finished 1-9 last season without any conference wins. “I like (the new conference) because we have different teams we play, and we play our old coach.”
Ken Grantham coached five years at Greene Central before taking the reins at South Lenoir this year. The two teams face off on Nov. 1.
So far, Bullock is impressed with the teachings of first-year Rams coach Allen Wooten.
“I like him, he’s a really good coach,” Bullock said. “I like the new plays he gave us. He set up a while new offense and he teaches us more stuff than we did last year.”
Fresh plays are nice, but Bullock said the team must stay conditioned and focused to start winning this year. He said his overall goals this season are to “win more than five games and win the conference championship,” with himself considered a team leader.
“I run the ball, so I’ve got to get yards for my teams and touchdowns,” he said. “For linebacker, I have to get tackles.”
He plans to play big for his last year with the Rams.
“We’re all like brothers,” Bullock said. “We call ourselves ‘brothers in blue.’ I’m going to just go all out and try to do it for my last year.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 and Jessika.Morgan@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan