Here's an easy way to keep up with the 2010 Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference football season, it's a downloadable week-by-week helmet schedule for all eight member schools. It features each team's helmet and their opponents' helmet, as constructed by J. Mike Blake of the SWakeSports blog.

Note: The file is in an excel spreadsheet. For the best look, print in landscape and on 11x17 paper. Since Garner and East Wake have almost identical helmets, the East Wake helmet has a thin gray line underneath to help distinguish the two.

Documents:

The year-end edition of The Outer Loop Sports Show is available online now at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqDgqUArBy0

This week we're handing out awards: athletes of the year, coach of the year, game of the year and team of the year. I handled the Greater Neuse River Conference honors, which went to Brian Taylor, Michelle Bailey, Harnett Central's football team, the Central-Southeast Raleigh football playoff game and Central football coach Marc Morris. 

We also put the wraps on the area softball season.

Former Harnett Central assistant football coach Patrick Turner has been
named the new head football coach at Harnett Central High School,
N&O preps editor Tim Stevens reports from the press conference.

Turner, 28, is a graduate of Fuquay-Varina High School (playing football
under Phillip Howard there) and coached at Central for two seasons,
serving as an assistant varsity coach and head junior varsity coach
there. He coached the Central JVs in standout quarterback Brian Taylor's
freshman season. 

Taylor is now a senior and one of several returning offensive starters
in the Trojans' lineup for 2010. 

"I'm not going to change things," Turner said. "But I'm going to add
things."

Central was the state runner-up in 2010 in the 4-A classification,
finishing with a 14-1 record. The Trojans return the bulk of their
offensive lineup for the 2010 season, including highly-regarded
quarterback Brian Taylor.

Former Harnett Central assistant football coach Patrick Turner has been named the new head football coach at Harnett Central High School, N&O preps editor Tim Stevens reports from the press conference.

Turner, 28, is a graduate of Fuquay-Varina High School (playing football under Phillip Howard there) and coached at Central for two seasons, serving as an assistant varsity coach and head junior varsity coach there. He coached the Central JVs in standout quarterback Brian Taylor's freshman season. 

Taylor is now a senior and one of several returning offensive starters in the Trojans' lineup for 2010. 

"I'm not going to change things," Turner said. "But I'm going to add things."

Central was the state runner-up in 2010 in the 4-A classification, finishing with a 14-1 record. The Trojans return the bulk of their offensive lineup for the 2010 season, including highly-regarded quarterback Brian Taylor.

Marc Morris resigned from the head coaching football and baseball positions at Harnett Central in April to become the head football coach at the new Cleveland High School in eastern Johnston County. 

Smithfield-Selma has quietly announced on its website that Western Alamance High School assistant coach Frank Lassiter, a Smithfield native, has been named the Spartans' new head football coach. He is a 1991 graduate of SSS and taught history at Western.

Lassiter has 13 years of experience as an assistant coach. He as on the Western staff when the Warriors won the 3-A state championship.

Lassiter replaces former Garner High and N.C. State standout Anthony Barbour, who resigned as head coach of the Spartans earlier this year. SSS was 4-7 last year.

We'll have more on Lassiter's hiring in the days to come.

Smithfield-Selma head football coach Anthony Barbour resigned today, according to SSS athletics director Mike Joyner.

"Anthony has resigned," Joyner said. "He told us he just didn't want to
have the responsibility that comes with being a head coach right now.
He told us he'd be willing to stay on as an assistant, if the new head
coach would like to have him."

Barbour had been rumored as the leading candidate for other
head-coaching jobs but will not pursue those at this point, Joyner
said.

We will have more on this decision later today.

Johnston County will be well-represented on the 2009 N.C. Shrine Bowl squad. Smithfield-Selma's Josh Snead and South Johnston's Dee Williams were both named to the team today.

Snead, a Duke recruit, leads the Triangle area with 1,832 yards rushing in 10 games and 24 offensive touchdowns.  Williams leads the Triangle area in receiving. He is tops in yards receiving (962), receiving touchdowns (17) and receiving yards per game (106.9).

Smithfield-Selma head coach and former Garner standout Anthony Barbour will serve as an assistant coach for the N.C. squad as well. 

One of Barbour's fellow Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference players — Harnett Central's Anthony Johnson, an outside linebacker — was also selected to the squad. For a complete rundown of the N.C. roster, visit http://ncpreps.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1008293

The 73rd Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas will be played Dec. 19 in Spartanburg, S.C.

We had a mix up in this week's editions of The Herald of Johnston County and The Garner-Clayton Record. The varsity football game between West Johnston and Smithfield-Selma will be played Thursday night at 7:30 at SSS's Tucker Stadium.

Clayton's game against Knightdale is also set for Thursday night.

Clayton was on the verge of one of the season's biggest upsets Friday night after taking a 14-10 lead over Wake Forest-Rolesville on a Matt Reid touchdown run in the final minute, but the Cougars roared back, scoring on the game's final play for a 16-14 victory.

Wake Forest-Rolesville (4-0) hadn't given up a point in its first three games before falling behind Clayton (1-3) 7-0 in the first half.

Millbrook 34, Garner 24

Cardinal Gibbons 20, Clayton 7

West Johnston 37, Overhills 13

Triton 28, Smithfield-Selma 26

South Johnston 57, Southern Lee 0

Southeast Raleigh 41, Holly Springs 17

Princeton 19, Hobbton 12

Clinton Union 41, North Johnston 12

Rosewood 13, Wake Christian 12