It will be another year before the UNC-Pembroke football team hits the field for the first time in more than a half-century, but the excitement has already started to build.

When I first heard that UNCP was making the move toward bringing back its football program, I was rather skeptical. I wasn’t sure just how restoring football at the school would fly in Robeson County and the surrounding area after being without it so long.

Mind you, I have always been impressed by what the school offers in NCAA Division II athletics, and I’m proud to say that I have a large number of friends and close acquaintances who distinguished themselves as Brave athletes.

Still, realizing the enormity of sustaining a football program at any level, I still wasn’t sure about it … even after the school’s student body voted overwhelmingly to bring it back.

But my views have changed with the hiring of head coach Pete Shinnick and the work of the entire UNCP athletic department and school administration.

Since being hired in January, Shinnick has come in with a lot of knowledge and enthusiasm and he has done a good job in bringing in some quality assistants. He has already hired four of the six assistants he plans to have. The program should be more than ready to go when it opens the 2007 season.

Shinnick, a former lineman at the University of Colorado and the son of former Baltimore Colt linebacker great Don Shinnick, came to Pembroke after a strong head-coaching stint at Auzusa Pacific in California. He had previously served on the coaching staffs at Clemson and Oregon State.

Approximately 100 young men (most just a year or two out of high school) are taking part in this year’s initial football drills, all wanting Shinnick to know that they want to be part of the new Brave program. Among them are former South Columbus High players Garrett Ward, Anthony Johnson and J.J. Bellamy, and former Whiteville High player D.J. Anders. Shinnick feels that attracting good players from Southeastern North Carolina will only be a plus for Brave football.

“It’s a rather unique situation we have now,” Shinnick said. “All the other college teams in the country are gearing up to start playing soon and we’re working toward having things ready for next season,” he said. “We’re just getting started, still getting to know the players and still doing everything we can do in working toward having everything ready for next season.”

The new UNCP coach said that the Braves will not start with a conference affiliation, but that they hope to be part of a solid football conference within the next few years.

“The schedule for next season should be released by the middle of September,” Shinnick said. “That will be another big step in realizing what’s about to happen here.”

Intercollegiate football at UNCP should be a very encouraging thing for area high school football players, who are considering the possibility of playing college football.

Here in Columbus County , I have so often seen some talented high school players decide to give up the sport largely because there has not been a four-year school with a football program close by.

Football at Pembroke will certainly present an added opportunity to players and it will also be able to provide an extra opportunity for high-school coaches in our county as they start touting players for college programs.

FRIDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL PREDICTIONS:

Here we go again!

West Columbus 34, East Columbus 28; Whiteville 24, East Bladen 22; South Columbus 20, Laney 17.