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The offensive line has become one of the real stories of the Davie football offseason. The JV/varsity o-linemen, which numbers around 27 guys, have established a reputation for their collective work ethic.

“Their dedication to being at workouts has been second to no group that we have,” head coach Tim Devericks said. “Their numbers have been outstanding. Their dedication to work hard and get better has been really impressive. On both sides of the ball, it starts up front. What the offensive line has shown has been really good.

“They average about 18 showing up every time. That’s impressive when you’re not in season and it’s voluntary workouts. Some of them are not even in school that day and they’re having to find a ride to get there. It’s just really, really awesome.”

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Jimmie Welch has been Davie’s OL coach since 2007. He has a new right-hand man in Spencer Pasciolla, who joined the staff in 2019.

Pasciolla, 26, grew up in Oak Ridge, just outside of Kernersville, and attended Bishop McGuinness. He played on the offensive and defensive lines and graduated in 2012.

“We had like 21 kids total on the team, so you had to play both ways,” Pasciolla said. “When I got to Davie, it blew me away the difference between the two football programs. I had never seen big football before. I don’t want to go back now; I love it.”

Pasciolla got his teaching degree at Appalachian State. He was an assistant coach for two years at his alma mater, Bishop. His first teaching job was at Trinity High. After spending a semester there, he was a substitute teacher at Bishop for a short while. Then he landed the PE job at William R. Davie Elementary. This is his third year at WRD.

How did Pasciolla, 26, join Devericks’ staff before the 2019 season?

“(Devericks) called me out of the blue,” he said. “I was going to take a break from coaching football and just get used to being in Davie County and adjust. Devericks called me up and said: ‘I heard you coached at Bishop. Would you want to come in for an interview?’ I said: ‘Absolutely.’ I wasn’t going to turn that down. I got in there and felt out the program. Everybody is really tight and close, and I got that feeling right off the bat. I knew I wanted to join if Devericks would have me. So I’m really glad he gave me that call.”

The feeling is mutual. Devericks said one of Pasciolla’s gifts is his magic with people.

“He played offensive line, but he really loves the weight room,” Devericks said. “He loves to try to make kids better in the weight room. We have a young man on the team that’s not even in his position group that he checks on regularly because he knows he doesn’t have the best home life. That shows he cares about kids and their home lives. He’s always willing to go the extra mile and help out whenever we need it. And he has tremendous knowledge of offensive line.”

Pasciolla said: “Jimmie and I over the past year have gotten pretty tight and we’re on the same page 99 percent of the time.”

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The Camden Beck/Spencer Williams tandem offers a compelling foundation for the 2021 varsity OL. Both are juniors and both are returning starters – Beck at left tackle and Williams at RT.

Beck is a budding star.

“You can go back and watch tape on Camden, and it’s just rare to find a mistake,” Pasciolla said. “He’s already so technically proficient. With everything he does, he has a purpose in all of his movements. It really makes your job as a line coach easy because you can go through the film and be like: ‘He took care of his job.’ He doesn’t really let guys fluster him and he doesn’t really care who’s across from him. As an offensive line coach, you could not ask for anything more than that.”

S. Williams is primed to take a big step forward in 2021, a season that opens Feb. 26 at Ragsdale.

“They both had really strong years (in 2019) and they’re very coachable guys,” Pasciolla said of Beck and S. Williams. “And I love that they’re juniors. Consistency along the offensive line is a huge thing.”

Davie graduated three starters on the OL. One of the new starters could be senior Ashton Williams. That is a testament to his offseason commitment.

“It looks like he’s making a big maturity jump,” Pasciolla said. “He’s picked up everything we’ve thrown at him, and he seems to have a good handle on things as well. I know he’s done some camps outside of us, so I think he’s making that extra effort to improve and have a really good senior campaign.”

There’s more. The JV o-line has shown considerable promise.

“We have a lot of great potential,” Pasciolla said. “We had a lot of freshmen start on JV last year, and now we’ll have a lot of them back on JV. And we have a lot of good-looking freshmen, too.”