Halifax QB featured article on va preps

July 21, 2009

Rod Johnson
VirginiaPreps.com Senior Editor

Last season, quarterback Dale Trent of Halifax County High School started the season behind second team all-Western Valley district signal caller Josh Hudson, but by season's end, Trent had earned the staring nod and completed 109 of 180 passes for 1,247 yards with nine touchdowns earning an honorable mention for the all-district squad.

"We have been very fortunate at Halifax to have quality quarterback play over the last four years and Dale happens to be the very next in a line of good players," says Halifax head coach Stan Hodgkin.

With Hudson graduating, Trent is the unquestioned and unchallenged field general for the Comets entering the 2009 campaign and Hodgkin has seen his rising senior embrace the role.  "We started our off season program on Juanuar 6, and from that day through now, he's been a leader not only with his encouraging words to his teammates but with his actions.  He's been very active in making sure that teammates are in the weight room and doing the conditioning that they are supposed to be doing.  He leads the majority of our team activities whether it be small group things or entire team activities.  Dale understands that this team is his as much as it is anyone's and he's done a great job with senior leadership."

With the starting job his and his alone, expectations on Trent will be high but, again, Hodgkin feels that his Class of 2010 gunslinger has a grasp of what he is being asked to accomplish.  "Our goal as a team is to be better today than we were yesterday and Dale understands that expectations on him are that he be better each day than the one before.  The only statistic that we stress is completion percentage and he understands that our expectations are 75%.  When we accomplish that goal, the yards, the scores take care of themselves."

The coach also believes that Trent has the physical tools to live up to the lofty goals.  "Accuracy is certainly one of Dale's physical strengths.  He has very good pocket presence.  He is able to extend plays long enough to not only to avoid taking an unnecessary sack but rather to get the ball to a secondary target when the original look breaks down.  One of the things that's very difficult to teach a young guy is to see what is going on down the field but not see the pressure that is coming.  Dale does an outstanding job of looking through that pressure.  He takes some licks in the pocket and he always gets right back up ready to battle again."

Along with his physical traits, the Comets quarterback combines a strong mental and verbal game.  "Dale has a tremendous understanding of our offense and where holes are in coverage and how our routes get into those holes.  There is constant verbal communication between him and our wide receivers during practices and ball games talking to each other to make sure that they are seeing the same things and are on the same page.  Dale is going to deliver the football where it supposed to go when it is supposed to be there and in turn, he expects the wideouts to be there."

The 6-foot-2, 185-pounder has caught the eye of college recruiters at the DI level as Virginia, Virginia Tech, North Carolina, Maryland and "all of the DI-AA teams in the state" are closely following him according to Hodgkin who, when asked to summarize Trent as a player and a person added, "Dale demands the absolute best from himself on a daily basis whether it be a Thursday afternoon walkthrough, a preseason scrimmage or a Friday night game against an arch rival.  His level of intensity and his expectations of himself do not change and he does a really nice job of pulling his teammates along with him in a positive way.  His leadership style is completely positive.  There is always encouragement and congratulations.  He's just a very positive leader."