FAIRMONT — What Fairmont head coach Jeremy Carthen is looking for as his first season as the Golden Tornadoes head coach gets underway is simple: the team doing the little things right.

“The standards are still set as far as being here on time, paying attention, doing the little things and making them big things,” Carthen said. “Doing the basic things is going to make everything else special if they do them the right way. So just doing everything the right way, that’s the standard, that’s where it’s at.”

Fairmont’s players have seen through the days of preseason practice that when Carthen talks about setting standards, he means it.

“He’s been standing on business around here and putting stuff where it needs to be at,” senior athlete Gabriel Washington said. “Putting players in their place and stuff like that.”

Carthen, a former St. Pauls assistant, took over a Golden Tornadoes program coming off back-to-back two-win seasons.

“Right now, we’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I expect us to get better every single day,” Carthen said. “It’s not going to happen overnight, but hopefully we can get better every day; if we can get 1% better every day. If we can do that we’re going to be fine by the end of the season.”

If it all sounds familiar to St. Pauls head coach Mike Setzer, who Carthen worked under for the last five years, that’s by design.

“I know how it needs to be done,” Carthen said. “Even though I’m not Coach Setzer — you have to have your own personality and way you do things — but there’s a way he did things that I want to model and make sure that I’m doing things that he will approve of as my mentor.”

Offensively, Carthen believes he’s got the playmakers to make some noise, as long as the team stays disciplined.

“We can’t fight with each other; they’ve got to stay on the same page,” Carthen said. “And do it as a team. We have playmakers, we have the ability to do it; discipline is going to make us score, doing things the right way.”

Seniors Demarcus Grissett and Gabriel Washington, the 2022 Robeson County Offensive Player of the Year, are battling for the starting quarterback job, but both will be utilized in multiple ways in the offense.

Senior wideouts Travelius Leach, Tyrek Thompson and Isaac McKellar and sophomore athlete Calvin Johnson will also be key skill players for the Golden Tornadoes.

“We just have a lot of guys that can fill in in the spots and the voids at anytime,” Carthen said.

“Just working on it together in practice (is important) and working on each other’s timing, and what we can do best and what’s our weakness,” Thompson said. “And just feeling each other out as we go.”

Fairmont will look to improve defensively, after allowing 35.2 points per game last year. The unit could potentially become a strength this season, Carthen said, with an aggressive and athletic group.

“It’s going to be a strength for us because everybody’s athletes and everybody can run to the ball,” Carthen said. “Defensively always picks up a little faster than the offense, and right now all I can do is fly around and play some defense. Hopefully we can set the same standard that the defense has had several years ago.”

Those athletes will include Thompson and junior Jamir Jones in the secondary, Grissett and senior Jalil Brown at linebacker and seniors Jalarion Owens, Aiden Hunt and Dontrel Hughlon on the defensive line.

A key to success as the Golden Tornadoes get into the season, Carthen said, will be to focus on the task at hand and ignore any outside noise — especially if they begin to have some success.

“Goals for this team right now is to win one game at a time; don’t get rabbit ears, especially if you start having success early,” Carthen said. “Don’t get to listening to the guys in the barber shop, don’t get to listening to the outside noise. We’ve got to stay together as a team, as a unit, as a coaching staff, and we’ve got to proceed together.

“I know what it takes to get there; I’ve been there before. I know that if you don’t do things out of love, you’re going to fall drastically. But you have to do it with love, regardless of everything we do, and we should be OK.”