North Wilkes was never that good to begin with. They just had an easy as pond-water non conference schedule to get them going like West Wilkes has. They struggled to put Bishop away in the opener which wasn't a good sign, they got plum lucky against South Stokes (that's when their season collapsed, they couldn't beat NW and it broke them,) then they rolled over North Stokes and Forbush who in particular shoulda played them better. In 2017 they had some decent talent enough to actually compete in the conference, this year not so much. I've seen the last two varsity squads of theirs and the '17 team was way better. 2018's squad has a better passing game but their run game is lax and their defense is awful.
That's what's killing them is their defense. Chipman's biggest mistake year in and out is ignoring his defense he's always been about their O. Their defense in 2013 was bad but they had enough players on offense it didn't matter. Last year's team had a decent D for a Chipman run NW team. This year's D for NW is one of the worst he's had. Plus their depth isn't great either and he's negating their JV's badly. NW will never be stable unless he allows their JV's to have enough kids this year they had 19.
Next year may be a rough one for them. They lose Brown and that senior class. All they will have is his son's group. His son's a solid QB but he isn't enough to carry them he's got to find playmakers and I don't know if they have them or not their JV's were horrendous this year.