‘Most dynamic player on offense in the state’ aims to win South Pointe another title
South Pointe High School isn’t 20 years old yet and has seven state championships in football.
The program has seen a lot of great players come through including the likes of defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who is now with the Carolina Panthers. This season, senior running back Mason Pickett-Hicks hopes he can be the next great Stallion and lead his team to a 4A championship.
“We’ve got to keep working,” Pickett-Hicks said. “We have been grinding and practicing hard every day but we can’t stop here, we’ve got to keep going. It would be great to (go out a state champion). I came in as a freshman and won a state championship and to go out as a senior and get another one would be very special.”
Picket-Hicks, a 5-foot-8, 165-pound running back says he is a do it all running back that doesn’t specialize in one part of the game.
“I feel like I can do a lot and anything that my coaches need me to do,” Pickett-Hicks said. “I feel like I can catch the ball out of the back field, run between the tackles and outside of the tackles. I am really just an all around back that tries to do anything to help my team win.”
Pickett-Hicks says one of the keys to playing running back well is to have good anticipation of what the opponents are going to do. This can come from watching film on them or even after the first drive against an opponent. As he has proven this season, once Pickett-Hicks knows what his opponent plans to do, he will run all over them.
“I am always looking forward,” he said. “I look for the flow of the offensive line and the linebackers as well. Wherever the linebackers flow, I go the other way and I just read my keys and go from there. Once you kind of feel the opponent out, from there it becomes easy.”
As one of the leaders on the team, Pickett-Hicks takes it on himself to help get his teammates ready to go each week. He feels that the coaches do a good job of that but it also has to come from the players as well.
“Before the games each Friday, I pull the offense and all the running backs to the side and make sure they know what they need to do,” Pickett-Hicks said. “I tell them that if we go out there and do our job and do what we are coached to do, then the rest will work itself out.”
Stallions coach Bobby Collins says that Pickett-Hicks is really the engine that makes the team run. He is coachable and a great leader for the team.
“I think (Pickett-Hicks) is the most dynamic player on offense in the state of South Carolina,” Collins said. “The more the ball touches his hands, the more points are put on the board it seems. That is just the fact of the matter. He is our starting running back but can play punt return, kick return, wide receiver and even a little wildcat formation. I can’t say enough about him.”
South Pointe is 8-2 on the season with losses coming to Northwestern and Spartanburg. In those games, Collins feels that the Stallions got away from what works best and that is getting Pickett-Hicks the ball.
“We simply have to get him the ball more,” Collins said. “We’ve got to score points. After the Northwestern game we’ve been averaging around 40 points per game and that is a result of us getting him the ball more and that creates scoring opportunities for us.”
Collins will miss Pickett-Hicks, a South Carolina State commit, after the end of this year’s playoff run. This is why he wants to make it keep going as long as possible.
“(Pickett-Hicks) is one of the most humble kids I’ve coached,” Collins said. “He is a blue collar kid that comes to work hard every day. He just does his job. You don’t ever notice when he is in the room, because he is like the mailman, he just always delivers. I want this playoff run to end with a championship, but when you think about a kid like this, I just enjoy watching him play. I think everyone will enjoy watching him on Saturdays and Sundays as well because he has that kind of ability.”
The Stallions open the playoffs at 7:30 p.m. Friday, hosting Greer’s Blue Ridge (4-6).
