‘That’s just the standard’: Great expectations surround South Pointe football

The South Pointe Stallions are familiar with preseason hype and expectations.

Coming in as the preseason No. 1 team in the 4A classification, coach Bobby Collins is used to the pressure of being highly ranked. He is confident that his team will be able to stay focused on the main thing, and that is simply handling their business on Friday nights.

“We’ve got a lot of returners,” Collins said. “The guys have been working really hard since January. So, we’re really excited about that. With the senior leadership back in the football program, we have zero complaints about any of that stuff. I think we’ve got a really good coaching staff, a really good group of players, led by a really great group of seniors. Overall, we’re excited about what we have going on right now.”

Two of the returning seniors Collins mentioned are Ja’Zavien Currence and Cam McMillon. Currence is a defensive back committed to South Carolina and McMillion is the team’s field general at quarterback. Collins knows these are two of the young men he can lean on in close games to make sure everyone else is on the same page.

“Both (Currence and McMillon) stand at 6-foot-3 or above and both are over 200 pounds,” Collins said. “Both guys have been playing football since their freshman year here, so they know the system. Having two guys like that helps me as a head coach because I know I can lean into them and they know what to expect.”

Currence said that he wants to be a leader by example this season.

“You can say anything, but if your actions don’t match your words, it means nothing to the young guys,” Currence said. “We’ve got a unique group of young guys that’s under me, a lot of talent. Just getting that talent in the right position, telling them when, where to go, how to do it, and why we do it, is the big thing for us.”

For McMillon, it has finally sunk in that this is his last year playing high school football.

He plans on making the most of it.

“It’s been hitting since we got back in school, really since the summer,” McMillon said. “Just some of the memories of my sophomore and junior year, now coming to my senior year, it’s my last season. I’ve got to go out with a bang this year.”

The Stallions did not hold back in scheduling a tough non-conference schedule. South Pointe starts the season with the Hough Huskies, a nationally ranked team and No. 3 in the Observer’s Sweet 16 rankings. This game is a part of the Keep Pounding Classic on Friday at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte.

McMillon and Currence both have had this game circled on the calendar for a while.

“The morale from that game can take us wherever we need to go,” Currence said about the game against Hough. “We want to be able to prove ourselves in the first game of the season. Of course we may have some hiccups here and there because it is the first game, but honestly, I think we are ready and we are hungry for that first game.”

“We really want to make a statement against Hough in that first game,” McMillon said. “As an underrated quarterback in the state, I just want to make myself known to everyone on the biggest stage like that.”

The Stallions will also face West Charlotte — a defending North Carolina state champion and ranked No. 2 in the Observer’s Sweet 16 poll — and Rock Hill rival Northwestern, the South Carolina defending 4A state champion.

“We want to make sure that in the non-conference is tough,” Collins said. “We’ve already got Northwestern, who won a state championship last year. We have West Charlotte, who also won a state championship last year. You have Hough High School, the first game at the Carolina Panthers’ stadium, who are No. 1 in the state for them right now, and along with Rock Hill. We wanted a non conference to be strong, so that once we get to the conference, we’ll be playing at a high level.”

With the weight of being ranked at the top of the 4A classification, Collins believes his kids were made for this.

“That’s just the standard of our kids,” Collins said. “I think what makes us different here is our level of practice, our level of accountability when it comes to the players. Our seniors do a real good job. We don’t have bad days when it kind of goes to that kind of stuff, because our guys work really hard. We got great leadership and I am looking forward to seeing where it takes us this season.”