Keep your eye on these stories during the 2018 high school football season
By Bret McCormick
The 2018 high school football season officially begins Friday, July 27.
If the offseason felt interminable, the next few weeks will whoosh right past. Rock Hill’s District Three Stadium will host Friday night football in two weeks and the season begins the week after that, on Aug. 17.
As fans, players, coaches and casual observers gear up for the season, here are 10 stories to keep in mind as the 2018 campaign officially gets underway:
1. Can South Pointe win a fifth in a row?
What a wild thing to type: “can South Pointe win a fifth state championship in a row?” Take a moment, pause, and drink that in. The level of excellence the Stallions have maintained the last four-plus years, let alone the foundational years preceding those, has been incredible. Only nine teams in the country currently have championship winning streaks of four or more, and South Pointe is one of them. (The others: Wallace-Rose Hill (North Carolina), Trinity Christian (Florida), Lamar (Missouri), Bishop Miege (Kansas), Dowling Catholic (Iowa), Kimberly (Wisconsin), Scottsdale Saguaro (Arizona) and Grand Rapids West Catholic (Michigan).) Whether the Stallions pull off a fifth straight championship, or not, what a run it’s been.
2. Can Rock Hill High continue its late season surge from 2017?
After winning three straight Region 4-5A games last year, Rock Hill entered the regular season finale against Northwestern with a shot to win the league championship. It was the Bearcats’ first such opportunity in almost 10 years. With a considerably easier non-region schedule, coach Bubba Pittman and the Bearcats think they can enter region play with more confidence and fewer injuries. The expectation is to create another opportunity to win the region, but far quicker than another nine years. Will it be this year? That probably depends in part on the team’s quarterback play, and whether Tennessee-committed receiver Antonio Barber can stay healthy for the whole season.
3. Will Indian Land survive its non-region schedule?
In 2010, Indian Land played Buford, Blacksburg, Whitmire and McBee in non-region games. This fall, the Warriors will face Lancaster, Buford, York, Rock Hill, Nation Ford and South Pointe in the same portion of their schedule. The change is indicative of the rapid growth the Indian Land community has experienced in the last eight years, growth that will almost certainly land the high school’s sports teams in the 4A classification in the next realignment. It is highly likely that the Warriors could land in a 4A region with Fort Mill, Nation Ford, Catawba Ridge, Lancaster, South Pointe and York in 2020. Might as well get used to playing those size schools now.
4. Will things be different at Fort Mill High under new coach Rob McNeely?
Rob McNeely was hired from Lake Norman to take over the Fort Mill High program in part because of his success at a school that is very similar to Fort Mill. What will his most obvious influences on the program be? Will the Yellow Jackets look markedly different? It’s hard to say at this point because many of the Yellow Jackets’ top offensive and defensive play-makers graduated.
Victor Floyd first arrived at Chester in 2004 and it took him three seasons before the Cyclones were winning double-digit games and competing for a state title. If you asked Floyd, he’d probably tell you that the Cyclones are on a similar path in his second stint at the school. They won three games in 2015, and nine each of the last two seasons. Chester graduated single-digit seniors and has multiple college-level players on its roster. This season will be intriguing to watch; can the Cyclones get past Fairfield Central and/or play football deep into November, or maybe even December?
6. What’s the state of kicking in The Herald’s coverage area?
It will take a few years, but eventually high school football fans in York County will realize how elite the level of place-kicking and punting was in our area last season. Three local kickers went to Power 5 schools on scholarship -- B.T. Potter (Clemson), Skyler DeLong (Alabama) and Nick Sciba (Wake Forest) -- and all three had the ability to win games almost single-handedly, whether through field goals and extra points, kickoffs into the end zone for touchbacks, or, in DeLong’s case, field-flipping punts downed inside the opponent’s 5-yard line. Fort Mill’s Kyle Romenick is close to those guys’ level, but there aren’t many other top-notch kickers. But then again, that’s normal.
7. How will non-region games influence region results?
When it comes to the high school football state playoffs, the non-region portion of the schedule essentially doesn’t matter. Sure, it can help prepare teams for the playoffs, or pad their athletic program bank accounts. But what else is there to gain from a difficult non-region schedule? Nothing. Under the points system of the past, schools were rewarded for playing difficult non-region schedules. With that system scrapped, there is little incentive to playing five or six top programs before region action begins. And that has a weird impact on conferences like Region 4-5A, which only plays four region games. Sixty percent of a season’s schedule is rendered less critical, and potentially damaging.
8. Who starts at quarterback?
Nation Ford cycled through five quarterbacks last season in a largely fruitless effort to find a leader for its offense. Coach Michael Allen picked Carson Carruthers to be the starter in the spring and is sticking with him the whole way through, a reaction to last year when he felt like he let the QB competition between three players go too deep into the season. Will it pay off?
And what about at Clover? The Blue Eagles graduated solid starter Garrett Miller, and had a handful kids competing for the starting gig during the offseason. The QB is pivotal to offensive success at Nation Ford and Clover, where the spread scheme is in place and everything starts with the signal caller.
9. Can Lewisville hang in 2A football?
This was always going to be a somewhat challenging season for the Lions, after they graduated so much college talent the last two seasons. But adding to the difficulty of replacing FBS-level players is the school’s jump into the 2A ranks. Coach Will Mitchell told The Herald recently that he’s had over 40 players participating this offseason, the most since he’s been at the school. But will that roster size be enough against the likes of 2A powerhouses Central and Chesterfield?
10. Will James Martin succeed in remaking the Northwestern program in his image?
James Martin was given the chance to take over Northwestern’s program this offseason, in part because of his creativity and the new ideas he’s bringing to life for the Trojans. The team’s players’ lounge is a good example, likewise for the fact that Martin, who is Caucasian, gets his hair cut at one of the traditionally black barber shops in Rock Hill, the same one where many of his players get their trims. He’s made it clear he wants to connect with the community, and in turn, his players, and he’s doing that in ways that coaches haven’t usually done. Whether his efforts reflect in the Trojans’ results on the field and in class, remains to be seen.
This story was originally published July 26, 2018 at 9:13 AM.
