Led by USC commit and others, Legion Collegiate football is ready for NCISAA in 2022
Since opening its doors in 2019, a lot has been made of what Legion Collegiate Academy athletics could be.
Is 2022 the year when those ruminations come true?
Strait Herron certainly hopes so.
The Legion head football coach (and three-year athletic director before stepping down last week) enters his fourth year as an important figure in the Legion athletic department. And he’s seen a lot: He’s seen the school build a permanent campus in Rock Hill. He’s watched Legion win state championships. He commanded the Legion helm as it joined a lawsuit against the South Carolina High School League in 2020, and he later answered the difficult questions after Legion broke away from the SCHSL and joined the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association as a provisional member in 2021. (It’s expected that Legion will be recommended to NCISAA leaders for full-membership approval in April.)
But on a Monday morning in late-July, scanning his 40-person football depth chart, Herron spotted a few reasons to be hopeful this fall — a few reasons, that is, to be excited about what Legion is as well as what it could be.
“We’ve got good and talented kids,” Herron told The Herald after a football practice last week. “As a group, I think they’re gelling pretty well, so we can be a pretty good team.”
Legion Collegiate football leaders
The Lancers finished the 2021 season with an overall record of 3-4. And considering how they started — going scoreless in its first three games against some of the best teams in the Carolinas (Charlotte Christian, Charlotte Latin and Gray Collegiate) — that’s a win.
Herron and his team hope to build off the three-game winning streak Legion ended the year with. The Lancers will rely on a few key players to do that.
Defense: The first player to consider on this Legion team is Judge Collier. The 6-foot-1, 185-pound defensive back and wide receiver (who even played some quarterback at the end of last season) earned a scholarship offer from University of South Carolina earlier this summer. Herron said the defense is in good hands with him as the centerpiece.
“He’s legit,” Herron said, “and he’ll lead our defense, as a player and a captain.”
The rest of Legion’s 4-2-5 defense should fall into place nicely around him.
That includes a deep defensive backfield, with Collier, senior AJ Smith (who led the team in interceptions last year) and senior Kelton Watkins.
It also includes linebackers JD Robinson (who recently got an offer from Presbyterian College), Elijah Baker, Jalen Brace and Malachi Justice — and defensive linemen Natarious McCullough, Tyler Petty and Landon Smith.
Offense: The offense will be spearheaded by two quarterbacks, Herron said. One is sophomore Andrew Turner, who played a bit as a freshman in 2021, and the other is junior Jayce LeFlore, who won a state championship at South Pointe last year and played important minutes in SP’s statement win over Northwestern to begin the season. (Herron said he expects to use both athletes on the field at the same time.)
Those two will be throwing to a good receiving corps of Zamari Copley and Jacob McFadden, as well as a bunch of aforementioned playmakers on the defense, including Collier and Smith.
Legion’s offensive line is “still young,” Herron said, but it is returning almost its entire line from the year before. Among those guys: senior Luke Henley, senior Andrew Catoe, junior Tyler Petty, junior CJ Cruz and junior Landon Smith. They’ll be blocking for a bunch of running backs who’ll also moonlight as linebackers (and vice versa) — including junior Eli Coleman and senior DJ Baxter, as well as the aforementioned Robinson and Baker.
“This is old school football, man,” Herron said, referencing how players are being asked to play both sides of the ball. “It reminds me of when I was back at Thurmond and AC Flora, back when I was young. All the running backs played linebacker. All the linebackers played running back.”
Herron admits that there are still concerns. The team’s schedule is still being finalized. Legion also won’t be very deep, and new players — whether they be from York County schools or from other parts of the state — have been moving into the program at different times throughout the summer and still need to be coached up, Herron said.
But Herron remains resolute.
“We’ve gotten to the point now where the guys who have been with us kind of know what to expect,” Herron said. “So through practice, we can get better.”
Legion Collegiate football at a glance
Head coach: Strait Herron. The coach won five state championships in seven years as head coach at South Pointe High School before retiring in 2018 and taking on the athletic director/football coaching job at Legion in 2019. The school announced earlier this week that Herron is stepping down as athletic director “to concentrate on his role as head football coach and a newly added position as director of player development,” per a release. The school’s new athletic director is former Winthrop soccer coach Rich Posipanko.
Other coaches: Dustin Martin (Co-Offensive coordinator with Herron and offensive line coach); Bobby Carroll (defensive coordinator); Shawn Woodard (defensive backs); Devon Lowery (wide receivers).
Last year: 3-4.
Competes in: North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association. The Lancers joined the NCISAA in 2021, after a tumultuous two-year stint with the South Carolina High School League. Legion is currently a provisional member of NCISAA, and it’s expected that the public charter school will be recommended to NCISAA leaders for full-membership approval in April.
Base defense: 4-2-5.
Offensive philosophy: Spread.
Schedule: Asheville Christian (Aug. 26) — Lamar (Sept. 2) — Christ School in Asheville (Sept. 9) — Charlotte Latin (Sept. 16) — Trinity Collegiate (Sept. 23) — Grace Christian (Oct. 7) — Cannon (Oct. 28). As of the online publication date, Legion is still looking for opponents on Aug. 19, Sept. 30, Oct. 14 and Oct. 21.
