Room for another ring: South Pointe hunting football title three-peat

There’s the front porch painting project that isn’t yet finished and the bannisters to redo and the kid to get off to college, oh, and a high school football program to run, but Strait Herron tries to find time to read during the summer.

South Pointe’s coach plowed through a couple of books the past few months, reading Alabama football coach Nick Saban’s tome on coaching, motivational guru Jon Gordon’s musings on winning over a locker room and psychologist Dr. Kevin Elko’s fictional story about a pep talk and its lifelong effects on a football team. Herron reads at night and any time he’s on vacation, usually with a fishing pole and a cooler within reach.

The general theme of his summer reading list has been managing the inevitable challenges a football season offers up. One of the lessons he’s gleaned will quickly be put to use as the Stallions chase a third straight state title. Practice began Friday at 4 p.m.

“You’re not playing every day to win a state championship,” Herron said Thursday. “You need to worry about what happens next. Thinking of it in those terms takes off a lot of pressure and stress.”

South Pointe has lost just one football game since Sept. 20, 2014, winning 3A state titles each of the last two seasons. Last year’s 35-0 championship thumping was a categorical way to bid goodbye to the classification; the Stallions joined the new-look 4A in the most recent realignment.

None of the Rock Hill schools have won back to back state titles, and none of the other 11 schools in The Herald’s coverage area have won three straight. Given the strength of high school pigskin in this region, that says something.

South Pointe has more than 20 returning seniors but many of its expected 2016 contributors are light on Friday night varsity experience. A big contingent of juniors have only known state championships during their two years of high school. There is the risk that some of those players take the program’s habitual success for granted.

“We’ve got to keep everybody focused,” senior safety Ken’darius Frederick said before Friday’s practice. “You’ve got to stay on some guys because some of them think you’re just gonna get things handed to you. They’re gonna realize when the season starts that it doesn’t go that way.”

As always, there is plenty of talent. But the defending champs will be tested weekly by a difficult schedule. Northwestern, Nation Ford, Rock Hill, a lengthy mid-season road trip to Maryland, Mallard Creek and arguably the best 4A region in the state mean the Stallions won’t waltz into the finals (they haven’t the last two years either).

“Our guys understand competition, they understand our schedule. I just hope they get that it’s gonna be tough, it’s gonna be hard,” said Herron. “These are not gonna be easy games, and if we hit a road block, it’s not the end of the world.

What happens when things go wrong, if a couple of games fall in the loss column?

“That’s what I worry about,” Herron said. “It’s not the actual play.”

“Steady as she goes” will help South Pointe toward its goal of winning the school’s fifth state title, and on the field that mantra begins at the quarterback position.

Derion Kendrick is a top-40 national college prospect in the junior class, has a mature build, effortless speed and a rocket propelled grenade for an arm. Scholarship offers from the college football programs of kid’ dreams - Florida, Alabama, Clemson, Florida State - have steadily filled the South Pointe athletic department mailbox. Greg Ruff, the 2015 3A state player of the year, graduated, so Kendrick - already making his name known last season - will further enter the limelight as he quarterbacks the Stallions this fall.

Part of the challenge in coaching Kendrick has been convincing him that he doesn’t have to look for a home run on every single play. “He wants to make something happen right now,” Herron said. “Sometimes the big play isn’t there. He’s got to compose himself and take what the defense gives him.”

It’s representative of the goal for the team at large, and maybe even the goals of the coach. Armed with eight gallons of paint and primer, Herron had visions of painting his entire porch in a weekend earlier this summer. But because of jury duty, taking his daughter Sydney to College of Charleston, and vacations to Florida and the beach, the steps still aren’t painted. He’d planned to do some of his reading there.

Maybe the initial plan for the porch was too ambitious. But bit by bit, the busy coach - and his team - will get it done.

This story was originally published July 29, 2016 at 5:37 PM with the headline "Room for another ring: South Pointe hunting football title three-peat."