‘It’s become a witch hunt.’ High school transfers on the rise; so are false narratives

Jonathan Simmons delivered an impassioned message at SoMeck football media day on Saturday.

High school transfers are on the rise in the Charlotte area. With the increased use of the NCAA transfer portal at the collegiate level, high school athletes aren’t being recruited nearly as much anymore.

Simmons, the head coach at Palisades High, explained that he feels there now exists a negative connotation when players move to different schools. Kids and their families make decisions to change schools and/or relocate for a variety of reasons. And with this advent of some nationally-ranked high schoolers changing uniforms, it’s always important to remember that there are things in life that are much bigger than sports.

He noted that the mother of a young player at Palisades recently took a job in Raleigh — thus moving him to Rolesville High. Simmons said he was immediately asked by a media member if Rolesville had recruited the player.

“It’s a little bit of a negative connotation — being put on kids, families and coaches — regarding players and families moving to different schools,” Simmons said. “Kids’ families are going to move for the best interest of their child. Maybe have to move because of a re-home, because of a new job, shorter commute home, whatever the reason is.

“They need sports — we do a great job with it. We get kids to school. People win championships. But right now, it’s starting to become a witch hunt. Where every time a kid moves, it’s something negative. I think it’s disrespectful to the kid. It’s disrespect to the family. And it’s disrespecting the coaches and administrators who do a thankless job.”

Ballantyne Ridge: Potentially the youngest team in America

The average football player at the high school opening this fall in south Charlotte is 14.8 years old.

There are four juniors, 10 sophomores and 50 freshmen on the first football roster at Ballantyne Ridge. Chris Redding, the Wolves’ inaugural head coach, calculated the average of his players’ age — along with figuring out that their average weight is only 150 pounds.

Ballantyne Ridge is practicing at Waddell High for the next few weeks until it moves into its permanent field on its new campus. The team has been utilizing facilities at other venues, including the Morrison Family YMCA and Ardrey Kell High — and Knights coach Greg Jachym gave a shout-out to the Wolves for leaving their facilities completely spotless.

“This will be a young, fierce group of Wolves,” Redding said. “We’re excited, and we’re gonna embrace the identity of being a young team that is hungry. In this league, you’ve got a lot of older, mature 17-18-year-olds, but you can’t fake real football.

“Getting under the Friday night lights early and often is going to be important for these young men.”

South Meck bonds with ‘big’ and ‘little’ brothers

At the Sabres’ camp at Wingate University, head coach Joe Evans matched the seniors with “little brothers.”

It was good for the experienced players to be able to put their arm around a younger player and say, “Hey, it ain’t that bad,” Evans said with a laugh. He encouraged them to not only talk to their mentees, but really keep up with them and make sure they understand everything happening within the program.

EJ King, a returning senior cornerback, has been making a particularly strong effort as a “big brother.” Like Evans had hoped, it’s more than just chatting with them — he’s noticed King even just making sure his “little brother” knows what time players need to arrive in the lobby to catch the bus.

“Being seen and having a ‘little brother,’ it helped bring patience to the game,” King said. “Teaching him, even if I’ve gotta teach it to him maybe more times, just being consistent and patient.”

Myers Park, reigning champ, looks to avenge early playoff exit

The Mustangs were competitive throughout last season, but it wasn’t up to their standards.

After starting the year 0-3, Myers Park rebounded and went undefeated within the SoMeck conference. But Myers Park dropped its only playoff game, getting upset by Charlotte Catholic in a 42-24 loss during the first round.

Myers Park added a new quarterback this year: Jared Lockhart. The starter at Porter Ridge last season, the dual-threat signal caller joins the Mustangs this season.

“Honestly, we weren’t satisfied with the year we had last year,” said defensive end Rodney Dunham, a senior who also plays baseball at Myers Park. “I feel like we didn’t really do much. We lost in the first round of the playoffs. Got our butts kicked in the first round of the playoffs.

“We came back to do more than that.”

Ardrey Kell faces tough non-conference schedule

A year after finishing second in the conference, Ardrey Kell opens its season on a big stage.

The Knights are set to face Providence in their season opener on Aug. 23. The game will be played at American Legion Memorial Stadium near uptown — and begin a relatively tough non-conference slate.

After its neutral-site meeting with the Panthers, Ardrey Kell faces Weddington, Marvin Ridge and Charlotte Christian to open its season. They’ll provide good tests early for the Knights, who finished 7-4 last year and lost to West Forsyth in the first round of the 4A playoffs.

“Traditionally, it always used to be the last game of the season, so it’s motivating for us to come right out of the gate,” coach Greg Jachym said about the Providence game. “And then playing at Memorial Stadium in such a great setting and venue, it’s going to be even more exciting for us. Because we know there’s gonna be all of Charlotte watching that game.”

Berry looks to “make a lot of noise” with new coach

Darius Robinson took over as head coach at Philip O. Berry Academy of Technology after Redding stepped down to start the Ballantyne Ridge program.

The Cardinals, who open at East Mecklenburg on Aug. 23, are emphasizing aggression this season. Football is a detail-oriented sport, but there are situations within games that tend to cater toward teams that are just more aggressive.

“We’ll bring a lot of grittiness and toughness,” junior defensive end Joshua Watts said. “Historically, not being a great program, I feel like especially on the defensive side, we can make a lot of noise. A lot more noise in the conference compared to what we did last year.”

Olympic, conference’s smallest school, has athletes

The Trojans have improved the versatility of their roster.

The smallest school in the SoMeck conference with roughly 1,700 students, Olympic knows the importance of boasting strong groups of players on both sides of the football. Having fewer students to pull from, the Trojans have to be in condition to play roughly 90 snaps a game.

They feel like they’ve gotten significantly more explosive, bigger and stronger.

“It’s just about chipping away one day at a time,” Olympic head coach Brandon Thompson said. “I know everybody’s excited about kickoff, but we’ve gotta focus on taking advantage of all the things leading up to it. Because we still have a lot of things that we can work on.

“But just gonna approach every week the same. Look at what our opponents’ weaknesses are, and try to attack them from there.”

Palisades confident heading into Year 3

It’s been two years since the new program was ushered in with an exciting “Midnight Madness” practice.

Kendric Davis, a linebacker committed to East Carolina, leads Palisades’ returning cast after it won its first conference games and improved last season. The Observer ranks Davis the 22nd-best football player in the Charlotte area.

The Pumas open the season against West Charlotte for the second straight year, with this year’s meeting on the road on Aug. 23. Palisades fell behind early and came back to battle the Lions in a 28-19 loss in last year’s opener at American Legion Memorial Stadium.

“We got behind the eight ball a little early in the game,” Simmons, the Pumas’ head coach, said. “We battled back to make it a great game, a great effort. I know we’ll get their best effort this time around — they know we’re not a walk in the park.”