Queen City prep football coaches’ challenge: How to contend in a top-heavy conference

It’s really tough to argue with anyone who ranks the Queen City 3A-4A Conference as North Carolina’s best in high school football.

During a nine-year stretch, from 2013 to 2021, the conference had a team in the state championship game eight times.

Three-time state champ Mallard Creek, two-time champion Chambers and perennial powerhouse Hough have been dominant 4A forces. Now a revived West Charlotte program is mentioned as a 3A state title contender.

But the Queen City 3A-4A is an eight-team conference. The other four teams frequently have found themselves on the losing end of 40-0 beatdowns, although North Mecklenburg and West Mecklenburg have sprung an upset or two in recent years.

What is the distance from victim to powerhouse in the Queen City 3A-4A?

That was a topic among coaches gathered Tuesday at the conference’s football media day at Mallard Creek. The answer differed from school to school, although coaches said the gulf is not really that wide.

Starts with attitude

Some coaches said attitude is a key.

“A lot of these kids have struggled with confidence,” said Daryl Vereen, a North Mecklenburg alum who is in his first year as head coach after three years as defensive coordinator. “We have the talent, but the kids don’t realize it.”

He said players sometimes are waiting for something bad to happen, not realizing they are capable of dominating an opponent.

“It’s time to awaken the giant,” he added.

West Mecklenburg coach Beady Waddell, leading a team with 17 seniors this season, had a similar message.

“It’s the little things,” Waddell said, of what builds the gulf between the conference’s have’s and have-not’s. “We’re trying to be more accountable, to be more disciplined.”

Both North Mecklenburg and West Mecklenburg have shown life at times. The Vikings finished 5-6 last season, made the 4A playoffs, beat West Charlotte, and actually finished fourth in the league. They were 5-5 in 2022. West Mecklenburg reached the 3A playoffs with a 5-6 record in 2022.

A bigger gulf

The gulf between leader and follower has been a bit wider for Hopewell and Harding.

Hopewell had a 6-6 record in 2013 but has been 15-89 since. The Titans have produced some excellent players and have several college recruits on this year’s squad.

Third-year head coach Brandon Gentry said the Titans have shown signs of coming to life.

“We hang tough with people but then fall off in the fourth quarter,” he said. “We’re working on learning to hang with those teams all the way.”

“In the past, we’d have a three-and-out, give up the ball, and if the defense made a mistake, it would all blow up on us,” Gentry said. “We hope this year to sustain drives, to show stability.”

Jackson Kerley, a 6-7, 295-pound offensive lineman for the Titans, said Gentry is making progress.

“It probably wasn’t easy for him to take this job, knowing the Hopewell history,” said Kerley, a senior who is being recruited by a number of FBS programs. “But he hasn’t run from that. He’s worked hard, and so are we. We are getting better.”

As a 3A school with little success in recent seasons, Harding might be facing the toughest task in becoming a power. Head coach J.T. Stone, who arrived from California to take over the program a year ago, said success — as measured in a won-loss record — might not come this season.

“We were 1-9 a year ago, but I’m super excited,” Stone said. “We are young. We are very young. You’ll see a lot of freshmen and a lot of sophomores in a lot of positions. We’re building for the future. But these young guys are really good.”

Sophomore Jonquarius Moody had the fastest time among more than 200 high school players participating in a camp this summer at Johnson C. Smith.

“He’s special,” Stone said. “We kept him off the varsity last fall. Now he’s ready.”

Keeping the players

Vereen and Gentry each mentioned one other issue that has hurt their programs — the high number of players transferring to winning programs.

“We’ve had some players transfer out in recent years,” Gentry said.

“We lost a number of players to other schools this year,” Vereen said. “That obviously puts a program behind.”

Gentry said he hopes Hopewell has shed itself of what he called “dead weight.”

“We’ve worked hard to weed those people out,” he said.

West Mecklenburg’s Waddell said the conference’s would-be contenders aren’t that far away.

“It’s usually little things,” he said. “The goal is to get those things cleaned up.”