How youthful Ballantyne Ridge football aims to redefine starting a program from scratch

It’s hard for Ryder Polston to imagine a better opportunity.

Polston, a 14-year-old freshman, will be the first starting quarterback at Ballantyne Ridge, the new high school that kicks off its inaugural football season Friday night. He’s played the sport since he was 5, when he first suited up for the South Charlotte Patriots’ Pop Warner team.

A strong decision maker as a signal caller, Polston is impressing the new coaching staff with his arm talent, confidence and swagger. In addition to demonstrating a clear ability to play the position, the way he’s been carrying himself is also helping him emerge as a leader at a young age.

“The opportunities are unmatched,” Polston said. “We’re just building up; this is the first year. Everyone expects us to be terrible.

“But I think we’re gonna be pretty good. We just have the mindset.”

Nicknamed the Wolves as a subtle reference to N.C. State, and fitted in a unique color scheme that blends traditional Carolina blue with a bright orange akin to the Clemson Tigers, the team representing the new high school opening next Monday in south Charlotte takes the field for its first game Friday against Fort Mill.

Ballantyne Ridge will have full ninth- and tenth-grade classes and roughly half of a junior class in its first year. The football roster reflects that, with exactly 40 freshmen, 11 sophomores and five juniors. With an average age of 14.8 years old, they are believed to be the youngest high school football team in the country.

Ballantyne Ridge brought in experienced coaches

Chris Redding, hired as the first Ballantyne Ridge head coach in December, had a vision right away. As much as football is about the X’s and O’s, he made it a priority to vet the best people to lead his new group.

Tyson Fernandez, a 30-year-old former Appalachian State defensive lineman, joined the staff after two seasons as Rocky River’s head football coach. He quickly grew excited about the new program’s potential after an initial phone conversation with Redding, whose character Fernandez loved.

Fernandez introduced Redding to Aristotle Bowles. A Charlotte native who recently played at N.C. State, Bowles had impressed as a young special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for the Ravens.

“You’re just trying to add as much as you can and put the right people in the right places,” Redding, a Vermont native and recent Berry Academy head coach, explained. “When it comes to the actual design of the program, we want an identity with what we’re going to do on offense and defense. We wanted to have an identity with the branding: The light blue, orange and distinct logo.

“We wanted to make sure we had a recognizable brand in the community — and also want to make sure the kids we’re bringing in know what they’re getting themselves into. We’ve got guys on staff who were head coaches in different sports, been head coaches before. Every position group is going to be a leader.”

An unlikely encounter leads to a hire

Recent Charlotte 49ers quarterback Dominique Shoffner unexpectedly saw Fernandez at Bocao Sushi.

“Dom!” he remembers Fernandez calling out. “Is that you?”

Shoffner, 24, graduated from Middle Creek High School outside Raleigh — eight miles from Fuquay-Varina, Fernandez’s alma mater — and went on to play two years at N.C. Central University. He spent seven months at Monroe College, a junior college in New York, where he impressed and was named Conference Player of the Year.

That success brought him to Charlotte, where he played in four of six games during the truncated 2020 season. He sustained a season-long injury in 2021 and departed for Eastern Illinois, where he made three starts before transferring back to Charlotte the following year.

Shoffner enjoyed his time with the Panthers and had some success, but he wanted to be closer to home. Then-newly hired head coach Biff Poggi wanted him back, too.

Now, he’s become a personal trainer and has all his clientele in this area. He’s always had aspirations of playing professionally and participated in Pro Days with Charlotte, N.C. State and Duke — and eventually ended up playing some arena football.

But he always had a personality, liked to help others and realized the impact that coaches had on him throughout his life. When he ran into Fernandez that day at Bocao, they started connecting more about what they did for work.

Shoffner was intrigued by Fernandez’s job.

“I’ve looked to (Fernandez) like a mentor,” said Shoffner, who now works closely with Polston and the Wolves’ quarterbacks. “He told me he was coaching the first year at Ballantyne Ridge. And he asked what I had going on, if I was interested in coaching. I said, ‘Yes, sir,’ right on the spot. No hesitation.”

‘A better opportunity than anyone at any other school’

Redding started hosting the program’s first workouts in April.

There were roughly 10 underclassmen from South Mecklenburg and Ardrey Kell who showed up to the Morrison Family YMCA. Those prospective Wolves ran through drills to determine which positions could be their best fit.

“Most buildings of first-year schools — none of them have seniors,” said Jeff Sakakini, the Wolves’ pass game coordinator who runs the Next Level Elite 7-on-7 football program. “But they usually have half juniors and sophomores. Together, we have 16 sophomores and juniors. It is a young team, and we’re playing a varsity schedule.”

More of the rising freshmen joined during the summer, when the team moved its practices from the YMCA to the fields outside Community House Middle School. They’ve mainly been at South Academy of International Languages, formerly known as E.E. Waddell High School, before they finally move into their new stadium on campus this week.

As the Wolves also held lifts inside the weight rooms of both South Mecklenburg and Ardrey Kell, they were practicing in five different locations over the past six weeks.

In addition to having deep knowledge of football, the coaching staff puts an emphasis on developing the athletes as men. It’s clear that all the assistant coaches are there because they want to be, and their passion is rubbing off on the players.

“It’s a better opportunity than anyone at any other school has,” Polston said. “Us as freshmen, at other schools, we wouldn’t be starting. Here, we have great opportunities.”