Beating Page and then East Forsyth were stepping stones for Grimsley’s program. To claim that Grimsley’s mission is to surpass Page’s five titles is truly laughable. Just because Page and its followers are obsessed with Grimsley’s recent success, doesn’t mean the converse is true. Rankings/Maxpreps recognition are good things but don’t you think the primary goal of every team, every year is a state championship? Maybe national recognition works for Mater Dei, IMG, Don Bosco and few other select schools, but they are the exception rather than rule.
Props to Weddington
- Thread starter BigCharlieHayes
- Start date
It sounds like Grimsley has a collective self-image problem. This leads them to continually trying to validate themselves.
I never said it was their mission to surpass Page's 5 titles. It is to win a 4A title that's not in a pandemic year. What makes you relevant to the conversation as a top program of all time are ultimately titles. Page, Richmond, Independence, Rose, Butler, Mallard Creek, Wake Forest, Vance/Chambers, East Forsyth... all the teams that have won multiple titles in a row and are known for being as some would say a dynasty, have all received national recognition and national polling. That is the rule. Weddington could be the next team added to the list after this coming up season or 2.
Also, I'm not talking about what a team is trying to achieve in a single year, I'm talking about the school as a whole, the students, the community, you know deep down that everyone wants to one up Page, you know that comes down to winning titles. You could care less about scheduling a better program outside of NC. It would expose you.
Obsessed? That's laughable, just stating my opinion doesn't make anyone obsessed. Frankly, its the opposite, more of a casual observation. I only go to a few games a season now.
Last edited:
Weddington is taking state and I'm still voting for the orange man. Just thought yall should know
02 Indy team may have been the greatest NC ever!!! That team alone with Leak, Knotts and the star power on that team could play with any school in the nation. Can't believe how great of a team could even exist in NC.
I don't normally care for a bunch of excuses, but sometimes it may be worth while. Some of what I am going to say is 100% fact, and some is personal opinion. It may not be in logical order. A lot of people may want to move on right now.
First, I saw video of the Jenks Oklahoma team arriving at the Covington, Ky airport on a chartered jet. I don't know who paid, but that is an oil rich part of the country, and the Jenks team obviously did not lack for money. Transportation promised to Independence did not happen, and it took them 10 hours for travel. Elder, on the other hand, was about 5 minutes from the stadium. According to Google Maps traveling from the school by bus would have been a minimum of 8 hours and slightly less than 600 miles. I can't see the good, better, best, choice in the travel options. Bottom line, I doubt any of the other 11, or so, out of town schools were shafted like Independence.
Another wealthy program, Hoover Alabama, actually brought their band to their game with Colerain. The only band I saw in 2 years, except for the Cincinnati schools. It was a hot afternoon game, so they rolled out several hundred feet of cushions for the band on the aluminum bleachers to make them more comfortable and possibly to prevent blisters. I'm sure it took several buses, and at least one tractor-trailer, for the band.
One other fact about transportation that has nothing to do with the Elder game. As we were heading north on I-77 while pulling into a rest stop in West Virginia we saw 10 identical buses pulling out. We found it was the App State band headed to Ann Arbor to play Michigan the next day. Little did they know what was going to happen. Possibly/Probably the biggest upset in college football history.
Elder has been called a so-so Cincinnati team. On a scale of 1-10, I would rank them about 7. But they did have the #1 tight end in the country (Kyle Rudolph) who the program said was 6'7" and 250 pounds. He later played 4 years at Notre Dame, and at least 10 years with the Vikings. Frankly he was the difference in the game. It seemed like he pushed off on Devonte Holloman (a great player himself) almost every play, but he was so big he could hardly move without bumping into somebody.
Each of the 22 teams in the 11 games had photos of 2 players in the official progam. Independence pictured players were DB Makiri Pugh who later played at Georgia, and TE Mario Carter who played at NC State. Neither of those 2 played in the Elder game due to injuries.
At the Independence-Elder game the attendance may have been 30,000. With the exception of maybe 100 to 200, they all came to see Independence lose. Talk about a home field advantage.
There's probably more, but I guess that's enough whining. Independence lost, and almost everybody was happy. Was the field level??????
One last thought. I guess all of this makes what App State did look even better. They were able to go on the road and win. But the team probably traveled with a couple of days time cushion, and I doubt it took them 10 hours to get there.
First, I saw video of the Jenks Oklahoma team arriving at the Covington, Ky airport on a chartered jet. I don't know who paid, but that is an oil rich part of the country, and the Jenks team obviously did not lack for money. Transportation promised to Independence did not happen, and it took them 10 hours for travel. Elder, on the other hand, was about 5 minutes from the stadium. According to Google Maps traveling from the school by bus would have been a minimum of 8 hours and slightly less than 600 miles. I can't see the good, better, best, choice in the travel options. Bottom line, I doubt any of the other 11, or so, out of town schools were shafted like Independence.
Another wealthy program, Hoover Alabama, actually brought their band to their game with Colerain. The only band I saw in 2 years, except for the Cincinnati schools. It was a hot afternoon game, so they rolled out several hundred feet of cushions for the band on the aluminum bleachers to make them more comfortable and possibly to prevent blisters. I'm sure it took several buses, and at least one tractor-trailer, for the band.
One other fact about transportation that has nothing to do with the Elder game. As we were heading north on I-77 while pulling into a rest stop in West Virginia we saw 10 identical buses pulling out. We found it was the App State band headed to Ann Arbor to play Michigan the next day. Little did they know what was going to happen. Possibly/Probably the biggest upset in college football history.
Elder has been called a so-so Cincinnati team. On a scale of 1-10, I would rank them about 7. But they did have the #1 tight end in the country (Kyle Rudolph) who the program said was 6'7" and 250 pounds. He later played 4 years at Notre Dame, and at least 10 years with the Vikings. Frankly he was the difference in the game. It seemed like he pushed off on Devonte Holloman (a great player himself) almost every play, but he was so big he could hardly move without bumping into somebody.
Each of the 22 teams in the 11 games had photos of 2 players in the official progam. Independence pictured players were DB Makiri Pugh who later played at Georgia, and TE Mario Carter who played at NC State. Neither of those 2 played in the Elder game due to injuries.
At the Independence-Elder game the attendance may have been 30,000. With the exception of maybe 100 to 200, they all came to see Independence lose. Talk about a home field advantage.
There's probably more, but I guess that's enough whining. Independence lost, and almost everybody was happy. Was the field level??????
One last thought. I guess all of this makes what App State did look even better. They were able to go on the road and win. But the team probably traveled with a couple of days time cushion, and I doubt it took them 10 hours to get there.
Last edited:
I have 2002 behind 2004 and 2001.
You can still find several 2004 entire playoff games on YouTube, if you search a little bit. I think they have Independence-Richmond and I know they have Independence-Southview. I know there is also an Independence-New Bern game, but I am sure which year it was. The video is not great, but you can tell what's going on pretty well.
Most people probably know Chris Leake was their best QB, but the QB of their best team (in my opinion) was actually Joe Cox in 2004.
I'm not here to push YouTube, but I believe you can find quite a few whole games of North Carolina 2A, 3A, and 4A state championships from recent years. I don't recall seeing a 1A game, but they may be there as well.
Last edited:
Buses headed to the airport from Indy at 6am. Team arrived at Nippert Stadium via bus from Akron airport after 9pm. Knotts noted he thought the travel was a big part of what had them wore down in the fourth quarter.
That's even worse than I thought. It's 240 miles and 4 hours from the Akron airport to Cincinatti.
If the teams were reversed and the game had been in Charlotte that would have been like Elder taking half a day (including airport check in and check out time) to fly to Atlanta, and then another half day to transfer to buses and drive from Atlanta to Charlotte. This doesn't prove anything, except Elder had a HUGE advantage.
Last edited:
I think the 2002 team was Indy’s best team in my opinion. I find 04 Indy to be slightly overrated because Charlotte was down that year. If I put that 2002 team in 04, playing that schedule, the scoring margin would be the same. 2002 Indy played a really talented Providence and Butler team so those games were tighter than normal.
My bad. Think it was Dayton not Akron. It took them right at two hours to drive from the airport to the stadium. It was 15 hours plus from Indy parking lot to the stadium.
In the post game press conference Knitts was asked if he would do anything differently and he said just bus instead of fly. Told me they could have stopped to eat, did a stretch out, and controlled the narrative.
They were told a downtown hotel within a few minutes of the stadium and ended up at an airport hotel on the Kentucky side. Not a big drive but another example.
I had heard from other schools over the years that the promoter continually nickled and dimed them. Schools that could afford to take charge of their situation did so. Nothing changed for the Ohio schools as they only needed to know the time of the game. The prior year Lakeland (Florida) dealt with similar issues. Byrnes handled their own transportation and hotel paying the difference between the costs and the promoter allowance.
Kids at practice one day catching passes and playing 7v7, the next day new school on the other side of town. Lol! 😂
Its literally happening like this - right now there is no loyalty man, but in some cases I get it. But some of these moves are crazy to me.
The trickle down effect from the NIL, extra covid year, and no sit out transfers. We've made it a HS free agency period. Crazy thing is most of the moves are legit. Charlotte will get the spotlight but the entire state including rural areas are going crazy. Not to mention privates scabbing people. He'll some of these moves the coaches don't even know about til a player shows up.
Weddington is clear #1. Indy strong #2. WC lost a big fish, but gained a big fish. Majority of their team/contributors were there as freshman. Providence got a big fish. Too many to even keep up with. Will have to wait til Aug 1. Don't forget Hough right now they are #3. WC 4.
J
I know a kid that worked out with his former team in the mornings and then would work out with his now current team in the evenings lol
To anyone in the know when does the transfer exclusion apply in playing with two teams? Does the summer count or is it after Aug 1 or after a game is played? meaning play for one team and switch to another. The Eric Lyons rule.
I think the change was if the player attended a day of school or the first game has been played. Current Indy HC McFadden was at Olympic and that hemmed him up due to the first game being played which was before school started. Now, that was twenty years ago so not sure at this time.
@bigdadd11103 There were some in-season moves last season in CMS, not many, but I think they may have applied the transfer hardship rule back to the home school in those instances. So I don't think the Eric Lyon rule is the gospel anymore.
For those of us outside of Charlotte and not in the loop can the players in reference to here be listed? From the sounds of the last few posts it seems to imply there have been some big time transfers in the last few days, but we have no idea who they are and where they are transferring from and to.
Highschool OT has a running list, but I'm not joking when I say this, there's someone new every day. The biggest name lately is Elijah Littlejohn going from WC to Charlotte Christian.
Another one is Bryce Lee leaving East Meck to go to Independence. Most people don't know him because of where he was, but he's a D1 level D-Lineman.
Also Keland Shelton from NM to Providence.
Charlotte Christian got the RB from Salisbury
Porter Ridge QB lockhart to MP
MP qb to WC
Weddington got Tate from NM
Tyran Evans from chambers to Hough
Camdin Portis to MP
Sadat Grant NM to Indy
Gust Ritchey to Cary
Jaquez Crawford grimsley to dudley
Connor Flood Laney to Butler
Charlotte Christian got the RB from Salisbury
Porter Ridge QB lockhart to MP
MP qb to WC
Weddington got Tate from NM
Tyran Evans from chambers to Hough
Camdin Portis to MP
Sadat Grant NM to Indy
Gust Ritchey to Cary
Jaquez Crawford grimsley to dudley
Connor Flood Laney to Butler
I guess all of these cases are different, but I looked up some video on Bryce Lee and he can play, very possibly D1. It appears he wasted away at East Mecklenburg for 2 years, and never got any attention. He is on the national recruit list on this site, but he has "no" stars. I would say he did a lot more for East Mecklenburg than East Mecklenburg ever did for him. I can understand why he thought time was running out for HS, and it was past time to try to do something for himself.
I don't know what choices he had. Possibly Butler, Providence, Independence, or a private, but it's hard for me to blame him for wanting to get away from East and try to make up for lost time.
I never even heard of the guy until this afternoon, but I hope things work out well for him. He's due a break.
It's nobody's fault. He was just a football player at a soccer school.
Last edited:
He’s a good defensive lineman. Can play potentially at the d1 level, definitely has the size. Indy also last week got a transfer from cox mill, 6’3 290 offensive lineman rising junior…heard many schools were reaching out to him.
If it's the OL I'm thinking of, he's got some real potential. Under the radar for now. Independence also has Takeo Massey, 6'3 ATH/DB from East Meck. He can play.
Brock Jenkins is the QB from MP to WC. Great move for him, senior year and WC has the skill guys for him to throw to. He was hurt his soph year and was the backup to an All-Conf QB last year. He is a player
He was definitely in demand, I know that for sure
Right now NIL, Covid year, and free no sit out transfer has opened the doors for college transfers and the player "Doing Whats Best For Them". It's trickled down to HS and MS where teams are building super teams and players look to move for any reason. U see guys openly being recruited by privates which have NIL. Players leave schools because they've been sent to the bench for a younger guy or someone transferred in. It's a me first attitude that is dominating HS football.
Some of these moves make sense some don't. Some build super teams and some build perpetual struggling teams. Just wish there was a deadline like college. Some of the players that are loyal to their programs getting skipped over by transfers. Nit sure why coaches give more attention/chances to a transfer vs. The loyal guy that stuck it out and waited their turn....
There is a deadline I believe. I was always under the impression that August 1st or basically 1st day of official practice is when things are official. You can’t transfer and still participate at two different schools once August 1st hits. June and July is when all the movement can happen.
Housing is different than it was 20 years ago. More and more parents in this generation are renters vs home owners in the past from my point of view. It’s much easier for families in today’s climate to bounce around each side of town looking for the best fit. Once the 1 year lease is up, they pick a new apartment or house in the school zone they want. Coach A moved to a new school, cool, my lease is up in 3 months and I will follow that coach, no problem.
NIL$ that privates can offer will skim away best public school talent.
Last edited:
I think most of us predicted some of this 8-10 years ago. I always thought it would be a bit tougher with football than basketball but apparently not. If Providence Day or one of these other privates really want to spend the $$ they could really build some national level powerhouses.
