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Four football players lead way for Fuquay signees

Submitted by jmikeblake on 02/02/2011 - 08:00

Fuquay-Varina will have five athletes signing scholarships this week, including four football players that will sign today. None is more heralded than defensive tackle Shawn Underwood, a two-time all-state player who will play for Butch Davis at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Fuquay's Hunter makes his pick

Submitted by timstevens on 02/01/2011 - 14:01

Fuquay-Varina's Cory Hunter, who rushed for almost 6,000 yards in his high school career, is expected to sign with the University of Charleston in West Virginia on Wednesday.

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2010 Tri-Nine All-Conference football

Submitted by jmikeblake on 12/06/2010 - 13:21

Click "Read More" to see who the Tri-Nine offensive, defensive and special team players of the year are, as well as the coach of the year and first and second teams.

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Monday's "How I did" (week ten)

Submitted by jmikeblake on 10/25/2010 - 16:55

All good things must come to and end.

Like football season. Or Panther Creek's unbeaten streak.

And my string of perfect weeks predicting Tri-Nine games. We had to stop at four.

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Monday's "How I did" (week seven)

Submitted by jmikeblake on 10/04/2010 - 07:16

I never liked hearing predictions from talking heads who never follow-up on those picks later on. That's why I bring you the "How I did" blog every Monday.

I'm not afraid of owning up to my picks. So when I go 4-for-4 in my football picks in back-to-back weeks, I promise this blog isn't designed for me to brag.

But I'm going to have to do some of that after the kind of year it's been for me in picking these games.

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Monday's "How I did" (week one): Eating Hawk

Submitted by jmikeblake on 08/23/2010 - 14:14

If there was a chance - any chance at all - that I had forgotten about picking Holly Springs eighth in the Tri-Nine Conference and then following up that prediction with one that they would also lose to Southeast Raleigh by 21 points, that chance would have evaporated by the time the clock struck zero with the score reading: Holly Springs 28, Southeast Raleigh 27.

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Leatham, Hunter and Crisp named to all-state 4-A team

Submitted by jmikeblake on 01/06/2010 - 16:31

 

Three Tri-Nine football. players were named to the All-State 4-A team by ncpreps.com.

Athens Drive's Robert Crisp (pictured below, right), who was also named to the All-State team by N.C. media and All-American by USA Today, was one of the five offensive lineman selected to the squad.

Middle Creek's Garrett Leatham (pictured left), who threw for more than 4,000 yards this year including 451 in a game versus Apex, was named to one of the five "athlete" positions. He was joined by Fuquay-Varina running back Cory Hunter (pictured top) who ran for more than 1,900 yards including 463 in a game versus Panther Creek.

Crisp, a senior, will play in the U.S. Army All-American Bowl this Saturday. He has committed to N.C. State.

Hunter and Leatham are juniors. Hunter has the lone scholarship offer between them as of now after being offered by New Mexico during the season. 

Tri-Nine All-Conference football team (Offense)

Submitted by jmikeblake on 11/30/2009 - 08:58


2009 Tri-Nine All Conference awards

 

Coach of the Year - Sean Crocker, Middle Creek (right)  


Offensive Player of the Year - Cory Hunter, junior FB, Fuquay-Varina (top) 

Special Teams Player of the Year - Steve Weis, senior K/P, Apex (left)

 

 

 

Offensive First Team

QB        Garrett Leatham    11th     Middle Creek

 

RB        JJ Graves        12th    Holly Springs

Kyree Green        11th    Athens Drive

 

WR        Devonte Knox        12th    Middle Creek

Louis Wilder        11th    Athens Drive
        

Dequan Swann        11th    Lee County

 

OL        Robert Crisp   (right, 78)    12th    Athens Drive       

Sean Lucius        11th    Holly Springs

Robert Rhodes        12th    Fuquay-Varina

Shawn Underwood    11th    Fuquay-Varina
        

Jalen Wood        11th    Lee County

 

Athlete        Nate Budde        12th     Fuquay-Varina

 

Offensive Second Team


QB        Ben Snotherthly    11th     Athens Drive


 

RB        Deandre Henry        10th    Cary

Stephen Sladek        12th    Middle Creek

 

WR        Kevin Jones        10th    Middle Creek

Graham Love        12th    Panther Creek

Jon Moore        10th    Middle Creek

 

OL        JaQueen Boyd        12th    Athens Drive       

Matt Boyer        12th    Cary

Cody Gaulthier        12th    Cary

B.J. Minter        11th    Middle Creek

Al Reams        12th    Middle Creek

 

Athlete        Aaron Womack        12th    Green Hope

Leatham, Hunter, SWakeSports take aim at record books

Submitted by jmikeblake on 11/23/2009 - 15:54
This year was record-breaking for some local football athletes. Cory Hunter has surged through the all-time ranks, but so has Garrett Leatham. And Louis Wilder, Kameron Bryant and Ben Snotherly should all see their names in next year's record book. We'll take a look at what the NCHSAA football record book has to show as of now (this isn't intended to distract anyone from this Friday's playoff games -- we'll have more on that later):
 
  •  Cory Hunter has 35 rushing touchdowns this year. Two more, and he'll be tied for the 8th-most in state history for a season.  
 
  • Hunter had 463 yards of rushing against Panther Creek on Sept. 18, and it's the second most in a single game in state history -- but you knew that already. 
 
  • Hunter also has 2,073 rushing yards this year. He'll need 37 more to crack the top-100 for rushing yards in a season.  
 
  • Hunter has 59 touchdowns in his previous two years, and we're hunting down how many he had in his freshman year at Cardinal Gibbons. If it's not in the range of 8-or-more, he's nowhere to being a threat for most rushing touchdowns in a career. You need about 90 to crack top-10. 
 
  • This also depends on the Cardinal Gibbons stats. Looking through some old online archives at the N&O, I could only find 90 rushing yards for Hunter, but some games were missing stats. Nonetheless, if 90 is all Hunter got that year, he stands with 4,051 yards in his career (he ran for 1,888 last year). That'd put him no higher than 65th on the list, and that's assuming somebody leapfrogged him this year (i.e. Ian Bosley). 
 
  • On Nov. 6, the final week of the regular season, Garrett Leatham threw for 451 yards in a 41-20 win over Apex. Unbeknownst to everyone at the time, Leatham had just finished with the 12th-most passing yards in a game. 
 
  • Leatham has thrown for 3,687 yards this year -- that's 18th-most in North Carolina history for a season. 
 
  • With 18 passing touchdowns and 33 this year, Leatham currently has 51 passing touchdowns in his career. He'd need to complete another 50 next year to register on the NCHSAA list (it's nowhere near as long as the yardage list). He'd also need another 12 this postseason to crack the top-5 list for most in a season.
 
  • Leatham has 234 completions this year. That's 46 shy of 3rd-most in N.C. history. 
 
  • Athens Drive junior wideout Louis Wilder was the only receiver in the Tri-Nine to go over 1,000 yards this year. His 1,114 this year in addition to his 605 last year gives him 1,719. Assuming he played JV as a freshman, he'll need 426 to tie for 28th in state history.
 
  • Over the past two years, Leatham has 5,935 passing yards (65 short of 6,000 for a career). Only 23 players in state history have thrown for 6,000 yards, and Leatham currently sits in 25th place (2 yards shy of 24th).
 
  • Leatham wasn't the only passer in the conference to place high up on the record books. Again, this is all subject to change because there might be quarterbacks in other areas throwing for more this year, but Panther Creek's Kameron Bryant (with 2,602 yards, tied with Jody Brown, Statesville High, 1990) finished no higher than 59th in single-season passing yardage this year. Athens Drive's Ben Snotherly threw for 2,525, and that's no higher than 64th on the all-time list for a single season.
 
  • Who knew Phillip Barren ('09 graduate of Athens Drive) finished his career 21st on the career reception yardage list with 2,591 yards? That's 18 more than Torry Holt!! Athens' offense style certainly has a hand in this, as former teammate T.J. Korenegay ('08 grad) is 16th. 
 
  • Former Cary back Josh Adams ('05 grad) has the 11th and 21st most rushing yards in a season in his last two years as an Imp. However, yet he doesn't show up on the career list (and those two years combined should put him in the top-40 range. We've alerted Cary to look up Josh's career stats and report those to the NCHSAA so he gets his due in history. 

A quick back look at Friday (9/20)

Submitted by jmikeblake on 09/20/2009 - 01:22
Player of the week: 463 yards. Four touchdowns. Second-highest number of rushing yards in a N.C. high school game and I wouldn't be surprised if Cory Hunter is still running somewhere. And they needed all 463 as Panther Creek wouldn't stop scoring. Unreal performance. Outside of the Tri-Nine Conference, I don't think people understand how great of a runner he is. Maybe they do now. Because it's not the system with Hunter. He took 28 carries and averaged an absurd 17.1 per carry. Already over 1,000 yards this year, Hunter — not trying to get too far ahead of myself — is going to be a threat for state career records next year.
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