Mountaineer hitting practice begins at Carlton Stadium, jamborees Wednesday at Shelby and Friday at Gaffney

Kings Mountain’s Mountaineers began fall football practice Saturday morning at Shu Carlton Stadium and are continuing to hit every day this week in preparation for a couple of jamborees this week and the regular season that begins on Friday, Aug. 18 with a 7:30 home game against the Shelby Golden Lions.

New head coach Strait Herron said he was extremely pleased with how things went Saturday and looks forward to several good sessions in the coming days.

The Mountaineers will compete in the annual Cleveland County Jamboree Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Shelby High School. Kings Mountain will get a strong test as it goes up against a very talented AC Reynolds team in the 6 p.m. contest.

Friday night the Mountaineers will travel to Gaffney for a 6 p.m. clash with Catawba Ridge in the McDonald’s Classic.

After those two bouts, the Mountaineers will turn their attention to their longest rival, the Shelby Golden Lions who will come here for a 7:30 p.m. clash at John Gamble Stadium.

Coach Herron said he has been highly-pleased with how the Mountaineers are coming along in his new system and feels they will be at full strength for the beginning of the season. One of the team’s top players, UNC recruit Curtis Simpson, sat out Saturday’s practice with a slight injury but is in top shape this week.

“Everything’s going really well,” he said. “Our quarterback situation is up in the air after just one day of hitting but we have some good, talented kids that know how to play. But we still have a long way to go.”

Three quarterbacks show a lot of promise, including Kandon Zolo who is a senior transfer from Clover, SC; Darion Velez-Dixon, a junior transfer from East Mecklenburg; and TJ Armstrong, a sophomore who was the JV Mountaineers’ QB last fall.

“We’ll try to rotate as best we can and hopefully three or four series on offense will get them all in,” he said.

The Mountaineers have several returning on offense, including last year’s leading rusher Teddy Jeffries. Jaden Gash, Qua Sanders and Bryson Brown are returning receivers and will be good targets for the QBs.

The offensive line looks strong, led by 6-1, 240pound returnee Alex Jackson who can play any position. Sophomore Dom Davis is “a gritty little player,” according to Coach Herron and he will be joined by other hope- fuls like transfer Brayden Barnes, Matt Rikard, Chris Benton and others.

Kings Mountain High football players go through their first hitting practice Saturday at Shu Carlton Stadium. When KMHS was based at Central School on Ridge Street, this is where the Mountaineers played their home games and it was called City Stadium. They moved into their current stadium, John Gamble Stadium, in 1967. City Stadium was later renamed Shu Carlton Stadium in memory of Coach Carlton who led the Mountaineers to their first and second conference championships in 1955 and 1956. The 1963 and ‘64 Mountaineers, coached by the late Bill Bates, also won championships there.

Coach Herron expects his players to get at the top of their game every Friday night as the Big South is always one of the toughest 3A leagues in the state. He sees Crest and South Point as the Mountaineers’ toughest conference foes.

“Crest is a big one,” he said of the Mountaineers’ final regular season foe. “They have the Green kid who is very good and they’re talented as always. And South Point’s going to be really good. What they do is very hard to stop. And, Ashbrook has a lot of good players and they’ll be pretty good.”

But, he knows the Mountaineers have talented players who can be right up there with the best of them.

“We think we’ve got a chance,” he said. “We have a good enough defense to give people some problems.”

The offense has a lot of potential, too, led by the above-mentioned line.

“It’s coming down to who will be the starting quarterback,” he said. “All the quarterbacks are coming along. The quarterback is the key guy on offense. Coach Bolton has them on the right track. Ours is a tough offense to run but Coach Bolton has them on the right track.”

Kings Mountain has good numbers with about 55 players on varsity and 50 on JVs. Fortunately, the Mountaineers haven’t had any major injuries thus far. He said it’s “hard to say” right now if the

Just like in “days of old,” Kings Mountain High football cheerleaders lead the way down Gaston Street from Central School to Shu Carlton Stadium for first hitting practice Saturday morning. The Mountaineers are preparing for their home opener against arch rival Shelby on Friday, August 18 against their longest rival, the Shelby High Golden Lions. The Mountaineers will be competing for a half of football in the first game of the Cleveland County Jamboree in Shelby and on Friday will play in the McDonald’s Kickoff Classic in Gaffney, SC at 7 p.m.

Mountaineers will be a running or passing team.

“We really need to practice more running but we also put a lot of emphasis on passing,” he said. “We looked pretty good with both Saturday. We were lucky we didn’t get anybody hurt. Coming out healthy is a good sign. We’ve been piddling with injuries all summer but we’re healthy. We just hope the guys learn all these new things we’re doing.

“In the past we’ve gone with a true Air-Raid offense but we may not go as fast with it this year. We still won’t huddle very often but we’ll probably go a little slower.”