Nation’s No. 3 high school basketball scorer is also N.C. football player of the year - with a big decision to make

North Gaston boys’ basketball coach Wes Hepler watched Lincolnton High star Sage Surratt play in person for the first time eariler this month.

Hepler, Myers Park’s former coach, had heard all the stories:

▪  How Surratt, at 6-foot-4 and 205 pounds, was one of the best basketball players ever from Lincoln County.

▪ How Surratt had played so well in state football and state basketball championship games, and as a sophomore scored 25 points against Kinston High and former Duke star Brandon Ingram in the N.C. 2A final.

▪ How Surratt owned many of the state’s most important receiving records in football.

But after Surratt torched North Gaston for 42 points in a 71-59 win, Hepler admitted Surratt is better than all the stories.

“Man, he’s just a great player,” Helpler said moments after the game. “The thing I was most impressed with was he didn’t hit a 3 (-point shot). He hit one step-back jumper, one floater and the rest were layups and free throws. His body control and strength is exceptional. It really is.”

By almost any measure, Surratt has to be considered one of the state’s all-time best multi-sport athletes. His senior year is shaping up as the best in a career that’s included record-breaking accomplishments.

“Each year, I’ve seen myself get better,” Surratt said. “I know my ability...but I am surprised a little bit. I’m just doing what I need to do for my team to win, whether in basketball that’s scoring 36 or me scoring 12.”

As a wide receiver on Lincolnton’s football team, Surratt helped the Wolves to the state 2A semifinal game. He caught a state-record 129 passes last season for a state-record 2,104 yards and added 28 touchdowns. The touchdowns are the second-most scored in state history. For his career, he holds state records for catches (366), yards (5,926) and touchdown receptions (80).

Last week, Surratt tied with two other players as the leading vote-getter on the Associated Press N.C. all-state football team. He was named state offensive player of the year. The year before, his brother Chazz won that award. Chazz Surratt - who was Parade Magazine’s national high school football player of the year and an Associated Press all-state basketball player as a senior at East Lincoln - is a freshman quarterback at North Carolina.

Sage could top Chazz this year and win state player of the year in football and basketball.

This basketball season, Surratt averages nearly 37 points, which ranks third nationally, according to national high school website MaxPreps. He also averages 8.7 rebounds and 7.2 assists. Unofficially, he has 2,386 career points, which would rank 14th on the N.C. High School Athletic Association all-time scoring list.

Surratt is two points from 13th. If he continues at his current pace, he would end his career as a top-three scorer in N.C. history. He could also reach the 12-year-old career scoring record of 3,307 points, set by former Eastern Alamance star JamesOn Curry.

If Surratt finishes the season with his 36.9-point average, that would be a state record, too.

“He’s better than I thought he was,” said Lincolnton coach Bob Cowie.

Cowie coached against Surratt for three years, when Surratt starred in two sports at East Lincoln. After a Surratt family decision to transfer to Lincoln in the summer, Cowie’s coaching a player he’d previously been game-planning against.

“When you coach against him,” Cowie said, “you realize the things he can do and how smart he is and how tough he is. But when you coach him, you realize you just need to ask him to do something one time and he can do it, and you see how hard he plays.

“It’s every aspect of his game. He’s a much better shooter than I ever thought he was. When he wants to get the ball to the rim, he gets the ball to the rim. I realized how good of a player he was, but he’s even more than I anticipated.”

As talented as he is in basketball, Surratt said his best college scholarship offers have come in football, and he committed to play for Harvard last October. He has since re-opened his recruitment and narrowed his choices to Duke, Harvard, North Carolina and Wake Forest. He was scheduled to take an official visit to Wake Forest this weekend.

“Wake is the only place I’ll visit,” Surratt said. “I’ve been to Duke and UNC. Harvard is still an option, but I’ve been able to have great success in North Carolina, and if I have the opportunity to play here I’d like to do that, with the fan base here, and being able to play close to home. Playing with Chazz (at North Carolina) is a factor, but at the end of the day I have to do what’s best for me and choose whatever university is best for me.”

Surratt said he has spoken to North Carolina coaches about possibly also playing basketball in Chapel Hill, but hasn’t had that conversation with football coaches at Wake Forest or Duke.

“I have been focusing on football,” he said. “It’s definitely going to be football first, but basketball can be a possibility, but football is my main priority. I always said I’d go with whatever was the best opportunity between the two sports. I felt like football had the better opportunity for me to play at a higher level.”

Surratt’s two-sport success has surprised his mother, who said growing up Sage had to always play on older teams with his brother, just so the family didn’t have to be in two places at once for games.

“He watched Chazz play a lot, particularly in AAU basketball,” Brandi Surratt said. “But it motivated (Sage) to get better. He learned a lot and he never complained.”

Surratt’s parents, including father Kevin, are big on enforcing discipline. The boys were not allowed to touch a basketball until football season ended, and making poor grades simply wasn’t tolerated. Sage Surratt has a 5.06 grade-point average taking advanced classes at Lincolnton and he has never made a B in high school, his mother said.

“He comes home and - I’m not exaggerating - he does three to four hours of homework a night,” Brandi Surratt said. “It surprises me that he can do what he does and do the amount of homework he does. He doesn’t go out and do things other kids do.

“When they’re out having fun, Sage is home doing homework. The athletic part is surprising to me, but it’s the academic part, to me, that is the piece that’s overlooked most about him. That’s the more incredible thing to me.”

After watching Surratt play basketball, North Gaston’s Hepler said he could tell Surratt was smart by how he played and how quickly he analyzed situations. He said Surratt’s talent would translate to playing at larger high school schools in cities like Charlotte, Greensboro or Raleigh.

“It wouldn’t matter what level he played on,” Hepler said. “He would score a lot of points (in a Charlotte conference) as well. He’s never rattled. He’s extremely competitive and he’s got incredible body control. You can look at him and see why he’s been so good.

“He’s a great-looking athlete with a great mind for the game. Man, he’s just really, really impressive.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 11:38 AM with the headline "Nation’s No. 3 high school basketball scorer is also N.C. football player of the year - with a big decision to make."