No. 1 Mallard Creek poised for history-making season

Mallard Creek High has some new faces at football practice nowadays. Only they’re not just players.

The Mavericks, who have overhauled their coaching staff the past two seasons, can chase history with another state championship.

Only four high school teams in North Carolina have won three or more consecutive state championships in the 4A class, the state’s largest. Wilson Fike won three from 1967 to 1969; Richmond Senior from 1988 to 1990; Independence won seven straight from 2000 to 2006; and Greenville Rose won four in a row from 2003 to 2006.

Mallard Creek, No. 1 in the Observer’s preseason Sweet 16 poll and the two-time reigning N.C. 4AA champion, can become only the second 4A team from Mecklenburg County to win three consecutive titles, joining Independence.

“We don’t listen to that stuff,” said Mavericks coach Mike Palmieri, whose nationally-ranked team returns 32 lettermen and 13 starters from last year’s 15-1 season. “We know you have to win it on the field. We’ve had great teams here before and fell short. One bad night and you don’t reach your goals. We take nothing for granted. That’s our mindset.”

For the third straight season, Mallard Creek will try to win it all with a new offensive coordinator. In charge of the offense will be Jose Garcia, who worked at Ardrey Kell last season but coached at Mallard Creek from 2007 to 2009, the first three years the school was open.

Also coaching offense is former Johnson C. Smith offensive coordinator Steve Shipp, a former All-America wide receiver at West Charlotte in the 1990s.

In the past two seasons, Palmieri has lost former offensive coordinators Aaron Brand, now head coach at Vance, and Joe Cox, now a graduate assistant at Colorado State. Former offensive line coach Charlie Gray is now head coach at Hopewell.

“We’ve lost some good coaches,” Palmieri said recently. “But we’ve been fortunate to bring some good ones in.”

The Mavericks’ coaching staff has an abundance of talent to work with:

▪ Senior quarterback James Smith is a three-year starter who accounted for more than 4,500 yards of offense and 60 touchdowns last season.

▪ Senior running back Chancery Bowman returns after rushing for 1,635 yards and 20 touchdowns.

▪ The receiving corps is led by Kansas State recruit Corey Sutton and Furman recruit Thomas Gordon. Victory Christian tight end Thad Moss transferred during the summer. He is a national recruit with major-college offers.

▪ On defense, Florida State recruit Josh Brown returns on a unit that has at least six college prospects. The offensive and defensive lines – anchored by players such as 6-foot-5, 305-pound junior four-star recruit Eric Douglas – are large.

“We have more experience coming into the season,” Palmieri said. “Last year, we had 18 new starters and this year we have 13 starters returning. So just the experience is a big difference.”

Palmieri said with all the success his teams have had, it’s tough to get teams to commit to play the Mavericks. That difficulty led him to schedule three games against Sweet 16 No. 3 Independence (Saturday), No. 2 Butler (Aug. 28) and S.C. 4A title contender Duncan Byrnes (Sept. 4) in a 14-day span.

Smith, the team’s quarterback, said the tough schedule should have the Mavericks ready to play their best in November. That’s when the playoffs start and when Mallard Creek can begin a path to history.

“Practice has been good,” Smith said. “We’re getting ready. We play violent in practice. We like to play fast-paced and hit hard. I feel like we’re better than we were last year. At the end of last season, I think we found ourselves. I think we know who we are right now.”

This story was originally published August 15, 2015 at 2:09 PM with the headline "No. 1 Mallard Creek poised for history-making season."