Top Charlotte high school football players must decide: Graduate early or play in spring?

Julian Gray really, really wanted to play his senior season of high school football, but when the N.C. High School Athletic Association pushed the start of it to February, Gray was stuck at a crossroads many elite players find themselves in right now:

Do I stay and play my senior season of high school football, or do I graduate early and start on my dream of playing college football?

For Gray, a 17-year-old senior at Hopewell High School and a Sports Illustrated All-American candidate, the decision wasn’t easy. But he said it was kind of obvious.

Gray, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound wide receiver, will enroll at N.C. State early next year.

“Me and my dad came up with reasons why I should go to school,” Gray said Friday afternoon. “There’s always a risk of injury, of course, if I come back. And I’ll have all my classes done by December or January, and I want to go and get used to N.C. State’s playbook, and I’m ready for bigger and better. I love Hopewell and everything we have going on over there. I was ready to play with them this fall, but I also know I have opportunities to go play at the next level, which is big. A lot of people get that opportunity, but in reality of a lot of people don’t.”

At least 16 seniors in The Charlotte Observer’s coverage zone are leaving school in December, including five of the state’s top-20 players, according to the latest 247Sports rankings. And other elite talent like Weddington running back Will Shipley and Myers Park quarterback Drake Maye said they are still making up their mind about staying or leaving.

Put simply, high school football in February will look drastically different than it would have in August.

Leaving early is nothing new

High school players graduating early is nothing new.

In 2017, the NCAA added an early signing period in December in addition to the traditional National Signing Day in February. According to 247Sports Director of Recruiting Steve Wiltfong, 65 percent of prospects signed early in 2018. Last year it was 77 percent.

“Coaching staffs,” Wiltfong wrote, “want the hay in the barn, so to speak.”

Players like Gray really wanted to finish their senior seasons on the field with their teammates. But with COVID-19 pushing N.C. high school football to February, early graduation now involves a decision they were not anticipating — and it could change the balance of power in N.C. state championship races.

At Vance, for example, linebacker Power Echols, a four-star recruit, is leaving to enroll at North Carolina in December. He has led the Cougars to the past two N.C. 4AA state championship games. Vance won its first state title last December. Echols, the state final’s MVP, is a two-time N.C. Associated Press and Charlotte Observer defensive player of the year.

With Echols returning for his senior season, Vance was a nationally ranked favorite to repeat as state champions. Now the Cougars will have to replace one of the best players in school history.

“It doesn’t change the mental part of it,” Vance second year coach Glenwood Ferebee said on The Observer’s streaming show, Talking Preps. “Of course, he’s a great player and we’re going to miss him. We have the motto that we’re not going to rebuild, we’re going to reload. We have some good young guys behind him. Of course, we’re not going to fill his shoes with the way he was leading us, but I think we’ll be pretty good with what we have.”

Changing fortunes at north Meck power

Hough was the No. 1 team when The Observer unveiled its “Way-Too-Early” Sweet 16 high school football poll in June.

The Huskies, from Cornelius, were returning 17 starters and a staggering 47 lettermen from an 8-5 team in 2019. After a 1-3 start, Hough finished 7-2 last season, losing to state powers Mallard Creek and Richmond Senior, but it beat eventual N.C. 4AA state champion Vance 42-28 just before the playoffs began.

Hough, which has produced eight consecutive winning seasons, seemed poised to field the best team in school history in 2020.

Of the top 100 seniors in North Carolina, according to 247Sports, 11 of them went to Hough.

Now, head coach Matthew Jenkins isn’t sure how many of his seniors are returning. Two, Ohio State recruit Evan Pryor, a running back, and N.C. State recruit Mario Love, a defensive back, said they plan to enroll in school early.

Jenkins said he has 33 seniors in the program and at least eight could graduate in December. Jenkins spoke before the NCAA voted Friday to give Division I student athletes an extra year of eligibility.

“I’ve encouraged all of my kids to wait and see what the NCAA decides about eligibility and are they going to give (college) kids an extra year,” Jenkins said. “To me, it doesn’t make sense to make a decision until you have all the answers. I know Evan and Mario have put something out and I talked to a couple more of them and said, ‘I don’t even want to know what you’re thinking.’ I mean, it doesn’t matter if you announce in August or October. The only thing is 60 days.”

Jenkins thinks enrolling early takes away once-in-a-lifetime experiences for his athletes, things like Senior Night, going to the prom and graduation. He also wonders with all the changes brought on by COVID-19 if the players will get the training, spring practice and attention they had planned on.

“Right now,” he said, “there are just so many unknowns. I just think kids need to slow down. If (colleges) are playing in the spring and they go early, are they really ready to play a college season as a senior in high school? Are they physically there yet? Emotionally there? It’s not like spring ball, where coaches are slowing things down and teaching. They make a lot of money to win football games. So if I’m a kid who can’t go in and make an impact right away — and how many kids in the middle of their senior year (of high school) can? — I’m waiting. That early development might not happen that they want.”

Jenkins said he thinks the decision for every family will be different.

“There’s a lot of things for this group in the class of ‘21 to think about,” he said. “For some, it won’t matter. They’ll go anyway. Others will say, ‘I’m going to redshirt anyway, so I’ll go in June and I’ll stick around and be a high school senior before, and let’s be honest, they go off for a business. Football’s fun, but at college, it’s a billion-dollar business. There’s lot of grown ups making lots of money.

“I’m not pressuring my kids. I’m encouraging them to slow down and not do what’s best for Hough or what’s best for the university but what’s best for you. Slow down, get all the information and make the best possible decision at that moment. You won’t know if it’s the right decision for a few years down the road, but you can make the best possible decision by getting all that information.”

‘I’m ready to go to school’

N.C. High School Athletic Association commissioner Que Tucker said the association didn’t factor in how the state would be affected by early college enrollees when it made the decision to postpone fall football.

Due to COVID-19 concerns, the NCHSAA pushed back the start of sports from an original start date of Aug. 1 to Nov. 4. High school football won’t start until practice begins Feb. 8.

“We can only control what we can control,” Tucker said, “and that’s high school athletics, and it’s an opportunity to play that we provide, and students make decisions based on knowing that the opportunity is there, and our young people who have those skills and have the ability to play at the next level, we’re excited for them.”

Gray, the N.C. State commit at Hopewell, said he’s not worried if the ACC pushes football to the spring and he’s enrolling as the new season begins. His plan was always to get to spring practice, learn the system and be ready to compete in the fall of 2021, but he’s OK with the changes he knows about and the ones that might come.

“To me,” he said, “that’s all a maturity state. It just depends on how mature you are. Yes, I understand what could happen. But that’s another reason I chose the school I chose. They care about me as a person, and they care about all the incoming freshmen.”

Still, Gray knows all the things he’s giving up by leaving early. He said that’s what made his decision so hard.

“I’ll miss coming out one more time with the team, and I’ll miss big things like Senior Night,” he said. “I’ve seen past seniors go through that, and it’s such a big deal to walk out for that. Man, I’d love the opportunities to do that, to go to the prom and all the other things a senior high school athlete does in general. It’s a part of the experience. But it’s like which one do I want more than the other really?

“And I am ready to go to school.”

Early Enrollees

At least 16 high school football seniors in the immediate Charlotte area are enrolling early for college, and that number could increase.

This story was originally published August 22, 2020 at 6:00 AM.

Langston Wertz Jr.

The Charlotte Observer

704-358-5133

Langston Wertz Jr. is an award-winning sports journalist who has worked at the Observer since 1988. He’s covered everything from Final Fours and NFL to video games and Britney Spears. Wertz -- a West Charlotte High and UNC grad -- is the rare person who can answer “Charlotte,” when you ask, “What city are you from.” Support my work with a digital subscription