‘This game will stay with me.’ Chambers and Gibbons play to 1 a.m. to get HS football win
Sitting on his team bus, riding back from Raleigh at 2:30 in the morning, Chambers High coach Glenwood Ferebee had to laugh when I asked him if he ever thought he would be a part of a high school football game like he was in Friday night.
And Saturday morning.
“Never,” Ferebee said with a laugh.
“Never in my life.”
Ferebee said his team left Charlotte at 1 p.m. Friday to drive about 2 1/2 hours to play Wake County power Cardinal Gibbons. Kickoff was at 7, and the Cougars stopped for a pregame meal at a Raleigh K&W Cafeteria.
But after getting a 21-9 lead and looking comfortable once the game began, the Cougars and Crusaders had to wait through a more than three-hour weather delay in the Gibbons gym.
The game didn’t finish until nearly 1 a.m.
Chambers won 35-29, and it was up 35-9 in the third quarter. But after scoring three straight touchdowns in the last quarter and a half, Gibbons recovered an onside kick. It had a chance to drive for a winning score and an upset over a two-time state champion and top-30 national team, but the Cougars got an interception to end the game.
And riding back on the bus, thinking about what just happened, Ferebee said there were times no one on either team was sure if the game — which turned out to be a watery-eye classic — would go on.
“We were just trying to figure out if we were going to play,” he said, “how the win-loss thing would work if we didn’t. Neither one of us wanted to take a loss, so we went out there and finished it.”
N.C. High School Athletic Association assistant commissioner James Alverson said the association does not have a curfew for games. It just does not allow Sunday participation. A Saturday night game that runs into Sunday would be a problem, but not one that started Friday around dinner time.
So the only problem Chambers and Cardinal Gibbons would have, would be finding the energy to finish. After the weather delay, the teams came back on the field at nearly 11:30 p.m. By then, Chambers had been on a bus for a while then had not eaten for one quarter of one day and, well, just let defensive lineman Jalen Swindell explain.
“It was kind of late,” said Swindell, who had a 29-yard interception return for a touchdown, one of his team’s two defensive scores Friday/Saturday, “and we were kind of tired. But we fought through the adversity and came out of it with a win. But I ain’t gonna lie, I was kind of sleepy. I was real sleepy.”
Back in the Charlotte area, Weddington coach Andy Capone heard about the game. Capone’s team beat private school state champion Charlotte Christian 14-7 and his guys were long gone before the Chambers game resumed in Raleigh.
Capone said about the latest he’d ever gotten home from a game was 1 or 2 a.m. Chambers was going to get back between 3 and 4 a.m.
“It’s a tough situation,” Capone said. “You’ve got to think about the safety of the kids. On one end, you have to make sure they’re safe, and on the other, it’s really late, but you drove all the way up there and you want to give your guys a chance to play. You don’t know how many games you’re going to get this year (due to COVID-19).”
Ferebee said the Chambers staff discussed player well-being and checked on the players often, but nobody really wanted to go home. Not even the Chambers parents. Ferebee said no one in the parents’ group chat expressed a desire to pack it up.
“There were a lot of factors in there,” Ferebee said, “and of course we were up at the delay and if it ended, I guess we would’ve won, but we had a whole half of football left and Cardinal Gibbons didn’t want to bow out. We tried to wait as long as we could.”
Chambers running back Daylan Smothers, the reigning N.C. player of the year, said he never thought about leaving campus without finishing.
“We knew eventually we were going to finish the game,” he said. “We went out and wanted to send a statement. We got a little comfortable and waiting three hours, (we) got out of our groove a little bit and let them back in the game. ... (It) was pretty unusual, but (we) ended up pulling out the win. That’s all that matters — and a 2 1/2 hour trip back to the school.”
Smothers was riding back on a bus with Ferebee and some of his teammates. Swindell was on another bus.
But everybody was happy — even if they were going to get home just before the sun came up.
“This game,” Swindell said, “it for sure will stay with me.
“I’ll talk about this forever.”
Quick Links
Chambers outlasts Gibbons in weather-delayed season-opener
No. 8 Weddington gets late score to rally past No. 11 Charlotte Christian
Panthers bring ‘Big’ high school football games back to uptown
Friday’s high school football scores, how the Sweet 16 fared, next week’s schedule
Thursday’s observations: stars, scores and Hough and Catholic get big wins
Photos from Chambers-Gibbons; Weddington-Christian
Observations
▪ Chambers’ defense, at times, looked just as dominant as the previous two units that had sparked state titles. The Cougars had six sacks, three interceptions and scored twice. But there were some issues with pass coverage, particularly late in the game.
On offense, junior QB Anshon Camp started his first game and had some nice moments, including a pretty deep ball early, but Ferebee said he was disciplined and didn’t return after the delay. Dymere Edwards came in at QB and led a touchdown drive.
But the biggest issue for Chambers was an old bugaboo: penalties. A touchdown was called back. Big plays were called back. Gibbons drives were extended, twice leading to scores.
In all, Chambers had more than 20 penalties. Ferebee wasn’t pleased.
“Some of it is us,” he said. “And some of it is we’re a really physical football team and some of the people are not used to that physicality unless they’ve seen us play the Houghs or Mallard Creeks. And we go down to Raleigh or outside our area, and I think it’s a culture shock to some people, of how physical we play. But the offsides and false starts and those things, those are on us.”
▪ Cool to see Big Friday coming back to Memorial Stadium this year. Some of the best games in Mecklenburg County history came in a six-year run of Big Friday games from 1996-2002. With the Carolina Panthers sending “personalities” (probably meaning players) and promoting the games, these promise to be special weeks for the high school kids. And what a matchup for the first one: Richmond-Butler on “Big Saturday” next week.
▪ Lake Norman Charter didn’t play varsity football last spring, instead fielding a junior varsity team for its 9th, 10th and 11th graders. Returning to varsity football Friday, the school fell down 29-7 to SouthLake Christian. Then Lake Norman Charter rallied for a 36-29 win.
It started with a fiery halftime speech from seniors Duncan Schneible and Avery Wilkerson, and the team got big performances from Cameron Ryerson (two rushing touchdowns, one passing) and Quincy McKay (rushing and receiving scores). The defense added a safety in the final two minutes to spark a win everybody will talk about for awhile.
Friday’s #BIG5 Top Performers
Parker Burke, Cuthbertson: Sophomore starting his first game completed 12 of 17 passes for 220 yards and six touchdowns in a 47-30 win over Parkwood. He also ran 11 times for 56 yards.
Kellan Hood, Richmond Senior: QB completed 7 of 10 passes for 139 yards and two touchdowns in a 56-41 win at Mount Tabor. Hood also ran 13 times for 129 yards and a score.
Jaylin Neal, South Iredell: He had 211 yards rushing, four TDs in a 51-7 win over North Iredell.
Christian MacDonald, Berry: Two receiving touchdowns in a 28-0 win over East Meck.
Jamar Price, Providence: Ran 16 times for 230 yards and had four catches for 50 yards in a 21-7 win over S.C. power Chester. Price had two touchdowns in the win.
This story was originally published August 21, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
