What’s going on with Kings Mountain football? Lots of push-ups and a little Richard Gere
Nolan Messenger must have been the warmest person in Kings Mountain on Friday night.
Messenger is student at Kings Mountain High, and he volunteered for push-up duty this week. When the Mountaineers score, cheerleaders lift a 6-foot-long board into the first row of stands at John Gamble Stadium, and a student does a push-up for each point on the scoreboard under the “home” side.
“That’s 194 tonight,” one student reported, after Messenger completed 48 push-ups following the Mountaineers’ final touchdown in a 48-14 romp over Gastonia’s Ashbrook High School on Friday.
We’ll accept that count, since Kings Mountain High usually ranks pretty high on the state end-of-grade test scores.
The Mountaineers rank pretty high in football too.
Top-ranked in The Observer’s Sweet 16 rankings, Kings Mountain is 9-0 (6-0 in the Big South 3A) and averaging more than 41 points a game.
That’s a lot of push-ups.
Aiming for perfection
Winning football isn’t new at Kings Mountain.
Head coach Greg Lloyd is 129-71 in his 16th season at the helm, and the Mountaineers are 83-19 since the start of the 2015 season.
But this season is different. Kings Mountain went unbeaten in the spring 2021 season, but that was a seven-game regular-season campaign, shortened by COVID. In at least the past two decades, the Mountaineers have never gone unbeaten in a full 10-game schedule.
They’ll try to accomplish that feat Friday, playing at rival Crest.
“That won’t be an easy game,” Lloyd said. “It’s a real rivalry game, and we know Crest will give us everything they’ve got.”
‘Officer and a Gentleman’
Lloyd says the ground work for the Mountaineers’ success was laid in the offseason, when players faithfully completed workouts.
Paul Ingram thinks there’s another reason.
Ingram operates Ingram’s Barber Shop in Kings Mountain, although he says he’s cut his work schedule back these days, now that he’s in his early 60s.
“I need more time for golf,” he said.
Ingram is a Kings Mountain graduate and says he’s seen all the Mountaineer teams during the past four-plus decades.
“This one is different,” he said. “They work together.”
Ingram likes movies, and “An Officer and a Gentleman” is among his favorites.
“Remember that scene where Richard Gere finishes the obstacle course, and instead of celebrating, he goes back and helps the female officer finish?” Ingram asked. “There’s a real lesson in that part of the movie. It’s not about the individual. It’s about the team.
“And that’s what I see in this team. There are some really good players. But they’re not individuals.”
There are standouts
But make no mistake – there are some outstanding players on this Kings Mountain team.
“This is one of our best defensive units,” Lloyd said.
A.J. Richardson, a 6-1, 235-pound senior linebacker, is near or at the top of the list.
Richardson, who is being recruited by a host of FBS schools including most local ACC and SEC programs, has 60 tackles, 24 tackles for loss, 12 sacks, and three fumble recoveries this season.
In Friday’s game against Ashbrook, he had two consecutive tackles for loss in the first quarter. On one play, he was in the Green Wave backfield as soon as running back Carmelo Bess got the ball.
“We’re a unit that takes a lot of pride in the way we play,” Richardson said. “We have the attitude that we can’t be beaten. We work together.”
And there’s 5-11, 180-pound senior cornerback Jake Lloyd – the coach’s son. Lloyd is the team’s second-leading tackler and also is one of quarterback Lamont Littlejohn’s favorite passing targets.
Lloyd was a big part of the reason that nine of Ashbrook’s 21 offensive plays lost yardage Friday.
Offensively, Littlejohn has completed 70 percent of his passes and thrown for nearly 1,700 yards. Teddy Jeffries leads the ground attack, rushing for about 700 yards.
Not that the Mountaineers are invincible.
Ashbrook didn’t exactly play the role of the Washington Generals to Kings Mountain on Friday. Green Wave running back Carmelo Bess rushed for more than 150 yards. The Mountaineers gave up two long runs to Bess. And Kings Mountain hurt itself at times with penalties.
But for the most part, Lloyd’s team looked like an offensive and defensive dynamo.
Unfinished business
There is an atmosphere of unfinished business about this Kings Mountain team.
The Mountaineers had a powerful team in 2019 but suffered a heart-wrenching seven-overtime loss to Charlotte Catholic in the state semifinals. Last year, Richardson and two other key players were hurt in the first half of a semifinal loss to Dudley.
Both Charlotte Catholic and Dudley went on to win state championships.
“We believe we have the ability to go all the way,” Richardson said.
One assistant coach noted Friday night that the Mountaineers – assuming they beat Crest next week – likely will get the No. 1 seed in the West.
“Everyone will have to come here and play,” he said.
That means they’ll have to deal with the cowbells, the fans wearing Daniel Boone-style coonskin caps, and students like Nolan Messenger and his push-ups.
“This is a special group of guys,” Greg Lloyd said. “Being with this group has been a lot of fun. We all want to keep it going.”
Steve Lyttle on Twitter: @slyttle
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This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 6:00 AM.