The once and future king? Independence High football chasing greatness again
It’s cold Monday afternoon when the Independence High football team walks onto the grass practice field right behind the school’s gym. But it sure looks like fun.
As the players stretch, lying on their backs, second-year coach DJ McFadden — once a state championship-winning quarterback here — bounces around from player to player, full of energy.
It almost looks like he could suit up again.
“I told y’all we would be here!” McFadden screams joyously over and over, his neck leaning almost impossibly backwards so his widened eyes face a cloud-filled blue sky. “I told y’all that we just had to believe!”
McFadden, 33, allows his players to talk freely, and they talk a lot. There’s laughter and jokes — and plenty of the seven words comedian George Carlin famously joked that we can’t say on TV, or in newspapers — but there’s also a quiet confidence from this team that began the season with 12 starters who had never played a down of varsity football.
Independence is 11-1 and in the third round of the N.C. 4A playoffs for the first time in 13 years. Friday night, the Patriots, now ranked No. 2 in the statewide 4A high school poll, play unbeaten Grimsley High (12-0) in Greensboro. Grimsley is ranked fifth.
“It feels good, man,” McFadden said. “It’s always good when you win a playoff game and give your seniors another week of practice. We’re grateful to be here...and excited for the opportunity.”
One of those seniors, linebacker Josh Iseah, is enjoying this run as much as anyone on the team. He remembers the hard times. Well.
The previous three years he played in Mint Hill went absolutely nothing like this.
“It was tough always watching my friends play in the playoffs, and not being in it,” he said. “But it feels real good to be in it now, knowing that last year we were probably in a banquet.”
Once and future king?
Once upon a time, Independence High claimed arguably the best high school football program ever assembled in North Carolina. People called the team “The Big I.”
From 2000-07, the Patriots won a record seven straight state championships in North Carolina’s largest classification. And for a decade, Independence ruled N.C. high school football. The Patriots were ranked among the nation’s top 10 teams multiple times. They set an American public school record with 109 straight wins at one point, and ultimately made eight straight state finals appearances and nine straight regional championship games.
In a lot of ways, Independence was to N.C. high school football what Alabama is in the collegiate ranks.
A legendary coach, Tom Knotts, who had led West Charlotte and Harding to state championship berths, built the powerhouse behind a wunderkind sophomore quarterback named Chris Leak. Leak, eventually a three-time state player of the year, and Knotts won three state titles to start the run 22 years ago before Leak graduated in 2003 and later won a national championship at Florida.
And after Leak, Knotts’ team just kept churning out wins — and talent.
A future Super Bowl champion, Hakeem Nicks, played at Independence as did other future NFL players like Washington defensive back Adonis Alexander, former Carolina Panthers linebacker DJ Smith, former Dallas linebacker DeVonte Holloman, former Tampa defensive tackle Dre Moore and former Browns receiver Mohamed Massaquoi.
And the Patriots annually produced a passel of college talent like Georgia quarterback Joe Cox, who is now Alabama’s tight ends coach, and McFadden, who wants to help make the past present.
McFadden was a two-year starter in the 2005 and ‘06 seasons. He led the Patriots to back-to-back state championships and was named all-state after his junior and senior seasons.
Independence was 32-0 with McFadden at quarterback. In two seasons, McFadden — who signed with East Carolina out of high school — threw for 6,148 yards with 48 touchdowns.
Now McFadden is the coach, using lessons he learned from Knotts. And he’s got his own sterling sophomore quarterback — just like Knotts, now coaching Dutch Fork near Columbia, S.C., once did.
The young leader rises — and sees green numbers
Justin Little, who turned 16 in September, has a mouth full of braces and a mind full of possibilities. Little was a freshman last season who played junior varsity mostly.
“Justin’s good,” McFadden said. “I said all along that he had a chance to be really, really good for us. We put a lot of him offensively, and he’s answered the call, man.”
Little doesn’t play like a sophomore, adjusting play calls and protection schemes at the line of scrimmage, a little like Leak used to do. Little has thrown for 2,769 yards and 26 touchdowns, against just six interceptions. He’s rushed for a team-high 555 yards on 67 carries. Among regular ball carriers, Little’s 8.3 yards per carry average is second only to senior Sincere McIntyre (9.0).
“He’s one of the most poised kids I’ve met, especially as a sophomore,” said West Charlotte coach Sam Greiner, co-host of The Observer’s “Talking Preps” streaming show that airs every Tuesday. “I think the moment’s never too big for him. I think he’s calm and poised, and it’s like the game has become like ‘The Matrix’ (movie) to him. He’s seeing green numbers. You remember at the end of the Matrix, when Neo realizes he’s ‘The One,’ and he starts looking at the world differently? That’s Justin. He’s seeing the game differently. He’s seeing the green numbers.”
In two playoff wins so far, Little has thrown for 637 yards and five touchdowns. He’s rushed for 94 yards and four more scores.
“I was a little nervous the first drive of my very first game,” Little said about his breakout sophomore season. “But other than that, I’ve been rolling and I’ve surprised myself by hitting some of the goals I set at the beginning of the season. But I still have more to work to.”
His teammates rally around him in practice. They listen to him. It’s obvious.
“He’s steady and he’s kind of an even-keel kid, man,” McFadden said. “And he’s definitely the leader of the football team. They follow him.”
The quick turnaround
McFadden always knew he had a special talent in Little and the entire now sophomore class. When McFadden started last year, he was Independence’s fifth head coach in six years, but he quickly looked around and saw he could put an end to a run of five years without a winning record.
The Patriots finished 5-4 last year and set off into the offseason with big expectations. They’ve more than hit their mark.
Independence has the most wins since 2014 and has its best playoff run since Knotts was the coach.
“We always knew we were talented,” McFadden said. “We were just young. When we went down to Gaffney (for a preseason scrimmage) and had a good showing, I knew we had something. Gaffney is a 5A defending state champion. They’re a big team. I knew right then and there, we had a chance to be good.”
And slowly through the season, the Patriots have risen up the statewide and Charlotte Observer Sweet 16 regional rankings, as more media and fans realize that this Independence team may be not be the “Big I” of the glory years, but it’s plenty good for right now.
What they may not know is that McFadden starts three sophomores and a freshman on offense, two sophomores on defense plus six juniors, on either side of the ball, playing their first year of varsity.
“We always believed,” Iseah said. “We knew we had the talent. We just had to put it together, play like a team and stay consistent in the weight room. I knew during the summer when we played really good teams. We went down to (Rock HIll) South Pointe, Gaffney and Weddington, all powerhouse teams. I knew we could be good. We said it on the bus, before practice, all the time.
“We all said we knew we could be good.”
Iseah believes that no matter what happens Friday and for the rest of the season, North Carolina better get ready for what’s coming.
“Man,” he said, “the sky is the limit. I think this will be a team that will win state championships.”
He’s reminded he said championships with an “S.”
Iseah smiles and doesn’t back down.
“Yes,” he said. “Multiple.”
PHOTOS: Independence High football practice
