High School Sports

South Carolina team, with familiar coaching name, joins The Observer’s Sweet 16 poll

The Indian Land High School varsity football team practices Tuesday at Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill.
The Indian Land High School varsity football team practices Tuesday at Manchester Meadows in Rock Hill. tkimball@heraldonline.com

Welcome, Indian Land High School to The Observer’s Sweet 16.

The S.C. school is not far from the Ballantyne area of Charlotte and is led by Adam Hastings, a former head coach at Providence Day and Ardrey Kell.

The Warriors have won their first two games of the season, beating York 22-20 on Aug. 23 and beating Lancaster 35-21 last week.

Indian Land, 6-5 last fall, is trying to put together its fourth straight winning season.

Elsewhere, the top seven teams stayed in place, but there was some movement after that, including Charlotte Catholic jumping into the top 10 despite not playing. The Cougars’ game with Northern Durham was canceled after the Triangle-area school felt it didn’t have enough healthy players to compete.

Note: The poll is compiled by Chris Hughes, 47, who has been going to N.C. high school football games since 1979. He began coaching high school football in 1998 and began covering the sport professionally in 2002 when he launched a statewide website. In 2007, he started CarolinaPreps.com, when he began to do football rankings. Hughes, who has also done color commentary for Shrine Bowl broadcasts, has visited every school stadium in North Carolina.

Rank

School

Record

Prev.

1

Weddington

(2-0)

1

2

Providence Day

(1-1)

2

3

Northwestern

(2-0)

3

4

West Charlotte

(1-0)

4

5

Charlotte Christian

(2-0)

5

6

Independence

(2-0)

6

7

Hough

(1-1)

7

8

Mallard Creek

(1-0)

9

9

Charlotte Catholic

(1-0)

11

10

Myers Park

(0-2)

8

11

South Pointe

(0-1)

12

12

J.M. Robinson

(1-0)

13

13

Monroe

(1-0)

14

14

Mooresville

(1-1)

10

15

East Lincoln

(1-0)

15

16.

Indian Land

(2-0)

NR

Langston Wertz Jr.
The Charlotte Observer
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
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