South Meck’s Cash Hunter, Observer football player of the week, fought pain all season
There’s a reason why South Mecklenburg senior running back Cash Hunter, The Charlotte Observer’s high school football player of the week, had to play in pain all season long.
“I’m a dog,” said Hunter, 18. “I just really can’t sit out at all unless I’m just incapable of going.”
That type of determination is what turned Hunter into a 160-pound starter as a sophomore after not playing at all as a 140-pound freshman on varsity.
“I have played football all my life and I had never sat on the bench,” he said. “It was pretty humbling coming into high school like that, and I wanted to play. I had to play. I want to go far with this football stuff and I realized you can’t do that from the bench.”
Hunter put on 20 pounds after changing his diet and dedicating himself to the weight room after his freshman season. And it paid off. He won the starting job, at running back, the second game of his sophomore year and rushed for more than 600 yards that season.
As a junior, Hunter topped 800 yards and was preparing for a monster senior season in early August when that competitive fire he talks about got him into a little trouble.
“I was at practice and it was just that drive in me,” Hunter said. “We were in the hitting line on the second day of hitting practice. I got really competitive.”
Hunter kept going through the drill, without giving himself a break, and after landing a big blow on a teammate, he fell hard onto the grass, stretching and straining the ligaments in his left rotator cuff.
Doctors cleared him to play, and Hunter got used to walking around with what he described as a constant pain level of a four on a scale of 1-10. And during the games, when he got hit, that pain number would shoot up a good bit.
“He was playing with a shoulder harness on, and going to physical therapy and basically putting himself back together to play,” Sabres’ coach Joe Evans said. “He played through a lot of pain. Being physically tough is one thing, but playing in that type of pain shows how mentally tough he is.”
One of Hunter’s biggest career goals was to crack 1,000 yards rushing in a season. He did that in the final game of his high school career Nov. 8 against Providence.
Hunter ran 21 times for 104 yards, and after that game Observer readers voted him player of the week.
Hunter said he will have an MRI on his shoulder Dec. 13, and doctors will discuss his treatment options to get back to 100 percent. Evans said he’ll definitely play football in college.
Evans said Hunter has been on visits to schools like Lenoir-Rhyne and Wingate, a pair of NCAA Division II schools, and Evans said he’s talked to assistant coaches at Charlotte.
“The main thing about Cash is he just doesn’t stop,” Evans said. “You know how some kids get hit and they stop moving? He’ll get hit, and you look up and he spits out of the pile and gets 10 or 15 more yards. He’s just tough to bring down and is just a hard, physical runner, and he’s also got really good speed.”
Hunter said playing this past season the way he did and finishing it the way he did, well, it’s something he won’t forget.
“I’m extremely proud of myself,” he said. “I was going to play senior season regardless, and to play it with a bum shoulder just shows me how determined I was to play and get ready for the next level.”
Quick links
Vote for which playoff game The Observer covers Friday
Friday’s rewind: NC scores, schedule, coverage from Round 1
Listen to the Talking Preps postgame show
Previous winners
(Tap link to read the story)
Week 1: Carson Clutter, Charlotte Latin
Week 2: Sean Brady, Hough
Week 3: Fernando Zelaya, Olympic
Week 4: Cameron Cyr, Hough
Week 5: Jayden Jones, Independence
Week 6: Cameron Johnson, Corvian Community
Week 7: Titus Ivory, Charlotte Latin
Week 8: Noah Best, Corvian Community
Week 9: Trey Blakeney, Hough
Week 10: Ziere Brooks, Chambers
Week 11: Jayden Jones, Independence
Week 12: Cash Hunter, South Mecklenburg
