Nowadays, Providence’s Cory Cunningham intimidates on the line, not home plate

Cory Cunningham must have been an imposing figure, either at the plate or playing first base.

He hadn’t reached his current size — 6-4, 270 pounds — when he played youth baseball. But he was a big guy.

Cunningham smiled when asked if he looked intimidating at bat, facing players who were a lot smaller than him.

“I guess so,” he said. “I was bigger than most everyone else.”

But he was probably too big for baseball.

“It made sense to switch sports,” he said.

So instead of staring down opposing pitchers or looking like a roadblock to hitters headed toward first base, Cunningham is using his size these days to deal with football players.

“He’s a heck of a player,” said Providence High football coach Wes Ward, who has seen a number of outstanding linemen come through his program in recent years. “And the colleges know it.”

Ward’s team opens its 2025 season Friday night against Hickory Ridge. It’s a home game for Providence, but the contest has been moved to Ballantyne Ridge High because of construction at Providence’s field.

Cunningham is only a sophomore, but the Panthers’ standout defensive end has caught the attention of college programs around the country. He is ranked among the nation’s top defensive linemen in the class of 2028 and has offers from schools such as Ohio State, Georgia, Oregon, Tennessee, South Carolina, N.C. State and Virginia Tech.

“He’s a hard worker,” Ward said. “He puts in a ton of effort and is always interested in learning.”

He came relatively late to football, as Cunningham played basketball in addition to baseball. He started playing football seriously about two or three years ago. Cunningham saw action in his first varsity game as a freshman last season, against Ardrey Kell. He graded his performance as less than impressive.

“I’ll be honest,” he said. “It was not great. I got hit pretty hard. But it made me want to work harder.”

His older brother, Kyle Jr., provided inspiration.

“He coached me up,” Cunningham said. “He made me a lot better.”

And Cunningham worked hard with the Providence coaching staff and his older teammates to improve. By late in his freshman season, he was fielding offers from major FBS programs.

Cunningham said he is told by coaches that his work ethic is a big plus.

“They see that I’m working hard,” he said. “They know I’ll keep getting better.”

He said his football education has a ways to go.

“I still have a lot to learn,” he said. “But as a sophomore, I have time to do that learning. I’m taking advantage of every opportunity I can get to improve.”

Providence has been a regular in the playoffs in recent seasons, but the Panthers have been stuck around the .500 mark. They dealt with football powerhouses Butler, Charlotte Catholic and Independence in the old Southwestern 4A Conference. Now they’re in the Southwestern 7A/8A — away from those three powers — and looking like a conference title contender.

“Our attitude this season is that we don’t want to lose,” Cunningham said. “We’ll play one game at a time, with the idea that we’ll win and then move on.”

He said mistakes were a problem last season.

“In most cases, it was simple errors that we can fix,” he said. “We know what we have to do. And we have the talent to do it.”

Ward said Cunningham is a joy to coach.

“He’s an extremely nice kid,” he said. “But on the football field, he’s all business.”