Sun Valley freshman QB Sam Howell off to memorable start

Sun Valley freshman quarterback Sam Howell, 15, has thrown for 1,398 yards and 13 touchdowns in his first five games. He is the No. 4 rated passer in North Carolina in terms of yardage and leads all quarterbacks in the 3A class.

Howell, 6 feet tall and 200 pounds, is among 12 quarterbacks ranked in his class nationally by scout.com, a national recruiting service.

Twice this season, Howell has thrown for more than 300 yards, and his quarterback rating of 100.5 is strong for a freshman. Howell and Sun Valley play at Forest Hills on Friday.

▪ Not sure what is in the water in Union County, but it’s producing some strong quarterbacks. Charlotte Christian’s 6-4 freshman Garrett Shrader, a Union County resident, is starting and led the Knights to a win over 4A power Wilmington Hoggard. Shrader was MVP of a middle school national elite all-star game last summer. Shrader and Charlotte Christian play Carolina Pride on Friday.

▪ The best of the Union County quarterbacks is also the best in North Carolina – Cuthbertson’s 6-2, 210-pound senior Austin Kendall, an Oklahoma recruit. Kendall left last week’s 24-17 loss to Forest Hills in the first half with an injury. Cuthbertson athletic officials told me this week they could not comment on Kendall’s injury or his status for Friday’s game because of privacy concerns. Efforts to reach Kendall and his family were also unsuccessful.

Kendall has thrown for 1,030 yards and 11 touchdowns this season and his status for Friday’s Union County showdown with unbeaten Monroe at home is uncertain.

▪ Ardrey Kell has a young lady, Sydney Frankel, kicking on the junior varsity. She’s a 10th-grader who plays soccer. She asked Knights football coach Joe Evans before the season how he felt about girls playing football.

“I said, ‘If you can do it, do it,’ ” Evans said. “She may play varsity for us next season, too. I’ve got a junior kicker backing up (senior) Jonathan McDavid right now, so she’ll have to fight it out. But she’ll have a chance.”

It’s not unusual to find girls playing football in the Charlotte-area. Just last week, Marvin Ridge’s Maelee Richardson got her first tackle of the season and tweeted about it. But over the years, girls playing in Mecklenburg County has been rare.

▪ With heavy rain forecast for Friday, four games were moved up to Thursday: East Lincoln at Bandys; Robinson at Carson; North Lincoln at North Iredell; and South Iredell at Alexander Central. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools athletics director Sue Doran said CMS had no plans to move Friday’s games.

Friday’s forecast in the Charlotte area? Strong chance of rain all day with a near 70 percent chance around the 7 p.m. kickoff time. Bring your umbrellas.

▪ Victory Christian headmaster Michael Pratt called Davidson Day officials Thursday to inform them that the Kings would forfeit Friday’s game with unbeaten Davidson Day (6-0), ranked No. 14 in the Sweet 16.

Pratt said the school was down to “18 or 19” players. He said as many as six would not be able to play in Friday’s game because of injuries and a few off-the-field issues.

“I can’t send 12 or 14 guys to play,” Pratt said. “With injuries and a few other issues with children, we’re not able to (have) enough (players).”

Victory Christian won two of the past three N.C. Independent Schools Division III state championships, but coach Dee Brown left before the season started and the Kings lost players and had to start over. Assistant coach Randy Moss, the former NFL receiver, also departed and moved his son, national recruit Thad Moss, from Victory to Mallard Creek. This season, Victory is 0-4 and has been outscored 216-8.

Pratt said the school would finish the season. Victory has a bye next week then plays the Hickory Hawks on Oct. 9.

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 3:45 PM with the headline "Sun Valley freshman QB Sam Howell off to memorable start."