‘Real’ South Meck on mission to restore football glory

South Mecklenburg’s football team is 4-0 and off to its best start since 1989. Coach Rocky White said this is where he expected to be.

The Sabres, No. 8 in the Observer’s Sweet 16, will play Harding at home Friday at 7 p.m.

“If we weren’t 4-0 right now, we’d be disappointed,” White said. “This is what we expected to happen, what we planned to have happen.”

This is White’s fourth season at South Mecklenburg. When he arrived in 2012, White promised to build the program gradually. His first two teams were 2-9 and 3-8. White didn’t hesitate to play freshmen his first season and stuck with them as sophomores. He figured by their senior season they’d be seasoned and tough enough to produce a championship team.

A turning point came in the summer of 2014. South Meck finished second in the Cam Newton 7-on-7 summer passing league. Assistant coach Sean Gilbert, a former Carolina Panthers defensive lineman, told the team that it was “the new South,” and the days of losing were over. Before the 2014 season, South Meck had produced four winning records in 19 years.

The Sabres lost to area power Independence to start the season, then ran off six straight wins. South Mecklenburg finished 8-4 and expectations for 2015 soared.

Through four games this season, the Sabres are enjoying their best start in 26 years. Incidently, that 1989 Sabres team was quarterbacked by Mac White, Rocky White’s brother.

“It started with the ‘New’ South thing last year,” said senior receiver Chance Kennedy, an Army football recruit. “But we’re the ‘Real’ South now. This is who we are. We came through all this way. The new South was to let people know we’re not the old South, the way it used to be. It was new leadership, new everything. I think we’re on our way now.”

The Sabres have bona fide stars, like Kennedy, whose father, Larry, was an All-American defensive back at Florida. And there’s Gilbert’s son, Zack, a 6-foot-1, 255-pound defensive end ranked by ESPN among the state’s top 30 seniors.

Gilbert’s leading a defense that has allowed 17 points in the past three games.

“There’s no secret,” White said. “The kids have worked hard. We’re excited about the opportunities we have. If we’re not thinking big, I shouldn’t be coaching. We have the opportunity to win (the SoMeck 8) conference and go on from there.”

White said this success harkens back to some of the Sabres’ glory teams.

The 2008 and 1993 teams reached the N.C. 4A semifinals. The 1981 team, coached by Jim Seacord, went undefeated and won a state title.

The Sabres’ 1973 team reached the semifinals, and the 1967 team lost in the state championship round. The 1966 team beat Garinger 20-19 in the Region 2 championship, but didn’t play for a state championship because the game wasn’t held.

White’s goal is simple: He said he wants Sabres fans to one day talk about the 2015 team like the school’s other great ones.

“I promise you,” he said, “our coaches and young men’s expectations are to win championships. We don’t want to be a team that just wins conference.”

The winning, Chance Kennedy said, is becoming contagious.

“Freshman year, when we weren’t doing so well, going to school was a little tough,” Kennedy said. “People loved us then but not nearly as much. Going to school now, people pay more attention to us.

“Everybody loves us because we’re winning. It feels way better going to school right now. We want to keep it that way.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2015 at 6:05 PM with the headline "‘Real’ South Meck on mission to restore football glory."