Led by Mark Hodge, Carolina's 2011 high school football team was one of school's best ever

A faded blue "C" was painted on the football that former Carolina High quarterback RJ Rosemond twirled in his fingers. It's leather, like much of the objects and people surrounding Carolina Trojan football on this fall day, was faded and worn from years of stress and sun exposure.

Rosemond remembered his time in the navy and orange Carolina High School uniform – throwing passes and darting around defenders like it was yesterday. Sometimes it feels like it never was supposed to end, he remembers. He twirled the football clockwise but seemed to wish the hands of time could be spun the other way.

Now 27 years old, he said if he could relive any time in his life it would be his alma mater's 2011 football season.

"If you want to talk Carolina history? I think that’s the best team ever," Rosemond said, standing in the locker room where he spent his varsity football career.

He was a sophomore in 2011, and the starting quarterback for a team that won the third-most games in program history, finishing 8-5 and making the third round of the playoffs – something that only three other teams in the program's 66-year history have done, but none have ever surpassed. On top of all that, Mark Hodge – who coached Deebo Samuel at Chapman, won two state titles leading the Panthers and is now at Spartanburg – was in his final year of his first job as a head football coach.

"If you want to talk county, local area – I think we were the best team in the county that year for sure," Rosemond continued, he sat between his two teammates from that team on the locker room bench.

Mackenzie McGowan, 28 and Trey Allman, 29, both seniors on the team, flanked him. They nodded and smiled, remembering the last time they strapped on the Trojan uniform too.

"Hands down."

'We were more talented the 2010 season'

While the 2011 Carolina team had a better record, the 2010 team that finished 5-6, might have been even more talented if you ask coaches and players. The 2011 team, current Carolina coach Chris Glover (who as an assistant at the school during Hodge's stint as head coach) said, had three players go on to play college ball: DJ Jones, a junior on the team, now plays for the Denver Broncos. Rosemond and Kenny Pitts both played at the college level.

Glover says that five others could have played too.

In 2011, Timas Peterson was a North-South selection that season, accumulating over 1,200 yards receiving and 18 touchdowns. ShaCorey Jeter, who won the 100 Meter and 200 Meter dash events at the following spring's state championships, was a senior and starting running back.

"Man, we had some athletes," said Jones, a nose tackle who has nine sacks in six NFL seasons and signed a three-year, $30 million contract in the offseason with Denver after spending his first five seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. "Our running back, legit, could have ran like a 4.1 (40-yard dash).

"Our defense was ridiculous ... we just had played together for so long. Little league, middle school ... we did it man. It was just the way Hodge molded us together and made us a team. And the coaching staff was right behind him."

"I thought we were more talented the 2010 season," said Landrum athletic director Mike Gentry, Carolina's offensive coordinator both seasons. "But I felt like, just it was a culmination of a few things. The expectations had probably been raised and the kids worked harder.

"We were a tighter team and a more disciplined team in 2011."

In 2010, the Trojan defensive line featured both Jones and then senior and former Kansas City Chiefs defensive tackle Devaroe Lawrence, who went by Jamal Lawrence at the time. Lawrence took a winding-path to Auburn and then the NFL.

Glover said that one player, Trey Ross, might've been better than both of them.

Zykeisis Cannon, who played at Louisville from 2014-2017, was just a freshman in 2010 and started. He left for Berea before coming back for the 2012 season. It was a deeper team in 2010, Glover said, but that the wins just hadn't come yet.

2011 season ended with a fumble, but an uncommon playoff run

Carolina High started 6-3 in 2011. Since that year, Carolina has won one game twice in a season and zero games four times. The three losses through eight games in 2011 were to Christ Church, who went 12-1 that year, Walhalla and then Pendleton, which went 5-0 in its region that year.

"I knew we were good from Week 1 of practice," said Trey Allman, the 2011 team's captain. "Shoot ... we came off a good season the year before. Most of us coming back were seniors."

The Trojans blitzed teams in 2011: Beating Berea 31-12 to open the year, then Southside 31-0 on the way to a 3-1 start to the year. Carolina hammered a Liberty team that won nine games to improve to 9-3. The Trojans were rolling and having their best season since the late 1980s. Carolina's spread offense, with an array of speed all over the field, was tough to contain.

Jones says the 2011 season is still the most fun he's ever had playing the sport that's allowed him generational wealth.

"What solidified it, was defense could get the other team off the field on third down," Rosemond said.

"And for me, on offense, it was, I had never had protection until I had y’all," he said, pointing at McGowan, one of the offensive linemen that year. "That year, 2011? Was the best offensive line I’ve ever had in my life."

In the first round of the playoffs, they beat Buford 43-13. Carolina got by Mid-Carolina 10-7 in the second round. Players and coaches from the team agree that things were on a roll.

But the story of that season on the field ended the next week in the next round.

Carolina fell to Columbia High School, 29-27. A fumbled handoff in the games waning moments gave away the game as Carolina was trying to setup a field goal attempt to win, Rosemond said. He and his former teammates shook their heads, remembering how close they were to the Upper State championship game.

"We should've beat 'em bro," Jones said. "That one still haunts me."

Hodge remembers that game, and that his team, trailing 29-14 at the half, didn't fold.

"We actually fought," Hodge said. "We were on the way to actually win that ball game as well ... bad luck during the game. We thought we were going to win right there at the very end. They fought, they finished and they came back and put themselves in a (position) to win the ball game."

McGowan remembers how much it all changed when Hodge arrived.

"Like if you go off the Carolina history … (Hodge) knew what he signed up for, but he didn’t really know what he signed up for," McGowan said. "We aren’t playing football to get a scholarship – it’s just playing football to kill time. Not thinking, like, if you perform well, you really could have offers, you could go to college for free …  you don’t think about how much college costs.

"Hodge came, he was like, I don’t want to be wasting your time … he kind of made us take it serious," McGowan said.

Rosemond said that the coaches built a trust with the players. A trust that allowed them to believe in a common goal.

"Give those kids a whole lot of credit," Hodge said. "Because they didn't know us. We came into their environment, their world ... we asked them to do some things that they hadn't done before and they bought in."

Teammates, coaches go down different paths

In the 11 and 12 years since the 2010 and 2011 seasons, the coaches and athletes have all taken different paths.

Glover, has had his career come full-circle from his time at Carolina. He's now head coach of the Trojans and took over this past spring, going 2-8 in his first season. Hodge thinks it's the perfect fit after Carolina has gone through five head coaches between Hodge's tenure and the 2022 season.

Many players from the team work and live in the Upstate still, but after the 2011 season their paths began to diverge.

Hodge left for Chapman, and said it was a family decision. He won two SCHSL state titles coaching there. He's now among the highest paid coaches in the state at Spartanburg High School.

Jones, will play against former Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence and the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. Cannon went through training camp with the Pittsburgh Steelers after his time at Louisville.

"Some of the stuff catches you by surprise," Rosemond. "Some of it, you expect. But you don’t expect it to go as far as it does. Like, I knew DJ was going to be something special. I knew he was going to college."

Carolina program back in familiar hands today

Since Hodge left, the program has gone winless five times. Glover is the fifth head coach since that season.

Glover went 2-8 this year, ending an over 20-game losing steak that dated back to 2019. Glover hopes to bring continuity to a program that it hasn't experienced since, coincidentally, he was last coaching football for the Trojans.

"It’s a place that I always had my heart in, spending the time that I did there," Glover told The Greenville News at the time he was hired. "I’ve been able to also see it be successful ... (My time there) gave me an opportunity to see some things and learn some things, that there is an opportunity there (to be successful)."

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Carolina HS football's 2011 team was one of the best ever