Lots of new faces, including a new coach, at Myers Park as football season kicks off
In the fall of 2020, Myers Park High junior Max McGuire said he was pretty nervous about ever having a football season.
He saw the state’s private school teams — and those in South Carolina — playing, and every time it looked like Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools might allow football teams here to begin working out, the timeline changed.
But practice finally began three weeks ago, and Thursday night is the kickoff to a long-awaited season. Coronavirus forced the N.C. High School Athletic Association to move football from August to February, and heavy rains expected Friday forced many teams to move their season openers up 24 hours from their traditional Friday night game times.
All that’s OK with McGuire.
He’s just ready to play, and with N.C. high school basketball season wrapping up and college, professional and all other high school football in the Carolinas already done, McGuire thinks that — this spring — N.C. athletes will get the stage all to themselves in a weird sort of bonus.
“I think we’re definitely going to get a lot of attention,” he said. “I think we’ll have a lot of eyes looking at us. I’m very excited. I’m ready to hit.”
Myers Park will open the season at home Thursday night against Garinger. It’ll be Senior Night, with Mustangs officials taking no chances that a future coronavirus outbreak might take anything else from a senior class that has lost so much since last March.
And on Wednesday afternoon, just in time for kickoff, N.C. Gov. Roy Cooper eased restrictions of fan attendance. If Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools allow the changes locally, instead of only 100 fans being allowed, up to 30% capacity at Myers Park’s stadium can be used — or 1,500 fans, according to Mustangs athletic director Brian Poore.
CMS spokesperson Brian Hacker said the district would release more information later about its plans for additional fan attendance at district events.
At Myers Park, playing in February isn’t the only thing that’s new. Less than week before practice began this month, Mustangs head coach Scott Chadwick left to take an assistant coaching position at Maryland.
Chadwick, 51, was hired at Myers Park before the 2014 season and quickly turned the Mustangs into a national power.
Myers Park was 5-7 in Chadwick’s first season. In 2015, Myers Park was 7-6 and posted its second winning season in 10 years.
The Mustangs are 48-7 in the past four years, which includes an appearance in the N.C. 4AA Western Regional championship game. Chadwick’s teams were consistently nationally ranked and produced a plethora of high major recruits, including UNC quarterback Drake Maye and wide receivers Elijah Bowick (played at Virginia Tech last season), Muhsin Muhammad (Texas A&M) and Porter Rooks (N.C. State).
Heading into the fall season, Chadwick had scheduled a nationally televised game against a team from Texas featuring Deion Sanders’ son, and had scheduled the first high school football game ever played at Bank of America Stadium. COVID-19 wiped all that out, and later, Maye and several other Division I recruits enrolled in school early.
That changed the season outlook from a team that could challenge for a state championship to a team with a lot of questions. Myers Park starts the season No. 14 in the Charlotte Observer’s Sweet 16 poll — and with a new interim coach.
Mark Harman, 40, who has been at the school for six season as assistant head coach and strength coach, took over for the Mustangs. He started his coaching career in Virginia and New York and came to Charlotte in 2006. He coached at West Mecklenburg for four years and was head coach for two. After that he had stops at Hough and Rocky River as offensive coordinator before landing at Myers Park.
He just didn’t expect to be the ultimate football decision-maker at one of the state’s premier schools right now.
“My workload increased a little bit, but it’s an opportunity,” Harman said. “There’s no such thing as perfect timing, but we’re in it for the kids and we’ll find a way to get things done in a short amount of time, and I’m just glad I can step in given the circumstances.”
Harman said he won’t change much, at least early, because he wants his players playing fast and he believes you can’t play fast if you’re thinking too much. Harman also said he doesn’t feel much pressure taking over one of the area’s true glamour programs.
“The pressure is making sure you do right by the kids,” he said. “I can tell you the biggest pressure is what I put on myself. I’ve got to make sure that every night I gave it all for these guys and make sure they had a great high school experience. Whatever you want to call that, I’ll gladly take it on for these kids because they are worth it.”
One thing Harman is preaching is diligence. He doesn’t want a slip-up to lead to a COVID outbreak that could take a week or two off an already shortened seven-game season.
“We tell them to think about every action you take,” Harman said. “Make sure you’re wearing a mask. You’ve got to be boring these next couple of months. You come to practice, follow protocols. You go home at night and stay in the house. Your social time is practice. We’re finally getting to be able to be out here and we want to make sure we don’t spoil it.”
Myers Park junior lineman Eduard Bagarean said Harman has made the coaching and culture change a breeze.
“When I first heard that Coach Chadwick was leaving, I thought it would be more hectic,” Bagarean said. “But Coach Harman has handled it well, like a professional, real smooth. We’ll miss Coach Chadwick for sure. He was a great coach and he was always there for us, but I’m looking forward to the season with Coach Harman.”
The question remains: Just how good will Myers Park be?
QB Maye, wide receiver Jordan Bly and defensive Tahj El (Old Dominion) left for school early along with kicker Matt Dennis (Wake Forest). Myers Park also lost five underclassmen, including three starters, to transfer.
Myers Park returns six starters, 30 lettermen and picked up seven players from California, including quarterback Lucas Lenhoff. Lenhoff, who played at Cathedral High in Los Angeles, has offers from Florida Atlantic and Mount Union.
And McGuire, the junior defensive tackle, said he doesn’t expect much to change except the jersey numbers.
“We still have a lot of talent on this team,” he said. “I know our (defensive) line is looking really good this year. We pretty much have every single guy that started, and our wide receiving corp is coming in. I think we’re good.”
Bagarean said attrition is just part of the process, especially at a school like Myers Park. He says not to worry.
“Every year you lose D-1 players,” he said, “and there’s nothing you can do about that. You’ve got to leave it to the younger guys to come up and prove themselves. We’ve got to work hard and show that we’re not going to fall off.”
Thursday’s High School Football Schedule
Berry Academy at Ashbrook, 6:30 p.m.
Chatham Central at Lincoln Charter, 6
Garinger at Myers Park, 7
Alexander Central at South Iredell, 6:30
Asheville Christian at Avery County, 7
Bunker Hill at Hibriten, 7
Burns at South Point, 7
Carson at South Rowan, 6:30
Central Davidson at Forest Hills, 7
Chase at Cherryville, 7
Freedom at St. Stephens, 7
Harding at Olympic, 7
Newton-Conover at AL Brown, 6
North Rowan at North Moore, 6:30
Northwest Cabarrus at AL Brown, 6
Patton at Fred T. Foard, 7
South Davidson at South Stanly, 6:30
Thomas Jefferson at Community School of Davidson, 6:30
West Lincoln at North Lincoln, 7
