Top prospect Kam Pringle loves small-town SC life. His recruitment anything but small

One of the nation’s top high school offensive linemen attends Woodland High School in Dorchester County.

Kam Pringle, a rising junior, is 6-foot-7 and weighs more than 300 pounds. He is the third-highest-rated tackle in the nation and the No. 1 player in South Carolina in the class of 2024, according to the 247sports Composite that factors in all rankings. He is ranked second in the nation at tackle in the class.

Woodland High School is in rural Dorchester County, 27 miles north of Summerville. Pringle said he enjoys living in the small community.

“I came up here in seventh grade, so I love it. Very supportive community and everybody stays together,” Pringle said.

“You have a couple restaurants. I live actually across the street from a farm. Growing up, my dad has always made us work,” Pringle said. “Always in the country I was finding stuff to do, fishing and going to church. Really just living the country life. It definitely helped me stay out of a lot of things.”

Pringle thrives in small-town spotlight

A part of growing up in a smaller town is being a role model to younger people. For Pringle, his mindset is to be at his best for the people in his life.

“I feel like I’m pretty inspirational to the youth. I tell them all the time — if I can do it, you can,” Pringle said. “I’m always trying to do the right thing and I’m making sure that I’m being a positive role model to them.”

There are no other places where he’ll get more attention though than the football field on Friday nights. Having the community come out to watch could be daunting for some, but Pringle invites the spotlight.

“Of course, all eyes are on me. If I do something wrong, everybody’s looking at me, so there’s some pressure with it. But to me, I do better when the crowd’s watching,” Pringle said.

Pringle uses his mixture of size, speed and quickness to protect what is traditionally the quarterback’s blind side, help create gaps in the run game and blocks downfield. He attributes his success to his hard workouts off the field with his family, helping him gain strength and agility.

“I can bend and get low, and I can run up the field on screens. My pass protection is really good, and I can definitely move a defensive lineman off the ball in the run game,” Pringle said “With my size and my strength, I put in a lot of work. I worked my behind off to get stronger, get faster and quicker.”

His head football coach at Woodland, Eddie Ford, said Pringle “works like no other.”

“He wants to be the best, and it shows in the work he does in the weight room,” Ford said. “You can look at his body and tell how he’s reshaped himself since he’s been in eighth grade.

“He wants to be a master of his craft.”

Another way Pringle says he gains strength is by helping his uncles with brick and block masonry work.

“It is where I gain a lot of what people like to refer to as ‘man strength,’ ” Pringle said. “Just a whole lot of labor-intensive work.”

His dominance on the field has been apparent for years. Ford recounts elevating him to the junior varsity team during his eighth-grade year.

“We made him play JV football as an eighth-grader because he was just so big. That’s what he wanted,” Ford said.

Pringle tackles college recruiting process

As Pringle heads into his third year of high school, he’s starting to set his sights on the next level. With two older brothers who are also offensive linemen in college — Keenan at Limestone University in Greenwood and Katray at Albany State University in Albany, Georgia — Kam already possesses some of the knowledge of a college football player.

“I’m pretty advanced with hand placement and different techniques. Hopefully, since I’m doing the things I would need to do in college now, I’ll be more advanced,” Pringle said.

Pringle has received offers from many Power Five college programs including South Carolina, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, Georgia, Florida and Texas A&M. Pringle expects to release a list of his top 10 schools on Sept. 13, his birthday.

He said he’s looking for a college that will help him develop on and off the field.

“A school that can develop me the most at the highest level. A coach that’s going to understand how I play and teach me a different ways to play,” Pringle said. “A school where the teachers are great, everyone appreciates everyone.”

Despite all the attention and praise that the 16-year-old gets, he doesn’t let it consume him, according to Ford. Off the field, he does volunteer work along with his teammates and has a 4.0 GPA in the classroom.

“He’s a high-character kid,” Ford said. “His family did a great job with him — he’s either ‘yes’ or ‘no sir.’ He does things the right way all the time, that’s in the community, classroom, or on the field.

“None of this has gotten to his head. ... That’s the kind of guy he is, the moment’s never too big. He never gets out of character and never gets out of place.”