Northwestern’s Zymier Gordon-Miles (8) is tackled by South Pointe’s Dequan Evans Friday as the Trojans and Stallions compete in Rock Hill. TRACY KIMBALL tkimball@heraldonline.com
Anyone who follows football in the Carolinas knows how successful teams from Rock Hill, S.C., have been historically. Each of the city’s three high schools has won at least two state titles in the 21st century. All three have won at least five in their histories — South Pointe with seven, Northwestern six and Rock Hill five. Those schools have also produced several NFL players, among them active players Mason Rudolph (Northwestern), Robbie Ouzts (Rock Hill), and Nick McCloud and Derion Kendrick (both South Pointe). The closing of former all-African-American Emmett Scott in 1970 and school desegregation led to the building of Northwestern in 1971, the Trojans’ rivalry with Rock Hill has run red hot since. The energy and number of rivalries doubled when South Pointe opened in 2006. This week, Northwestern hosts South Pointe in the 22nd meeting of a rivalry that keeps growing in stature - even as it’ll be only the 14th time they’ve met in non-conference play. “I call Rock Hill the original rivalry, but this is definitely a huge rivalry because of the proximity of our schools and the kids all know each other,” Northwestern head coach Page Wofford said. “We share so many elementary and middle school kids with South Pointe.”
‘I just don’t want them to beat us.’
Wofford is well-schooled in the rivalry as he spent six years as a Trojans’ assistant from 2012 to 2017, then became Northwestern’s head coach in 2019. He’s been fortunate enough to get the better in both of his school’s biggest rivalries as a head coach. He’s 5-1 against Rock Hill (they’ll meet this season on Oct. 17) and is 4-2 against South Pointe. “We take football pretty seriously in Rock Hill and want those bragging rights for the whole year,” Wofford said. “But when this game is over, I’m rooting for South Pointe to win every game that they play. It’s the same with Rock Hill. I want football to be strong around here and I want everybody to be successful.
“I just don’t want them to beat us.” South Pointe High coach Bobby Collins has the same sentiments. Last week, in the aftermath of a 10-7 overtime home victory over West Charlotte, Collins asked local media how other schools in his area did — particularly Northwestern and Rock Hill. He was happy to hear of their success. “Football’s big down here and next week, we’ve got our crosstown rivalry coming up,” said Collins, whose team has already defeated Rock Hill (28-6) this season. “They’re 3-0 and we’re 2-1 - and we know a lot of riding on the game.”
South Carolina High School League realignments
In recent South Carolina High School League realignments, the teams have been sent to different conferences due to the differences in school size. Currently, Northwestern and Rock Hill are in Region 3 5A, while South Pointe is in Region 3 4A. Both Northwestern and South Pointe feature players rated among the state’s best by recruiting website 247sports.com; Northwestern has No. 7-ranked Tamarion Watkins (defensive back, Texas A&M commit) and No. 31-rated Kameron Vance (athlete, Lafayette commit) and South Pointe has No. 1-rated Z’Zavien Currence (defensive back, South Carolina commit), No. 22-rated Anthony Baxter (offensive line, South Carolina) and No. 36-rated Brysen Ginn (linebacker, uncommitted). Currence, whose 90-yard interception return was his team’s only touchdown last week, knows this is the Stallions’ final non-conference tuneup before league play begins on Sept. 19 at A.C. Flora. “They’re all important, but I think this is the start of what I call the ‘money round’ for us,” Currence said.