June 19, 2011

Dallas Jackson
Senior Analyst

Dallas Jackson is the Senior Analyst for RivalsHigh. Email him your question, comment or story ideas to DallasJ@Yahoo-Inc.com and follow him on Twitter.

DUNCAN, S.C. - A good quarterback can help his team to a successful high school football season. An elite-level quarterback can make a good team special.

Durham (N.C.) Hillside and Myrtle Beach (S.C.) High can both attest.

Last season, the two teams were guided to state titles - RivalsHigh Top 100 rankings - on the backs of Vad Lee and Everett Golson, respectively.

Lee is now at Georgia Tech. Golson headed to Notre Dame.

"You don't just replace those kind of players," Myrtle Beach head coach Mickey Wilson said.

But you can't field a team without a signal caller.

Both Wilson and Hillside head coach Antonio King are using the summer circuit of passing tournaments to fill the void.

"Losing Vad is tough," King said. "But we have to believe in our system and that we can develop the guys coming up through. One man can't make our program, even if he was a special player like Vad."

It is easier said than done.

Myrtle Beach rotated two quarterbacks at the Palmetto State Showdown 7-on-7 but finished with the No. 15 seed out of pool play and an early exit from the tournament.

"We will go through summer workouts and find out who is best to lead our team," Wilson said. "I am not in a panic or have a timetable for when those decisions need to be made, it will play itself out."

Right now, the Seahawks are looking at a pair of juniors to fill the void.

Tyler Keane and C.J. Cooper are battling for the starting job, but according to Wilson, neither has taken charge.

"It is very even right now," he said. "Both do good things and both have times that they look bad."

Fortunately, time is not as urgent on the field of passing leagues.

Hillside, on the other hand, thinks it has found its man: Collin Anderson.

"Collin has been in our system and he is very knowledgeable," King said.

He also was very effective.

Hillside earned the No. 8 spot out of pool play and advanced to the final eight teams before a lightning storm forced the team to leave the event early.

"There is a little pressure," Anderson said. "I know I am not supposed to feel the pressure, but it is there. We have a talented team and they are going to look to me. I need to work hard to be ready and be a leader."

With all the things both Golson and Lee did on the field, it is that leadership intangible that helps make a quarterback great.

"Vad had so much skill on the field that people would overlook how much of a leader he was," King said. "Collin can put the ball in some places that maybe Vad couldn't, but he is going to need to take this team and make it his."

That is something that could come easy as Anderson was given the keys to the kingdom by Lee.

"Vad came to me right after the finals and told me that this was my team now," Anderson said. "I have a lot of tools. I am tall, have a strong arm and like to study film and know how to read a defense.

"My main weakness, if you want to call it that, is game experience."

Experience will be gained quickly as he takes the reigns.

Bergen Catholic and North Gwinnett changing of the guard

While not in the same situation as Myrtle Beach or Hillside, both Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic and Suwannee (Ga.) North Gwinnett will be replacing stars of their own.

Tanner McEvoy and CJ Uzomah slid all over the offensive side of the ball for their respective teams, splitting time between quarterback and receiver last season. Both are now preparing for life in the SEC - McEvoy at South Carolina and Uzomah at Auburn - and their former teams are preparing for life without them.

Bergen is having the harder time of the two.

"We are working out four guys at quarterback right now," Bergen Catholic head coach Nunzio Campanile said. "We have some talent around them, but we need to find one guy at that position."

North Gwinnett is bracing more for the loss at receiver.

"We are really thin out there," North Gwinnett head coach Bob Sphire said. "We lost CJ and Kitaro (Lewis) to graduation, they are both at college, and now we are dealing with injuries. We are running sets this weekend that will not have any starters on the field."

While both had moderate success at the Palmetto State Showdown event - North Gwinnett finished No. 6 in pool play and Bergen finished No. 13 - both were eliminated in the second round of the tournament.

Neither team found the answers it was looking for.

"We have some work to do," Sphire said. "We may have kids on the field that we didn't think we would have out there at times."

Bergen, was more optimistic, even if it was cautiously.

"I think this event was just a week too early for us," Jack McGovern, the school's athletic director said. "We haven't had time to do much so this was like tryouts for us."

Dover disappointed with day's end

Before Dover (Del.) High even took the field at the Palmetto State Showdown 7-on-7, the coaches and players said they didn't care if they won even one game.

Little did they know, that was a good mentality for the team to have.

Dover was a hard-luck loser in multiple games throughout pool play, falling on the last series of plays in two games and failing to make crucial conversions in others.

The team was close to winning several times - including forcing a tie with Moultie (Ga.) Colquitt County, a game it could have won but it dropped a ball in the end zone as time expired.

"We got better," offensive coordinator Colin Thomas said. "We started off playing really well in our first five games. Then we kind of limped to the finish yesterday in our last two. We played well and nearly won some games in the pool play."

Dover thought it would be in position once again in the playoff against Oradell (N.J.) Bergen Catholic.

Trailing by seven with time winding down, Dover intercepted a pass in the back of the end zone.

Its sideline erupted knowing the team would only need a score of its own to win the game.

Then it saw a penalty flag thrown for pass interference.

Bergen had thrown into double coverage and the intercepting player had position but the flag was thrown on the player behind the play who pulled the shirt of the receiver causing the penalty.

Bergen retained the ball and killed the clock for the victory.

"It was unfortunate," Thomas said afterward. "Our kids played well. Size and speed was a difference all weekend; we weren't ready for how quickly the windows would close.

"We will take this home with us, we will win a lot more games because of this experience."

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