For the past several seasons Kings Mountain’s Mountaineers just reloaded each fall and were always in the running for conference championships and deep playoff runs.
But losing well over 20 outstanding senior players from the spring ’21 team, the Mountaineers will begin the fall season in a rebuilding mode. Hopefully, a tough three-game non-conference schedule against some of the top teams in Western North Carolina will give Coach Greg Lloyd’s young Mountaineer eleven the experience it needs to compete in the Big South Conference and the post-season.
The Mountaineers open Friday night at John Gamble Stadium against their oldest and toughest rival, Shelby.  After that they face two other Western powers on the road, Asheville and Burns.
“We lost a lot of good athletes” off of last year’s team, Lloyd noted. At least 10 of them will be playing on the collegiate level.
Lloyd does have some returning starters and others that saw playing time last year, and he looks for some of last year’s JV players to fill important roles.
Isaiah Eskridge and Tykel Smith return to the interior line along with Peyton Fisher at wide receiver. Deandre Hoyle started as a receiver on offense and corner on defense.
KM’s only returning starter in the backfield is junior Caleb Holland, who came up from the JV team to lead the Mountaineers in rushing after Rashaard Brooks was injured. Brooks is still recuperating and if he plays at all this year it will be late in the season.
Sel Randolph, who was a key reserve last year, and Zay Smith, who excelled at the JV level, will see a lot of action at the slot. Jake Lloyd, a returning starter on defense, and Bryson Brown will be at wide receiver.
Robert Kendrick, who had a good season in the secondary as a varsity freshman, and Smith will also see time at running back.
Up front, Alex Jackson and Dalton Smith will move into starting guard spots, and Michael Lubas will take over the center position.
The Mountaineers lost one of their leading passers ever, Ethan Reid, who is now at Appalachian State. During the early-going, the Mountaineers will have Jonah Patrick and Lamont Littlejohn splitting time at quarterback. Patrick was back-up to Reid last season and Littlejohn quarterbacked the JVs to an unbeaten season.
“On offense, I think we have a decent chance to be good,” Lloyd noted. “We’re just young. There’s not a lot of seniors on this team. I like our spread. It will take some games to develop but I think we will be pretty good.”
Defensively, the Mountaineers lost several starters including two of their all-time best, Javari Rice-Wilson at defensive end and DayDay Wilson at linebacker. They are now in the major college ranks.
But junior AJ Richardson, who was also one of the team’s top tacklers, returns at linebacker along with Jake Lloyd at safety and Deandre Hoyle at corner.
Alex Jackson, a part-time starter last year, will start on the defensive line and Peyton Fisher also returns to the defense.
Lloyd looks to Michael Ward and Jacaylen Sanders to start at linebacker. Tykel Smith and Zaylon Ramos return to the defensive line.
Bryson Brown looks good at corner and Chase Ellis, a senior, will play a lot on the defensive line.
KM’s kicking game should be strong as Jaden Ellis returns as the place kicker. Fisher will probably do the punting, and freshman Max Thompson is also a talented kicker. Randolph and Lloyd will return punts and Kendrick and Smith will return kicks.
While many schools are reporting low numbers, Lloyd is pleased that the Mountaineers had 76 people show up for opening day of practice.
“I believe Shelby, Burns and Crest had about the same so all four Cleveland County teams should be good,” he said. “I am glad we will be able to field a JV team. A lot of schools won’t be able to do that.”
Although the Mountaineers are young overall, Lloyd is optimistic.
“Our players have won a lot at the middle school and JV level, but it’s a little different on the varsity level,” he said. “Our Achilles heel may be that we are so young. We have a tough early season schedule with Shelby, Asheville and Burns. But, after that we have a bye and will know more about how we might fare in the Big South Conference.
“We have a hard-working group of players. We’re young, so the good thing is that we will have 80 percent of them for two or three more years. We can grow together and hopefully have a good year this year and be very good the following years.”
He knows challenging for the Big South title is a tall order, but he’s ready to give it a shot.
“The Big South Conference is super competition,” he said. “And South Point coming back in is going to make it even stronger. They have most of their players returning from last year so they could be the favorite.
“I am glad the conference is up to eight teams. I’m not sure if anyone will be able to run the table. Crest will be good. They may be a little young, too, but they have a lot of people back on defense.
“I think Ashbrook and Forestview will be pretty good, too. They have a lot back so you know they will be much better than they were in the spring. I really don’t know that much about the other teams. I think Huss will be very young and I believe North Gaston will be improved in the second season under their new coach, Justin Clark. Cramer could be very good. Their number 7 (Arias Nash) is a very good defensive end, and their quarterback (Justin Rocquemore) is a very good passer.
“It’s going to be an interesting year. We’re not settled on a starting quarterback yet. We’re going to play them both starting out because they did a good job over the summer.”

High school football practice will get serious today as teams in North Carolina begin heavy practice in preparation for the 2021 fall season that begins August 19-20.
For the first time in many years Kings Mountain’s Mountaineers will begin their season against arch-rival Shelby. Those two teams have the longest rivalry in the state dating back to the early 1920s.
The JV Mountaineers will be traveling to Shelby on Thursday, Aug. 19 for a 7 p.m. game. The varsity Mountaineers will host the Lions on Friday, Aug. 20 at 7:30 at John Gamble Stadium. The JV schedule will probably see some changes because many schools on their schedule will probably be dropping JV games because of low player turnouts.
North Carolina teams began official pre-season practice Monday with light drills in helmets only. They can put on pads today and go to full contact drills next Monday.
The Mountaineers have non-conference games against Shelby, Asheville and Burns and will have a bye on September 9 and 10 before beginning Big South 3A Conference play against Hunter Huss on September 16 and 17.
The Mountaineers had a mini-camp last week where they broke off in groups and simulated some plays.
While most teams’ turnouts have been low so far this summer because of COVID, on most days Kings Mountain has had a turnout of about 75 to 80 JV and varsity players. The varsity lost 20 seniors from last spring’s team including many that will be freshmen on college teams this fall. The Mountaineers will be working hard in the next few weeks to settle on a starting lineup.
Some of the returning starters include running back Caleb Holland, defensive back/wide receiver Jake Lloyd, junior linebacker AJ Richardson, defensive back Robert Kendrick, kickers Jaden Ellis and Hunter Whisnant, defensive lineman Jason Feemster, and lineman Tykel Smith whose fumble recovery in the end zone clinched the Mountaineers’ second straight victory over arch rival Shelby.

Trina Hamrick had no intentions of playing basketball when she entered Kings Mountain Junior High School in 1980.
But seeing how tall she was, coaches Candy Albergine and Becky Summit took an immediate interest in her.
“They were my P.E. teachers and asked me to come out for the basketball team,” Hamrick recalled. “I went out not so much for the fun of playing, I just wanted to go to the games. I had no clue I would ever be successful with it. I couldn’t even do a lay-up. But they worked with me and I ended up really loving the game. They were excellent coaches.”
Hamrick was so successful in basketball, she is the third-leading scorer in KMHS history and her 1,160 points came in just three years as the high school back then was 10th through 12th grades. Her career point total is third best in school history behind Shonda Cole’s 1,326 and Tameeka Anderson’s 1,235 and they were four-year varsity players.
“At first, I didn’t like basketball,” Hamrick recalled recently while taking a break in her hair salon in Kings Mountain. “Coach Albergine and Coach Summitt made us run suicides ‘til it just tired us out. But, after they worked with me and saw that I could play the game I fell in love with it. They’d make us run suicides if we missed a foul shot or lay-up, and it paid off.”
Hamrick was an instant success at KMHS where she played for David Brinkley and Nancy Scoggins. Hamrick and her teammates led Scoggins’ 1983 team to the Southwestern Conference championship, the school’s first in the “modern” era. She averaged 21 points and 10 rebounds per game.
“Nancy Scoggins was a really, really good coach,” Hamrick recalled. “She made us do a lot of pushups but it paid off because we won the conference. We had some awesome coaches in David Brinkley and Nancy Scoggins.”
The ’83 team finished with a 22-5 record, one of the school’s best-ever in girls basketball. She was named the Conference Player of the Year and was KM’s first female basketball player selected for the prestigious North Carolina East-West All-Star game. She scored 70 points in three games in the SWC tournament and had a season high 31 points in a Christmas tournament win over West Mecklenburg.
But, probably her most memorable moment was when the Lady Mountaineers’ game with East Rutherford was stopped after she scored her 1,000th career point and Scoggins presented her with the game ball. The team had a big party afterward.
“When they stopped the game I had no idea what they were doing,” she noted. “I saw my mom and dad in the gym and wondered what was going on. Then they announced it and gave me the game ball, and I just thought ‘wow, this started as fun and ended a blessing.’”
Hamrick had numerous offers from colleges, but she loved cosmetology and that was her life’s dream. It has continued to be for years as she owns a beauty salon in downtown Kings Mountain and is a teacher and consultant for a beauty college in Charlotte.
“I knew that’s what I wanted to do and it has given me a good life,” she said. “I took cosmetology three hours a day in high school under the late Vivian Whitworth; now I’m walking in my calling.”
Basketball’s still in her blood, but as a fan watching her granddaughters play in Gaston County.
“My memories of high school are still there, though,” she said. “Crest and Shelby were always our big rivals. It felt like when it came to Shelby we got intimidated. Shelby had some bullies. They had three on me elbowing me all night. That was the first game I ever cursed. Jimmy Curry was in the stands and he told me afterward, ‘Trina, you cursed.’ I’ve never been one to curse but they were bullies and I got intimidated.”
She credited Mrs. Whitworth, her coaches, and teachers Eugene Bumgardner and Steve Baker for encouraging her.
Hamrick said except for some recreation league softball, she hasn’t actively participated in sports since high school.
“I worked two jobs for 11 years, at my shop and in cosmetology education in Charlotte,” she noted. “Now I’m a career planning specialist and plan to move to Belmont soon to be closer to my work.
“Life has been good to me,” she said. “COVID came along and I had double pneumonia and was in ICU for five days and in the hospital for 10. It was a sad situation. The doctors didn’t think I would make it, but God…”
After that, Hamrick said she had to re-think her life.
“I sold my home in Grover and got rid of some responsibilities I didn’t need,” she said. “I just wanted life, peace, happiness and to be free. God has given that to me. I am in a good place.”
She said being selected unanimously for the Hall of Fame is a blessing.
“I want to thank everybody that believed in me,” she said. “I greatly appreciate this honor. It is a great feeling to be thought of in that manner. I am ecstatic.

 Crest scored in the bottom of the seventh inning to edge Kings Mountain 5-4 Thursday night at Crest to complete an undefeated regular season and nail down the Big South Conference championship.
A win by the Mountaineers would have given them a share of the top spot. KM’s only other BSC loss this year was a 3-2 decision to the Chargers.
Zane Brockman went the distance for the Mountaineers, allowing just four hits and fanning 10. Two of the Chargers’ hits were home runs.
Tucker McSwain and Colby Humphries shared pitching duties for the Chargers.
Brockman led the KM plate attack with 3-for-3. Jacob Hamrick was 2-for-3 and Caleb Broome, AJ Wylie, Boone Cartee, Peyton Fisher and Charlie Melton added a hit apiece. Kings Mountain left eight men on base. 

Former Kings Mountain High and NC State baseball great Will Wilson, now making his mark in professional baseball in the San Francisco Giants organization, will be inducted into the Kings Mountain Sports Hall of Fame Saturday, Oct. 16 at Central United Methodist Church.
The other inductees for the 2021 class are Trina Hamrick Kimble, former basketball star at KMHS, and Monty Deaton, former KMHS standout and KM’s all-time winningest coach in school sports.
Wilson is one of many former Mountaineers to play in the professional ranks. He hopes to be the second joining the late Jake Early, an all-star catcher for the Washington Senators in the 1930s and ‘40s, to make it to the major leagues.
Wilson is KM’s highest-ever major league draft pick, going 15th in the 2019 draft. He was an All-American all three seasons at NC State. He graduated after his junior year. He played second base as a freshman and shortstop as a sophomore and junior, helping lead the Wolfpack to three great seasons.
He mostly plays shortstop in the pros, but plays second base one game every two weeks. At the time of this writing, he had played in 71 games including 46 his rookie year of ’19 and 25 this season. His career stats at that time included 41 runs, 80 hits, 137 total bases, 19 doubles, four triples, 10 home runs, 32 RBI and a .281 batting average.
He has been a winner at every level. His parent club now, the Giants, are leading their division and are considered to be a strong threat for the National League pennant.
Looking back over his career, Wilson said he was fortunate to play on good teams with good coaches.
“My favorite year at Kings Mountain was my senior year when we made a playoff run,” he noted. “We made it to the third round of the state 3A tournament. That was fun to be a part of. It was a special team.”
Unfortunately, the Mountaineers did not win a conference championship during that time, always finishing second to a very good Crest team. Nothing’s changed since as the Chargers are still the team to beat every year in the Big South Conference.
His tradition of playing with winners continued in college.
“We had a really talented ball team at NC State,” he noted, going to the NCAA tournament all three years under veteran coach Elliott Avent.
“He is a good man and a great coach,” Wilson said. “It was a lot of fun to play for him. I played for Matt Bridges all four of my years at Kings Mountain.”
Wilson was an All-Conference shortstop his junior and senior years with the Mountaineers, and All-State his senior season.
 “We had a great group of guys,” he said. “We put in a lot of hard work and we had a lot of help and support from the community.”
Some of the other players on that talented team were Thomas Lavin, Matt Absher, John Bell, Bryson Bailey and Brian Lysek.
“It was a solid team,” Wilson said. “We made a strong push for the conference championship but never got it. It was always Crest first and Kings Mountain second.”
Even though last season was cancelled due to COVID, Wilson said his pro experience has been great so far.
“I had a decent start in 2019 with the Angels (the team that originally drafted him) and I was getting the feel of competing at this level and we were playing well,” he said. “But my first full year, 2020, when we were in spring training we got sent home because of the Coronavirus.”
Wilson did get to participate in the Giants alternate training site and the Giants invited him to spring training in 2021.
Overall, Wilson said his pro experience so far has been very good. He’s currently hitting .290 and has hopes that he will be in the majors soon, possibly as early as next season.
“I had a decent start in 2019 with the Angels,” he noted. “I was getting the feel of competing at this level and we were playing well.”
This season will end on September 16, so Wilson hopes he will be able to attend his Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
“We have an Instructional League for a month or so,” he noted, “and in October we have a fall league. I don’t know if I will be involved in that. I hope I would be called up to the big leagues, but more realistically that would probably be next year.”
Wilson said he is excited to be selected to the Kings Mountain Hall of Fame.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “It seems that it wasn’t long ago that I was getting to see Robbie (his uncle) and my dad (Brad) being inducted. I want to thank everybody for selecting me and I hope to be there for this special moment.”