Cumberland County teams

Douglas Byrd | Cape Fear | Fayetteville Christian | Gray's Creek | Jack Britt | Pine Forest | Terry Sanford | Seventy-First | E.E. Smith | South View | Trinity Christian | Village Christian | Westover | Region schools

Turnover is the nature of high school sports.

At best, a team will have a standout athlete for four years, giving the most gifted athletes as many seasons as possible at the varsity level.

Factor in injuries, family relocations, opportunity-chasing transfers and the likely situation of underclassmen waiting their turn, and a high school athlete’s time with any one team becomes increasingly precious.

Without fail, high school coaches are constantly looking down the pipeline to find out who’s coming up to replace outgoing players, a task that seems sometimes impossible.

“You don’t replace an Xeaiver Bullock,” E.E. Smith coach Deron Donald said. “I won’t even sit here and lie to you. You get a kid like Xeaiver once every 10 years. Those are big shoes to fill.”

The quarterback position might be the ultimate skill position, requiring critical thinking and a varied set of athletic tools.

The Cape Fear region, finally barrelling full steam into the spread-option era, has recently seen a crop of prolific passers.

The Golden Bulls’ Bullock and Christian Jayne of Terry Sanford each threw for 2,000 yards, Cumberland County’s top two passers from the 2017 season. Out in the region, Derrick Arnette (Fairmont) and Luke Oxendine (Purnell Swett) topped that plateau, too.

They also all graduated, raising the question of whether the old football mantra of “next man up” applies in the game’s most critical position?

In Smith’s case, there is a clear predecessor to Bullock in Angel Holden, who backed up Bullock as a junior in 2017 in the rare instances when Bullock wasn’t on the field.

“We’re going to ride with Angel,” Donald said. “He’s the guy that’s put in the work. He’s gotten the guys to believe in him. He throws a great ball, and he’s not a bad athlete.”

Holden, who moved from kicker to QB while on junior varsity, knows there’s more to being quarterback than athletic skills.

“Xeaiver was more of an athlete than me,” Holden said. “I used to play kicker, so I didn’t really even run. I’m more of a passer.

“But he was very confident, and his teammates believed in him. He was like a big brother. This year, I had to get more confident and build chemistry with the other players.”

Over on Fort Bragg Road, the quarterback case wasn’t quite as settled over the summer.

Davidjohn Herz seemed poised to take over after Jayne’s exit. Herz, a North Carolina baseball recruit, was second on the depth chart as a junior in 2017.

But coach Bruce McClelland likes a little intrasquad competition, and so Herz and junior Jacob Knight contended over the summer for the starting job.

“We fostered competition with C.J. (Jayne) even last year with D.J. and Jacob,” McClelland said. “Look, these guys are hungry behind you. When you have that competitive edge, they know they’re the man, but it’s always a day-to-day thing of proving it.”

Herz has thrived on the competition.

“It’s definitely helping to push me,” he said. “If he throws one good pass, I’ve got to come back with two good passes.

“I feel like it is my time. I’ve been working hard, especially in the weight room and being around my teammates, especially the O line."

Holden and Herz, though limited in their playing time last season, came in in key situations for their teams.

Herz threw the game-winning touchdown pass at South View in a contest that kept the Bulldogs atop of the Patriot 4-A/3-A Conference standings.

Holden played the final two quarters of the Bulls' rivarly game against Seventy-First, throwing for 141 yards in half a game.

In Fairmont, Kevin Inman’s Golden Tornadoes didn’t have those kind of experienced backups waiting in the wings behind Arnette.

Instead, Inman had sophomore Jahkeem Moore, up from JV, incoming freshman Kelly Thorndyke and receiver Jayvon Morris all take snaps over the summer.

With so much youth among the potential QBs, Inman’s used Arnette’s example as a teaching tool.

“Derrick’s such a competitor and such a vocal leader, and that’s very tough to replace,” Inman said. “We sat our quarterbacks down and showed the pros and cons of what Derrick did as a first-year quarterback in our system. Things that he did well, and things that they need to top and do better.”

Instruction is no substitute for experience, though, as South View coach Rodney Brewington knows.

The Tigers have Brewington’s son Donovan back at QB for his final season. Donovan, along with Seventy-First’s Kyler Davis, is one of two four-year starters at quarterback in Cumberland County.

"The great thing about having a veteran quarterback is that's a position it takes the longest to teach,” Rodney Brewington said. “You can't simulate a lot of things in practice because you can't hit the quarterback.

“You don't really know what type of quarterback you have until he's been under fire and taken a hit under pressure.”

Staff writer Jaclyn Shambaugh can be reached at jshambaugh@fayobserver.com or 609-0651.