SoMeck 4A conference holds annual media day

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (CHARLOTTE SPORTS LIVE) — We are not just gearing up for the start of another Carolina Panthers football season in just a few days.

We’ve got another highly-anticipated high school football season on the horizon, with plenty of notable area teams poised for deep runs this year.

That’s the case in the SoMeck Conference, with league winner Myers Park back to defend its crown.

“I think the expectation is still the same. We want to be able to compete in this conference,” Myers Park Head Coach Chris James said. “We don’t just hang our hats on what happened last year, cause that was last year.”

Chasing the Mustangs are South Meck and most notably Ardrey Kell, whose lone league loss came against Myers Park a year ago.

The Knights will lean heavily into staff continuity and program buy-in to take a step this season.

“We built a family. That’s the most important thing is the relationships that the coaches have with the players,” Ardrey Kell head coach Greg Jachym said. “These guys have seen the guys that have come before them, and we’ve seen the things they did that were really good and things we could still do better.”

Ballantyne Ridge is readying for its first year as a high school and with that, first season in North Carolina high school football.

Chris Redding is set to open his inaugural season as head man for the Wolves and embraces the opportunity to mold a program from scratch.

“It’s exciting. Whenever you come into a place and set the groundwork for what the culture’s gonna look like, how you’re gonna practice, what the identity’s going to be,” Redding said. “For us, getting under the Friday Night Lights early and often for these young men, is gonna be important.”

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