Jenks excited about first season at MCHS

To say 2023 was a unique one for high school football in Martin County might just be an understatement.

Things began in late summer when all the sports teams, including football, at both Riverside High in Williamston and South Creek High in Robersonville merged into one team, playing as a 2A school in the usually 1A Four Rivers Conference with a team now known as Martin County.

Mike Sartain began the season as head football coach, but after a 2-4 start he resigned for personal reasons.

In came former Riverside head coach and current Martin County Schools’ Athletics Director Asim McGill, who secured a 3-1 mark to close out the regular season and good enough for an overall record of 5-6 despite a first-round loss in the playoffs.

But McGill, who upped his record to 111-82 overall, knew he was only holding the position temporarily before returning to administration.

Enter Hunter Jenks.

A Wake County native and former offensive lineman at Elon, Jenks arrived in January 2024 after being the number one assistant on the staff at Raleigh’s Millbrook High School, which had produced an overall record of 33-7 since Jenks arrived in 2021. He served as both the offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator in his time with the Wildcats.

He also made other stops around the Triangle as the head football coach and athletic director at Clayton High School where he finished with a 28-10 record in three seasons as the Comets’ leader. He then stepped down prior to the 2019 season amid an eligibility investigation by the district though he and the football program were later cleared of wrongdoing by Johnston County Public Schools.

During the COVID-plagued 2021 short spring season Jenks served as the head coach at Vance County High School.

Prior to his arrival at Clayton, Jenks was the head football coach at South Johnston. All part of compiling an overall record of 42-25 as a head coach and winning two conference championships.

Now he hopes to pursue a third.

On July 26 at the Northeastern North Carolina (NENC) High School Football Media Day on the Elizabeth City State University campus, Jenks joined fellow coaches from the Four Rivers Conference (1A) and Northeastern Coastal Conference (2A) and shared his outlook on the upcoming football season. The school also has a new mascot on their football field to ‘romp in The Swamp,’ the Gators.

“I’ve been pleased,” he remarked. “We had around 90 players come out and participate in the spring and now between 50 and 60 for the summer and it’s been the same (group), so the commitment level is the first step. I’m pleased with the staff, so right now it’s just about players and coaches getting to know each other; I do like where we are right now.”

Offensively, Jenks wants to run the spread, and he has a trio of tight ends he feels will see a lot of playing time in various formations.

“We also have three really good tailbacks, all of whom could play college football,” he said. “Jaquavion Shepard (Jr.), Justin Raynor (Soph.) and Mari Larry (Jr.), who’s coming over from Lawrence Academy; any one could easily play tailback at a 4A school so I’m excited about that. At quarterback, Jysen Shepard (Jr.) is back after one season at (J.H.) Rose and two years ago when he was a freshman he threw for over 3,000 yards; so our backfield has a lot of depth and potential.

“When I look at our receiving corps I see eight people who could play varsity football right now. From an offensive skill-set standpoint I feel we could compete with some 4A teams,” he noted.

On the defensive side, Jenks hopes to employ the popular 3-3 Stack — designed to counter spread offenses, confuse those offenses and still be sound against the run.

“We have a lot of linebacker-DB (defensive back) bodies that can run and hopefully tackle well,” he remarked. “I think those schemes lend itself to the talent we currently have on campus.

“Jordan Matthewson (Soph.) already has one Division-One offer at this point, and we also have one senior, Zachariah Hall, who I think has real good potential to be a college player and he’s had a really good summer. There are probably five or six others who have varsity experience like Chris Bell (Jr.) at linebacker or Keldavious Moore, who’s been like a linebacker-safety type. So, I think right now it’s about finding the pieces up front. We’ve good numbers up front, we just have to figure out the right combinations on the offensive and defensive line,” he outlined.

Jenks also comes into this conference knowing that the ‘Elephant in the Room’ is Tarboro, which is now entering its 16th season as a conference champion; and one with multiple trips to the state championship.

“Tarboro (13-1, overall; 5-0, conference) is the litmus test, not only for our conference, but for all of 1A football in eastern North Carolina,” he declared. “The history and tradition they have for winning, plus if you look at what they have coming back, arguably they might have one of the best teams they’ve ever had.

“Past that, just based on what I saw during basketball and track, I think every team in the league has quality athletes. I think a team like Bertie (5-6, overall; 3-2, conference) has a receiver who may be the best player in the conference; Washington County (2-7; 0-5) has good athletes; I know the head coach at Perquimans (7-4; 2-3) and he does a really good job, plus their quarterback is really good; and Gates County’s (5-6; 2-3) system fits their talent really, really well. So when I look at the conference I don’t think there are going to be any easy wins,” he confessed. “Every team has good talent, but if we can just take care of ourselves, then I think we’ll be okay.”

After opening in ‘The Swamp’ with North Pitt (5-6 in 2023), the Gators head to a rebuilding Ayden Grifton (3-7), then back home against Northside (8-3), before closing the non-conference slate with Southside (4-7) and a non-league tilt at Bertie.

“I expect the first two games to be really tough,” he surmised. “Then when we get into Northside and Southside: Northside beat Martin County pretty easily a season ago and they’re a physical and confident team; Southside, much the same.”

Jenks looks forward to getting started when that time rolls around.